A snow reporting agency had issued 69 ‘powder alarms’ by lunchtime today with resorts across the Alps reporting at least 20cm (eight inches) of new snow overnight. French, Austrian and Swiss resorts have all reported healthy falls, with Swiss resorts claiming the biggest falls of up to a foot (30cm) at resorts like Engelberg, Gstaad and Kandersteg.
In France, Flaine reports 25cm (10 inches) of new snow in the past 24 hours and resorts like Avoriaz and les Gets in the Portes du Soleil 20cm (eight inches).
It’s welcome news as some resorts have been struggling to establish a healthy snow base for the season. Although most of the major international resorts have got deep snow at the top of the slopes, a recent warm spell brought rain at resort level to
Conversely the heavy snow above led to potentially dangerous conditions off piste, leading to numerous avalanches.
Looking at the past week as a whole, receiving snow information direct from the resorts themselves, France has seen the heaviest snow of the past week.
Meribel has seen the most new snow in Europe withg nearly 1.5m (five feet) falling, Chamonix and its neighbour Argentiere are close behind with 133cm (4.5 feet).
About 20 major resorts have reported receiving more than 650cm (two feet) of snow since Christmas including Crans Montana and Gstaad in Switzerland, Courmayeur and Val Senales in Italy and Voss in Norway.
Italy’s Arabba is reporting the biggest accumulated snow in the world at present with 3.1m (over 10 feet). Across the world La Clusaz in France, Mammoth in the US, Whistler in California and Hintertux in Austria all report more than two metres (6.7 feet) of snow.
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