Does anyone know of any resorts/areas in the Alps noted for receiving significantly more snow than their neighbours? Many resorts in North America include annual snowfall averages in their marketing, although this doesn’t seem so common in Europe (perhaps they don’t want comparisons with the US/Canada?). At least, I’ve never come across a graph comparing European resorts against each other.

I know from experience in BC that Fernie gets dumped on regularly, although further up and down the road in Cranbrook/Crows Nest they are comparatively dry, eventhough their altitudes are similar. It seems that the way the weather patterns work across the local mountains and valleys mean that Fernie sucks the precipitation from the local system. Are there any similar circumstances in Europe?

In a similar vein, are there places which hold their snow longer/in better condition than others? I’m not just thinking about sun & shade, but perhaps also those which benefit from shelter from wind blowing snow away, or perhaps blowing it in, or just tend to stay cold for any other magic reason?

Or is this a case of; “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you!”?

Places like Montgenevre and Serre Chevalier have good snow records, ditto Puy St Vincent. Last year Isola 2000 got 7 meters according to the weather services (or 10 meters measured by the piste service) which is pretty good and you can find snow well into May, not bad for somewhere almost on the seas). These resorts benefit from Mediteranean storms in the autumn which bring precepitation up from the south and then see some snow from Atlantic depressions during the winter. Whether they are the snowiest I don’t know, eastern Switzerland often has very snow winters, some people claim Damls in the Austrian Alps with 9 meters annual snow fall (354 inches) is the snowiest place in Western Europe. High resorts tend to be drier in the winter even if the cold preserves snow for longer so are not the obvious choice they would seem to be, lower resorts probably see a fair bit of precipitation fall as rain during an average winter.

I know in the United States these things are pretty competitive. Maybe because we don’t get the huge snowfalls some areas in the ‘States get resorts tend to be a bit quieter about these kind of figures. Charlie English has a whole chapter about the competition between two US resorts for the most snowfall in a season in his book The Snow Tourist.

There is a significant north/south effect accross the alps (at least from Mt-Blanc to eastern Switzerland). In Switzerland, wheather paterns will be either more northerly, or more southerly, and there is a distinct border at what they call the “Alpenkam” (the highest ridge splitting the alps which mostly runs along the italian border). You’ll find that when the weather comes from the south, the precipitation gets stuck along that ridge and rarely makes it over. It also causes a “foehn” wind in the valleys to the north, wheras temperature in the south can be comparatively lower. If this goes on several days, it can pretty much wipe out a good snow base in the northern alps. In the last few days we are in a “moderate” foehn situation, where some Valais towns have seen temps of +15C.

In Switzerland, the “secret” place I could tell you about but may have to kill you is Andermatt. There’s something about that place that allows it to get dumped by both the northerly and southerly systems. It’s also a great touring/freeriding area.

In terms of “currently” snowiest, you can have a look at the map below showing current snow levels accross switzerland. btw, does anyone know if Austria, France and Italy have a similar map?

http://www.slf.ch/lawineninfo/schneeinfo/hsr/index_EN

The biggest snowcatcher in the Alps, according to research done by a journalist, is Damüls in the western part of Austria. This region, known as the ‘Vorarlberg’ is notorious for benefitting most from all north and north-west currents.

I live on the “North Slope” of the Alps in the Chablais and agree with alpanian, inhabitants of Chamonix will know all about it too, the Foehn is blowing and today it rained hard on the North Slope, it was probably snowing on the South Slope (Courmayeur) today. I was under the impression that Val d’Isere benefited from both the Northern and Southern air-streams, giving it the best of both worlds.

Seems the BBC claims Glencoe is the snowiest in THE WORLD!! No need to come to the alps anymore …

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8538404.stm

I can say that Glencoe ski area is indeed very snowy.  In fact the top tows have snow to the wire, so a mean fall of about 80cm at 1000m has drifted on the main run to a depth of 5 meters on the tows, and about 10m on the main top run.  The “spring run” is about 20m for most of it’s length. A lot of this is cross loading and the avalanche danger is very high, with dense dry slab created by 40-60mph winds sitting on hoar and avalanches triggered on low angles. 2 avlx fatalities and one serious injury this week. It’s not unusual to be skiing until mid May and also get a run in on the main run at midsummers night when we get a season like this.  Most folk give up skiing though at about end March and get into biking.

Good on the Scottish ski areas, good bit of viral marketing.

Viral indeed.  We need to make the most of what is a remarkable season for sure.  A lot of folk have stayed at home this year and not gone to Europe for their ski holiday so it’s been a great boost to local economies.