We've gone from famine to feast over the last couple of weeks in the French mountains. There are reports of nearly 2 meters of drifting snow on the high ridged of the Vosges with around 3 meters of snow in the Beaufortin. The avalanche risk has gone up as the new snow has fallen on a weak layer formed during December's high pressure and there are reports of some big avalanches and remote triggering by skiers.
The most recent dump has also brought some joy to the Dauphine mountain ranges with the Chartreuse and Belledonne both seeing over half a meter of snow since Wednesday, with more to follow on Monday. Perhaps another 20cm, even in parts of the Southern Alps which have been relatively dry this winter. It is possible to ski to quite low altitudes, around 1000 meters, where the slopes are open but there is little base under trees below 1500 meters.
Wednesday -> Saturday Snowfall by mountain range (1800 meters altitude)
Chartreuse 63
Belledonne 53
Aravis 52
Chablais 51
Vercors 42
Beaufortin 47
Bauges 45
Mont-Blanc 37
Vanoise 34
Haute-Tarentaise 32
Grandes-Rousses 31
Maurienne 28
Oisans 21
Pelvoux 20
Haute-Maurienne 18
Queyras 18
Ubaye 16
Haut-Var 16
Champsaur 15
Embrunnais 15
Thabor 11
Mercantour 11
Devoluy 7
Since the 1st January the picture is as below. Just to note that the Beaufortin's resorts are around 1000 meters altitude whereas the resorts of the Haute-Tarentaise have a lot of their pistes above 1800 meters (the reference altitude for these Meteo France figures). So the skiing might actually be better where there is less snow. That said, the avalanche risk has kept some of the highest lifts shut and high winds have had a bad effect on snow quality at altitude.
Beaufortin 277
Aravis 230
Bauges 230
Haute-Tarentaise 222
Mont-Blanc 215
Chablais 214
Vanoise 199
Maurienne 178
Haute-Maurienne 143
Chartreuse 141
Belledonne 137
Grandes-Rousses 127
Pelvoux 119
Thabor 112
Champsaur 108
Oisans 102
Vercors 84
Queyras 79
Embrunnais 77
Haut-Var 56
Devoluy 47
Ubaye 40
Mercantour 26
