Typically the snowline is some 400 meters below the zero isotherm level. So if the zero isotherm (freezing point) is 2000 meters precipitation will fall as snow to 1600 meters.

It is a sign of winter. The French avalanche bulletin service has restarted from the 30th October 2019.

Initial reports were of many buried on the open black Kandahar piste at Crans Montana.

An orange avalanche alert has been issued for the French Alpes.

Meteo France has issued an orange avalanche alert for the Eastern and Central Pyrenees where up to a meter to 1.

The Swiss prealps were the scene of a number of avalanche accidents last weekend including two fatal incidents on Saturday that killed two ski tourers.

An Orange avalanche alert has been issued for West and Central areas of the French Pyrenees for Wednesday 23rd January 2019.

French avalanche expert Alain Duclos has posted another of his interesting videos on slab triggering. This is on a west facing slope on the 16th January 2019 at 2900 meters in the Vanoise.

Inspite of the recent snowfall (around 10-30cm of windblown fresh snow in the Northern French Alps, Vosges and Jura) snow-depths remain  below average.

Data suggests that actually getting caught in an avalanche is relatively low, being a competent avalanche decision maker should reduce this chance even more.