Fresh snow has arrived in not-insignificant volume all the way down to the valley floor. We woke up this morning at 900m altitude to a good 30-40cm of fresh powder. It has kept snowing lightly throughout the day, although the freezing point has ascended slightly, meaning that below about 1000-1200m it has been a bit wetter.

There’s no doubting that this offering of snow constitutes a decent ‘dump’ that has generously covered the lower slopes of all the surrounding ski resorts and significantly boosted the high-altitude snow depth.

First thing today, Les Arcs (official) was heralding 35cm of fresh snow in Arc 2000, with the 0°C isotherm hovering around 1450m (although I think that’s a little bit conservative, as the highest temperature I saw at 800m today was only 1°C…) Overall, snow depth in Arc 2000 is reportedly 70cm, which is a solid start in November.

La Plagne’s morning figure was 36cm of new snow at 2000m, making an overall total of 63cm.

The official number is Tignes is 30cm of fresh snow at 2100m, and 40cm at the sky-scraping 3300m peaks. This translates to 53cm snow depth at the lower level, and a (very exciting) 170cm at the upper echelon. With Tignes already open to the paying public, this extra powder might help open a few more pistes over the next couple of days. Across the ridge, Val d’Isere is reporting an overall snow depth of 60cm at 1800m, and 80cm at 3000m (although I’m not convinced that these number have been very recently updated).

Sainte Foy, which can be a bit slower to update their recent snowfall, is showing that 20cm fell yesterday (27th Nov) giving an overall snow depth of 50cm in resort, 130cm at the Arpettaz (2100m) and 140cm atop the Col de l’Aiguille (2650m). However, these are “fresh snow” numbers, so we can assume some settling will occur.

La Rosiere have clearly not quite woken up to the winter yet, so I have no official figures, however we can assume they are very similar to the other resorts mentioned.

Typical of early season weather, there is likely to be further precipitation over the next few days (until around Saturday) but, with the freezing level moving up and down like a whack-a-mole, there’s likely to be sleet and rain mixed in with the snowfall. It looks like everything above 2000m should make a net gain, but below that point there could be some ‘settling in’ and, on the lower slopes, even some melt-back. Whatever happens, this first proper dump is good news and makes it feel like true winter is getting a grip.