Major Autumn Snowfall Hits the Alps

2nd November 2023

Last modified on November 6th, 2023

This is the real deal with well over 50cm in places and still it comes down. UPDATED

Yet another major storm is now falling in the Alps.

The areas that have seen the most snow this weekend are the western Alps, especially the higher French resorts, with another 40-60cm of new snow above 2,000m.

These resorts are seeing the action, but sadly they have not opened for skiing:

Chamonix
Tignes
La Plagne
Val Thorens

“The western Swiss Alps, Verbier, and far north-western Italian Alps, La Thuile & Courmayeur, will also do well over the next couple of days, with 30-50cm at altitude by the end of Sunday,” said Fraser Wilkin from weathertoski.co.uk on Saturday 4th November.

Verbier, Switzerland. Image c/o Steve Sparks.

“More generally though, the further east the less new snow there will be, with just a few centimetres expected in Austria and the Dolomites.”

Do check out Weathertoski.co.uk for the very latest.

It’s looking good so far:

Here’s Verbier, Switzerland:

Verbier, Switzerland. Image © Lucia Harrison.

Here is Sainte Foy in France:

Sainte Foy, France. Image © Premiere-Neige.

“We are so excited to see the new snow in Sainte Foy with lots more forecast over the weekend and Monday,” said Holy Junak from Premiere-Neige.

“This bodes well for a great start to the season with a solid base.

Premiere-Neige is offering some great deals on their December holidays so do take a look at their offers page https://www.premiere-neige.com/ski-holiday-offers/.

Here are the latest images we have from Morzine in France:

Morzine, France. Image c/o Morzine Tourist Office.

Significant snow to increasingly low levels for many parts of the Alps today. This is #Tignes Le Lac, 2100m: https://t.co/PGoKdcOhGN pic.twitter.com/wyFFO5MZLi
— weathertoski (@weathertoski) November 2, 2023

Up to 30cm has already fallen at altitude in Austria with the open glacier resorts benefiting.

Over the weekend another 20-40cm of snow is forecast at altitude in some western parts of the Alps.

Here’s a few more images from Verbier.

Verbier, Switzerland. Image © Lucia Harrison.

According to our friends in Verbier, who know about these things, the Lac des Vaux area may open sooner rather than later.

There were rumours of this weekend, but they have been quashed by the resort.

We’ll let you know, but the smart money is on next weekend.

…ora sembra intenzionata più seriamente, ciao a tutti, a più tardi👋#livigno #tuttolivigno #snowing #snow #neve pic.twitter.com/UnjWrkuP28
— Tutto Livigno 🇮🇹 (@TuttoLivigno) November 2, 2023

Kitzsteinhorn above Kaprun in Austria opened on Friday 3rd.

The Molltal glacier in Austria and Murren in Switzerland planed to open some slopes at the weekend.

We list all the resorts currently open at the end of this article, though many are temporarily closed as the storm hits.

In Switzerland Glacier 3000 was set to open on Saturday 4th November, but has delayed things until next weekend due to the storm.

Now we should stress that it is early November and it will make little difference to the snowpack for the approaching winter in the vast majority of resorts.

It will help the glaciers resorts that are currently open, over a dozen of them.

We’re delighted here at PlanetSKI as we’re hoping to visit a few of the glacier resorts in the Tirol later this month.

Watch this space.

Stubai, Tirol. Image © PlanetSKI

Plus is will help some ski resorts that are looking to open some small areas shortly.

It will also make a difference at altitude in the high alpine ski resorts:

Val d’Isère/Tignes & Val Thorens in France
Cervinia in Italy
Obergurgl & Ischgl in Austria

Some higher non-glacial terrain should also now have secured a lasting base.

It also gets us all in the mood for winter and some people will now be thinking more about the season ahead, and booking a ski trip.

PlanetSKI Top Tip: There is plenty of availability at Xmas with some good deals as it has not sold well so far.

Ski companies have extended some special offers:

“Good to see the snow falling in the Alps,” said our good friend Craig Burton from Ski Solutions to PlanetSKI.

See here for our November Deals and Discounts page that has further offers.

We have been following the autumn snowfalls here on PlanetSKI:

Verbier. Image c/o Steve Sparks.

Lets not forget the snow elsewhere in Europe.

Along with the heavy snowfall in The Alps, it’s also snowing on mountains across Europe, including the Pyrenees. Here’s @baqueira_beret and @AramonCerler in Spain as well as @cauterets65110 in France. pic.twitter.com/GSbQQa1g04
— Snow Forecast.com (@SnowForecast) November 4, 2023

Skiing is underway in Norway this weekend:

We visited Norefjell last winter on a rail trip round a bunch of ski resorts in Norway:

- Norwegian ski rail trip

Here are the resorts in Europe offering skiing at the moment, weather permitting:

Austria:

Kaunertal, Soelden, Hintertux, Pitztal & Stubai.

Finland:

Levi and Ruka.

Italy:

Passo Stelvio & Cervinia.

Switzerland:

Saas-Fee & Zermatt.

There is no skiing on offer in France.

Val Thorens and Tignes are set to open towards the end of November.

Les2Alpes opens on Saturday 2nd December.

“Conditions are looking good. It has just snowed 80cm on the glacier, and there is snow down in the resorts this morning,” said a statement from the resort to PlanetSKI on Friday 3rd November.

There have also been heavy autumn snowfalls in North America with resorts opening in Canada and the USA.

See here for our full report on the action across The Pond: