Parts of American West and Western Canada are off to tremendous starts to the ski season, but what about the Alps?

Image from Chamonix

So far this season, snow coverage in the Alps varies widely depending on exactly where you are. Generally speaking, the northern French Alps ( Tignes, Val Thorens, Chamonix, Avoriaz), and the northern and western Swiss Alps ( Verbier, Mürren, Engelberg) are faring the best. Recent snowfalls in these regions have brought snow levels up to near “normal” snow depths for early December.

The area with the least snow is the southern Alps, especially Italy.  The Italian Dolomites have seen nearly no natural snowfall so far this season. That said, the resorts in the Dolomites have some of the best snowmaking systems in Europe and recent cold weather has allowed them to blow quite a bit of snow.

The southern parts of the French Alps (Isola 2000), the far south-east of Switzerland (St Moritz) and parts of southern Austria are not faring well at all.
The rest of the Alps are “somewhere in between”, but you can forget any serious off-piste for now.

Currently there is no significant snow expected anywhere until mid-December at the very least.