Col de Plainpalais
Col de Plainpalais is a ski area in France. It sits at about 1,299 m above sea level. The mapped ski area covers about 1.7 km². Within 0.9 km of the centre, the map shows 7 marked runs and 1 lift, totalling about 3.1 km of piste. Over the last three winters the ERA5 reanalysis gives it 201 cm of snowfall a season, 1073rd (tied) of the 3,112 ski areas we measure worldwide. The model runs well below what resorts report, so the ranking is the meaningful part rather than the centimetre figure. 197 other ski areas lie within 120 km. Snow figures and the Powder Score are recalculated every day.
Elevation of the ski area’s centre point, taken from a digital elevation model. It is not the base-to-summit range.
We do not show a snow depth here. The weather model we use reports snow lying on the ground — it knows nothing about grooming or snowmaking, and it is not the base depth a ski area publishes. In Japan we can check our figures against 234 weather stations. Outside Japan there is nothing to check them against, so we do not print a number we have not verified.
Score breakdown
Powder Score v1.0.0
7-day outlook
| Date | Snow | Temp | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☁️ 27 Sept | 0 | 10.5 / 20.2 | 9.8 |
| ☁️ 28 Sept | 0 | 11.5 / 19.3 | 8.4 |
| ☁️ 29 Sept | 0 | 13.3 / 19.8 | 6.6 |
| 🌧️ 30 Sept | 0 | 13.3 / 16.7 | 5.9 |
| ⛈️ 1 Oct | 0 | 11.7 / 14.6 | 3.7 |
| 🌫️ 2 Oct | 0 | 11 / 14.3 | 6.9 |
| 🌧️ 3 Oct | 0 | 9.9 / 16.1 | 5.6 |
Runs and lifts
Counted from the runs and lifts drawn on OpenStreetMap, within the boundary of the ski area. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Run map
The shape of the mountain
Which way the slopes face
Only 41% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. More of the terrain faces the sun.
By difficulty
Lift types
- Platter1
Source: OpenSkiMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0). How finely ski areas are drawn varies by region, so treat the counts as indicative. Vertical is the difference between the highest and lowest points of the mapped runs and lifts.
How much snow it gets
Measured by us across 3,112 ski areas by one identical method. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Compared with what is nearby
Within 50 km straight line. Measured the same way, so the ranks compare directly. Ski areas a few kilometres apart share a weather grid cell and can return the same figure.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aillon-Margériaz | 1.9 km | 201 cm | 1073 |
| La Féclaz | 2.9 km | 201 cm | 1073 |
| Le Revard | 3.7 km | 201 cm | 1073 |
| Aillon-le-Jeune | 8.2 km | 201 cm | 1073 |
| Le Semnoz | 18 km | 183 cm | 1241 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 71% of January’s snowfall. That is in line with the median for ski areas in France (77%). In amount, March brings 45 cm, less than the median of 58 cm.
Map
Where it sits relative to nearby resorts. For a piste map, see the official site.
More places to look
Updated: 26 Sept 2026, 23:28