A weather-model figure, worked out the same way for every ski area, and lower than what actually falls. Use it to compare ski areas, not against the resort’s own totals. How we measure →
Updated: 10 Nov 2026, 12:15
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. Snow report on the official site ↗
| Date | Weather | Snow (cm) | Low / high (°C) | Wind (km/h) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 10 Nov | Showers | 0 | 3 to 7 | 14 |
| Wed 11 Nov | Showers | 0 | 5 to 8 | 11 |
| Thu 12 Nov | Rain | 0 | 4 to 7 | 10 |
| Fri 13 Nov | Showers | 0 | 1 to 4 | 8 |
| Sat 14 Nov | Cloudy | 0 | 0 to 7 | 11 |
| Sun 15 Nov | Cloudy | 0 | 1 to 8 | 18 |
| Mon 16 Nov | Showers | 1 | 0 to 6 | 20 |
The five add up to the 100-point Powder Score: more fresh snow, more on the way and colder air all push it up. How we measure
Les Contamines, in France, runs from 1,158 m at the base to 2,444 m at the top. Its mapped area is about 8.9 km across, with 65 marked runs and 25 lifts (about 58 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 462 cm of snowfall a season, 104th of 3,069 worldwide and 2nd in France. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2017/18 (780 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2016/17 (320 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 139 cm.
The nearest city of any size is Geneva, about 63 km away in a straight line.
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.
69% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east; plenty of the terrain faces the sun as well, so the lean is modest.
See past trail maps on Skimap.org ↗
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.
Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.
Modelled from weather data the same way at all 3,069 ski areas we cover. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Within 50 km in a straight line. Ski areas in the same weather-model cell (about 30 km across) get the same figure.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Megève/Saint-Gervais | 6.2 km | 427 cm | 137 |
| Evasion Mont Blanc | 6.5 km | 355 cm | 275 |
| Espace Diamant (Les Saisies) | 11.0 km | 342 cm | 302 |
| Les Houches (Chamonix) | 11.0 km | 429 cm | 135 |
| Les Portes du Mont-Blanc | 13.0 km | 332 cm | 345 |
The most snow falls in January. March brings 78% of January’s snowfall. That is in line with the median for ski areas in France (77%). In amount, March brings 109 cm, more than the median of 55 cm.
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 462 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2016/17 with 320 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 780 cm (2.4 times as much).
Snowfall each winter (December–March total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.
Other booking sites: Booking.com ↗ · Agoda ↗
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