No snow yet. Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear here once snow starts to fall. Until then, the long-run record comes first.
- Elevation
- 1,190–1,488 m
- Across
- 1.7 km
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 ↗
Rathvel, in Switzerland, runs from 1,190 m at the base to 1,488 m at the top. Its mapped area is about 1.7 km across, with 12 marked runs and 3 lifts (about 5.6 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 273 cm of snowfall a season, 602nd (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 123rd in Switzerland. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2017/18 (437 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2016/17 (197 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 81 cm.
Below are links to its official live camera.
How much snow it gets
Measured by us across 3,069 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. The weather model works on cells about 30 km across; ski areas in the same cell get the same figure, and these numbers cannot separate them.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Les Paccots | 3.6 km | 186 cm | 1270 |
| Le Moléson | 4.1 km | 273 cmsame grid cell | 602 |
| La Chia | 6.9 km | 246 cm | 761 |
| Les Pléiades | 7.1 km | 186 cm | 1270 |
| Les Prévondes | 9.8 km | 186 cm | 1270 |
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
Slope shape, difficulty and lift types
The shape of the mountain
Which way the slopes face
80% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. Those slopes get the least sun, so the snow lasts longer.
By difficulty
Lift types
- Platter2
- T-bar1
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.
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 72% of January’s snowfall. That is in line with the median for ski areas in Switzerland (76%). In amount, March brings 58 cm, about the same as the median of 60 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 273 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2016/17 with 197 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 437 cm (2.2 times as much). For 47% of the 283 ski areas in Switzerland, the leanest winter was the same 2016/17: bad winters tend to hit a whole region at once.
Snowfall each winter (December–March total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.
Live cameras
Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.
More places to look
Guides covering Switzerland
- Everywhere on Earth You Climb for Snow. Japan Is the One Place You Drive Toward the Sea. Across 3,069 ski areas we measure, height and snowfall move together — +0.58 in France, +0.85 in Germany. In Japan the figure is +0.02. The reason is not that elevation stopped working.
- A Black Run in Colorado and a Black Run in Austria Are Not the Same Thing. The Maps Prove It. Across 2,888 ski areas: 39% of American runs are graded advanced or harder, and 9% of Austrian ones. Nobody thinks Austria is four times gentler. The grades are measuring different things.
- How Much Does Snowfall Change From One Winter to the Next? Country by Country Over twelve winters, the typical Japanese ski area's best winter was 2.3 times its worst. In Italy and Chile it was 4.6 times, in New Zealand 4.2. Canada, Finland and Sweden come out steadier than Japan.