Switzerland

Rathvel

Off season
Official site

No snow yet. Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear once snow is on the ground or forecast.

Typical snowfall
273cm

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 →

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.

How much snow it gets

Modelled from weather data the same way at all 3,069 ski areas we cover. These are not the resort’s own published figures.

Seasonal snowfall
273cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
197cm
The middle winter of the 12: 246 cm. The best: 437 cm.
World rank
602
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
123
of 283 in Switzerland
Elevation rank
168
Highest to lowest, of 283 in Switzerland. The centre point sits at 1,341 m, 96 m below the national median.

Compared with what is nearby

Within 50 km in a straight line. Ski areas in the same weather-model cell (about 30 km across) get the same figure.

Ski areaDistanceSeasonal snowfallWorld rank
Les Paccots3.6 km186 cm1270
Le Moléson4.1 km273 cmsame grid cell602
La Chia6.9 km246 cm761
Les Pléiades7.1 km186 cm1270
Les Prévondes9.8 km186 cm1270

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.

Marked runs
12
Run length
5.6km
Lifts
3
Vertical
298m
Top 1,488 m · base 1,190 m

Run map

EasyIntermediate Lift
North is up. Runs are coloured by difficulty; black lines are lifts.
Run map

Drag to move around, and use + and − to zoom. On a phone, swipe to move and pinch to zoom in further.

Slope shape, difficulty and lift types

The shape of the mountain

Longest run on the map1.5 km
Steepest pitch19°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs10.3°

Which way the slopes face

North 2%
East 78%
South 20%
West 1%

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

Easy 6 · 2.6 km
Intermediate 6 · 3 km

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

The most snow falls in January. March brings 72% of January’s snowfall.

71cm
Dec
81cm
Jan
62cm
Feb
58cm
Mar
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters

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).

204
229
197
437
319
343
343
282
200
230
227
262
14/1515/1616/1717/1818/1919/2020/2121/2222/2323/2424/2525/26

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.

Map

The weather map, and where it sits among nearby ski areas.

Official piste map ↗

Other booking sites: Booking.com ↗ · Agoda ↗

Guides covering Switzerland

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