A Swiss ski resort has overtaken a French area to post the deepest snow in the world at present – ever closer to 5 metres/15 feet.
Laax reports the snow is lying 489cm up on its glacier, overtaking the 480cm at Alpe d'Huez. It follows a third week of wintery weather with heavy snowfall on higher slopes.
However, the spring thaw continues to gain a grip in mountain valleys, with Laax reporting the snow just 15cm thick down at resort level.
French resorts had dominated the world's deepest snow table for much of the season, taking the top five spots and at one point nine of the top 10 deepest in January and February, thanks mostly to big snowfalls in November and early December which set them up for the entire season, above 1,800m at least.
However Swiss resorts have been moving to higher numbers in the past few weeks, with Saas Fee seeing over 3 metres (10 feet) of fresh snow and moving to the number five slow with 4.4 metres. A third Swiss are in the top 10 is Lötschental (4.2m).
Austria's Stubai Glacier, which say 1m of snowfall in 24 hours last week is in the third spot with a 455cm base.
North American resorts have also moved into the top 10 for the first time this year after a huge snowstorm off the Pacific. California's Mammoth and Palisades were in the top 10 with 4m+ bases a week ago but have now dropped down a little, however Timberline, which has the continent's longest ski season aiming to stay open into August, is in sixth place with a 300-425cm base. The palisades still reports a 401cm base and remains one of 13 areas posting a 4m+ upper slope base.
The world's deepest snow stat usually peaks in the first half of March but last year kept climbing into April as the snowfall arrived late, with many areas seeing heavy falls on high slope throughout the latter half of spring after most had already closed.
Peaking around 5 metres is usual but totals can top 6 metres in a good year and sometimes centres in Japan or the Western US have reached 8 or 9 metres after huge storms.