Very heavy snowfall in the Southwestern Alps over the past few days has given a big boost to snow depths in the region ...but also led to ski areas having to close sizable sectors of their terrain and to avalanche danger hitting high levels in the region just ahead of the Easter weekend.
Alpe d'Huez reported it had received 76cm of fresh snow this morning, but also noted that only a third of its ski area was currently open. It's upper base is now at 4.9m, back to being the deepest reported anywhere in the world.
Vars and Risoul, which posted a 60cm accumulation yesterday have reported another 60cm this morning for a 1.2m (4 feet) 48 hour total. They, along with most other ski areas in the region getting the heaviest snowfall - which extends into western Italy and southwestern Switzerland, have noted the avalanche danger has jumped from a 'moderate' level 2 on the scale of 5, to a 'high' level 4.
Italy's Pila in the Aosta Valley reported nearly half-a-metre of snowfall in the past 24 hours and the Glacier 3000 ski area near Gstaad has been closed for the last few days due to 'potentially dangerous' condition caused by the snowfall there.
Although heaviest in the southewest, snow is currently falling over much of the Western and southern Alps.