Huge Snowfalls, Max Avalanche Danger & Gales Close Resorts in Alps & Pyrenees

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 12:03:08 GMT

Extremely heavy snowfall and strong winds has led to avalanche danger reaching the maximum "very high" 5/5 in parts of the French Alps including the Tarentaise Valley. As a result most resorts only have limited terrain, considered safe, close to their bases open today. La Plagne, where a British skier died in an avalanche after a heavy snowfall event last month, has decided to close its slopes completely.

Snowfall totals of over a metre have already been reported over the past 36 hours at a number of resorts including St Gervais and Chamonix, where wind speeds of over 100kph are also forecast today.

With the snowfall expected to continue through to the weekend, resorts have warned of likely travel delays for skiers accessing and leaving them. Along with avalanche danger, most are stressing the use of snow chains on vehicles is currently obligatory.

For Brits there's the added issue of European airports implementing the new EES digital entry system for non-EU passport holders as a new "Brexit Bonus" leading to long delays at times. As this is also the start of the busy February school holiday period in France, the UK and many other nations, ABTA have warned.

"More and more airports and ports in Europe are applying the new Entry/Exit System (EES), which sees additional information gathered at passport control, including fingerprints and facial scans. Travellers should be prepared that passport checks will take longer and are advised to give themselves plenty of time to go through passport control when taking their return flight home."

In the Pyrenees, resorts including Les Angles and Baqueira Beret have decided to close today due to very string winds.

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Huge Snowfalls, Max Avalanche Danger & Gales Close Resorts in Alps & Pyrenees