Col de Plainpalais
Col de Plainpalais is a ski area in France, at about 1,299 m. Its mapped area is about 1.7 km across, with 3 marked runs and 1 lift (about 3.1 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 207 cm of snowfall a season, 1,081st (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 141st in France. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2017/18 (352 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2015/16 (123 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 63 cm.
Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear here once snow starts to fall. Until then, the long-run record comes first.
Elevation of the ski area’s centre point, taken from a digital elevation model. It is not the base-to-summit range.
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.
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. Ski areas a few kilometres apart share a weather grid cell and can return the same figure.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aillon-Margériaz | 1.9 km | 207 cm | 1081 |
| La Féclaz | 2.9 km | 207 cm | 1081 |
| Le Revard | 3.7 km | 207 cm | 1081 |
| Aillon-le-Jeune | 8.2 km | 214 cm | 1008 |
| Le Semnoz | 18 km | 192 cm | 1230 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 71% of January’s snowfall. That is in line with the median for ski areas in France (77%). In amount, March brings 45 cm, less than the median of 55 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 207 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 123 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 352 cm (2.9 times as much).
Snowfall each winter (December–March total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.
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
The shape of the mountain
Which way the slopes face
Only 41% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. More of the terrain faces the sun.
By difficulty
Lift types
- Platter1
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.
Map
Where it sits relative to nearby resorts. For a piste map, see the official site.
More places to look
Guides covering France
- 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 Big Are Japan's Ski Areas? Smaller Than the Alps, Snowier per Kilometre Measured across nearly 1,800 ski areas: the median Japanese one has 12 km of piste against France's 25. What Japan has instead is 25 cm of seasonal snow for every kilometre of run — more than two and a half times France and three times the United States.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52