Skiers and snowboarders on the slopes of Val d'Isère

Snow cover guarented

One of the Highest Ski Resorts in France

Thanks to its high-altitude location, Val d’Isère is one of the highest ski resorts in France, ensuring exceptional snow coverage all season long. Naturally abundant snowfall, including the famous Retours d’Est, is reinforced by the expertise of the Atelier de la Neige, one of Europe’s most advanced snow management teams. Combined with slopes reaching 3,456 meters on the Pisaillas Glacier and cutting-edge snowmaking technology, Val d’Isère guarantees top-quality skiing from late November to early May.

A large ski area Exceptional snow cover

Val d’Isère is a ski area with a snow cover and weather conditions that are highly favorable for skiing.

Temperatures are mostly negative during the day and/or at night throughout the winter months, but also in April, which favors the maintenance of the snowpack, even without new snowfalls. Snow cover is always present.

White gold continues to grace Val d’Isère with its presence, even in late spring when snow precipitation can occur regularly, especially above 2000 meters.

Ski all season long with Snow cover

The snow guarantee means you can ski almost all year round, with a break from early May to early June and from mid-July to December. The altitude of the ski area, between 1,900 and 3,000 meters above sea level, is a major factor in this.

Backed by these advantages, Val d’Isère offers a wide range of promotional offers for spring and summer skiing. The latter takes place from early June to mid-July in the mornings on the Pisaillas glacier. A shuttle bus takes you from the resort to the foot of the glacier, with all-inclusive packages and discounts for children.

Give yourself the pleasure of summer skiing at over 3,000 meters above sea level.

Le Retour d'Est Explanations of the phenomenon

Cédric Bonnevie, Director of the Val d’Isère Ski Patrol Service, puts it perfectly:

“Our proximity to the Italian border brings exceptional and highly localized snowfall. When weather systems move over Italy with a southeasterly flow, Val d’Isère is one of the only places to benefit from the retour d’Est phenomenon. Heavy precipitation spills over onto the French side before quickly dissipating, creating ideal conditions for powder lovers—a true gift from nature. However, for mountain professionals, it’s a call for vigilance: ensuring ski area safety through avalanche control measures (Plan d’Intervention de Déclenchement des Avalanches – PIDA), securing villages and roads, and protecting residents.”

This “retour d’Est” return passes through Val d’Isère several times a winter, and the quantities of precipitation (rain or snow) it generates are very significant. Here are a few more technical explanations from Thomas Blanchard, manager of www.meteoalpes.fr:

“The easterly flow is a low-pressure system located over the Mediterranean, which brings up warm, moisture-laden air masses from the south.
As it meets the first reliefs of the Italian Piedmont via the Po plain, this air rises, condenses, cools and gains even more moisture (orographic effect). As a result, very heavy precipitation fell on the southern part of the Gran Paradiso massif in Italy, spilling over from east to west (as a result of the east-southeast meteorological circulation) via the sources of the Arc and Isère rivers, which were the worst-hit areas. Snowfall amounts during this episode can reach three meters in two days in these areas. Snowfalls can reach as far as Val d’Isere and Tignes when the weather situation is very dynamic (which is what’s happening these days).
On the other hand, once past the high reliefs from Grande-Casse to Mont-Pourri, the air mass dries out very quickly and warms up (this is known as the foehn effect) as it moves down the valley towards Bourg-Saint-Maurice and the Tarentaise.”