We went to La Plagne one year on the bike for a bit of late season skiing in early April. We were snowed in for 5 days staying with my brother near Bourg-en-Bresse but then the weather improved. When we arrived at La Plagne we stayed up at the high resort at about 2000metres and the snow above this was just about ski-able. When we left it had snowed heavily overnight so the mountain road was pretty dodgy but the main roads were fine. In the afternoon we rode up to the col de Petit St. Bernard and the road was dry and really good fun. We got to within about 100 metres of the Italian border and found the col was closed (until the end of May) and the snow on the road was 2 metres deep. We had to backtrack through the Mont Blanc Tunnel and when we dropped down to near Turin it was a balmy 25 degrees at six o'clock in the evening.
I know this is the end of the season rather than the beginning but I think you'll find most of the high passes are closed from mid October to the end of May. As Backofbeyond says the weather is very variable throughout the winter.
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