Paris - Briancon sleeper-train tickets

A few days ago I received an email from a skier who was looking to book a sleeper train from Paris to Briancon. 

This route is really good for overnight train travel to ski resorts in the Southern French Alps. 

This sleeper train journey is supposed to run every night, but he hadn't been able to find tickets for the date that he wanted. 

I decided to investigate, and spent 90 minutes checking (on the SNCF website) every date between 2nd January and 28th March. The table below shows what I found. 

The prices given are for a bed in a six-berth couchette (2nd class), one way. 

You can see that the highest price is €152 per person (one way) and the lowest are €37. It all depends on which date you are travelling. 

However, in February and March most dates are not on sale yet. And, if you are a traveller, you might wonder whether they will go on sale at all. 

It's inconsistent with what SNCF says about tickets going on sale for winter, because they should be on sale already for dates up until 29th March. 

I will ask SNCF why this could be, and update this article when I have an answer.