There’s been heavy snowfall across the Alps over Christmas, plus up to 30cm more at the weekend, and now there’s plenty of fresh powder and bluebird skies.  What more could anyone ask for!

However, this considerable new dump of whitestuff after a long spell of dry weather has led to an unstable snowpack, especially off-piste.  This has resulted in a tragic series of avalanche accidents since Boxing Day, which we reported in an earlier story HERE.

In many resorts, the avalanche risk is currently between 3 (significant) and 4 (high) on a scale of 1-5, making off-piste skiing extremely risky and inadvisable.

But it’s not all doom and gloom though…. The resorts badly needed some fresh snow and conditions on-piste have greatly improved.  Many have had as much as half-a-metre or more and now, on the resorts’ groomed pistes, skiing conditions are glorious, especially in the higher resorts.  Even in Andorra, the heavy snow over Christmas has set up their resorts for the rest of the holidays.

You only need to glimpse at Facebook (see images below) to see what a beautiful day it’s been in the Alps today.

And there’s some more good news for the year-end … even more white stuff is forecast for later in the week!

So if you’re setting off skiing over the New Year, take great care, stay on-piste and – in the light of the horrific Michael Schumacher accident in Meribel yesterday (click HERE for further details) – don’t forget to wear your ski helmet!