Snow Report 24 January 2014 - French & Italian Alps

Buona sera ragazzi!

From last Thursday night through last weekend we had about 50-80cms of fresh snow across Northern Italy, making for excellent skiing conditions.

Champoluc Monte Rosa 20 January 2014

Here in Monte Rosa, there was incredible powder skiing in the forests on Sunday while the visibility was poor and it was still snowing. Then the sun came out for an amazing Monday with no people around. Fresh lines for everyone, and there has been enough around to last through the week.

Alagna Monte Rosa 21 January 2014

Italy scored the most snow again, while the southern French Alps also got some snowfalls.

After a sunny week, a colder weather system has just arrived. This is bringing snow to the northern and western Alps first, areas that have been unfortunate over the past few weeks.

But snow should spread to most areas over the next few days.

Monte Rosa 22 January 2014

Monte Rosa View to the Matterhorn 22 January 2014

Snow Report 17 January 2014 - French & Italian Alps

Guten Tag from the beautiful Italian Dolomites where the snow has been falling for 24 hours now ... and is expected to continue.

Val Gardena 17 January 2014

We've had 20cms of snow in Val Gardena (65/165cms) today capping a brilliant week of skiing and riding.

The Dolomiti are deserving of their reputation for stunning scenery - they have certainly cast a spell over the last week.

Alta Badia 15 January 2014

The run of warm, sunny conditions came to an end on Monday and Tuesday in the French and Italian Alps.

From 20-50cms of snow fell across the southern Alps on Monday/Tuesday. Once again, resorts such as Madesimo (290/380cms) scored big again.

After a couple of days of clear, sunny conditions, the snow began again yesterday.

Once again, the southern Alps have scored the best snowfalls, that's the Italian and southern French Alps.

Snow will continue to fall through this weekend and on and off next weekend making for excellent conditions.

Snow Report 9 January 2014 - French & Italian Alps

Buono sera from Trento, a terrific little city that sits nestled between craggy mountains at the gateway to the Italian Tyrol.

While Trento isn't a resort town, here we are in range of four little ski areas in 30-40 minutes:

Monte Bondone (30cms@1400m, 100cms@2000m), looks over the city - it is Trento's own Alp - and has a superb run called Gran Pista with a vertical drop of around 900m (feel your ears go pop!).

Trento viewed from Monte Bondone:

Paganella is the next mountain range along to the north. Great views again over the glacial Trentino valleys and the surrounding Dolomiti, and lots of long, tree-lined pistes. There is a good off-piste area between the two top lifts.

Pretty off-piste fun at Paganella:

Folgaria (20cms@1400m, 80cms@1800m) is to the east - a gentle but surprisingly extensive area - and Brentonico lies to the south.

Folgaria - cruisy in the forests:

And Madonna Di Campiglio, one of Italy's biggest ski areas, is just an hour away, and providing some fantastic skiing this season.

Madonna Di Campiglio scored another metre of snow in the storm last weekend. Madesimo recorded another 60cms, and Val Gardena got 50cms.

The smaller areas in Northern Italy and the French Alps received 20-40cms in the same storm, but only above 1300m. Lower down was rain and the snow has mostly gone below 1000m - in Northern Italy at least - in this unusually mild spell.

Elsewhere in Italy: Monte Rosa: 90/200cms, Piani Di Bobbio: 150/200cms, Madesimo: 260/350cms, Val Gardena: 60/155cms.

In France: Val D'Isere: 67/109cms, Val Thorens: 100/160cms, Chamonix: 80/120cms, Les Houches: 35/60cms.

Sunny, mild days are set to continue in the southern Alps before a return to cold, midwinter conditions toward the end of this weekend. A chance of snow from Monday night across the Alps, but the forecasts are uncertain right now.

In the meantime, let's enjoy sunny days and good food in the Italian Dolomiti Di Brenta.

Another picture from Paganella: