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: