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Cheap ski deals and heavy snow for Europe's resorts
Heavy snowfall across the Alps this weekend blanketed ski resorts in France, Austria, Switzerland and parts of Italy.
The resorts to benefit most in France were Argentiere in the Chamonix valley, which had 106cm in the five days over Easter, and Tignes, where at least 75cm of snow fell over the weekend.
The highest recorded snowfall was registered in Cauterets in the Pyrenees, where the snow depth increased by 150cm last week, and Crans Montana in Switzerland, where 141cm fell.
Vanessa Fisher, spokeswoman for Ski Club Great Britain told Times Online: “For people who want to ski now there is stacks of skiing to be had. The problem is that people tend to think Easter means the end of the ski season, but this year it’ll go on well into the end of April.”
Many resorts will stay open until the end of April because of the heavy snow - St Anton in Austria is open until April 27, Tignes in France until May 11 (although the glacier is open year-round for skiing), and Engelberg in Switzerland is open until May 25.
As well as the above resorts, the Ski Club also recommends the following resorts for late season skiing: Val Thorens and Alpe d’Huez in France, Saas Fee and Zermatt in Switzerland, Cervinia in Italy, and Kaprun and Obergurgl in Austria.
The Ski Club's Fisher added: “It’s been cold over the weekend in Europe and is forecast to stay that way this week. Once it starts warming up the snow on the lower slopes can get slushy but for the moment it’s great – which is very unusual for this time of year.”
All 11 of the French ski resorts that feature in the Ski Club’s snow report are posting exceptional snow conditions, with four resorts reporting powder snow conditions on piste – including Val Thorens, Tignes, Courchevel and Avoriaz.
Kate Humphries, a snowboarder from London, has just returned from a weekend skiing the L’Espace Killy area in France. She told Times Online: “We had over a metre of fresh snow over the weekend, which made for the best boarding conditions I've had in Europe, with snow up to my knees, even on the piste. It also meant there weren't any nasty icy patches.”
Kate was staying in Tignes where the average depth of snow on the upper slopes was 230cm, versus an average of 213cm for mid-March, while on the lower slopes the depth was 158cm, which compares to an average 118cm at that time of year.
The website for Ski France, which represents the French resorts is showing “total resort whiteness” at all French resorts, which means there are none of the patches of bare rock or grass that are normally a feature of Europe’s pistes at this time of year.
But with the record snowfall comes dangers – in L'Espace Killy the avalanche risk was raised to 4/5 over the Easter weekend and on Saturday skiers were limited to only a handful of pistes until mid-morning while avalanche blasting was carried out.
When will we hear the global warming soothsayers opinion on this heavy snow I wonder? I shan't hold my breath. Same as with the extra kilometres of Arctic ice this year.
ROBERT JOHN, CARMARTHEN, WALES
I have been working in Selva, Italy all winter and Wednesday, 27th March was the best day of the season by far. The snow was incredible and the pistes were empty as most of the Italian tourists went home on Easter Monday.
Chris, Selva, Italy
It must be due to global warming.
Owen, Putney, UK
More proof of global warming. Let's raise taxes.
Patrick Henry, Bristol,