After a tense few weeks with temperatures rising after the heavy snowfall at the start of the month, there have been big new snowfalls across the Alps.

Chamonix was a big winner with 50cm of new snow at mid-mountain yesterday and other resorts like Val d’Isere in France, Corvara in Italy and Solden in Austria have all reported a foot or more of new snow in recent days.

For some the snow and colder temperatures is a little late and St Anton, Lech and Courmayeur have announced they need to delay their openings for at least a week having originally planned to open this weekend.

One of the most promising starts to the season looks to be Ischgl, where Katy Perry will perform to an estimated 20,000 fans on opening day, this Saturday.

Unlike at most other resorts, all the lifts and runs are expected to be open, linking Ischgl up to Samnaun over the border in Switzerland, which will be staging it’s own seasoin-opener, the annual Santa Claus world Championships, this weekend too.

http://www.chamonix.com/

The easiest way to reach the Mer de Glace glacier from Montenvers railway station is to take the gondola ski lift that descends from the platform down to the valley floor, a couple of hundred metres below. Yet Olivier, my guide from the Compaigne des Guides de Chamonix Mont Blanc, isn’t having any of that.

A trainee snowboard instructor is using social media to gather support for a new halfpipe to be built in the resort. Kieran MacDonald Sharp, along with season workers, locals, pro riders and tourists, is asking the Compagnie du Mont Blanc to have a permanent halfpipe built and maintained in the Chamonix valley.

A sixty-year-old British man has fallen more than 300 feet to his death while mountain biking in the French Alps on a camping holiday with nine friends. The body of the man, from Brighton, was discovered on Friday afternoon by police in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc.

French former Olympic snowboard champion Karine Ruby has been found dead following a fall on Mont Blanc. The 31-year-old Ruby, who won the giant slalom gold medal at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, then a silver at Salt Lake four years later, was found along with a second victim in a crevasse, the local gendarmerie said.

The Gorges de la Diosaz are opening early thanks to the good weather and the spectacular flow of water, with the doors being opened for the summer season on the 29th May.

It seems the French Olympic committee is considering ditching Morzine/Avoriaz from the official Annecy 2018 winter olympic bid as the ski station is considered to be ‘too far’ from Annecy.