FRANCE It was an excellent weekend for both fresh snow and great skiing in France. All of our French resorts have received fresh snow since Friday 5th February, with up to 30cm landing on some resorts Le Grand Bornand (130/170cm) received around 20cm of snow on Saturday night. There is a lot of lift served steep terrain at Le Grand Bornand and this is currently amazing with all the fresh snow. All of their 29 lifts are running, giving lots of access to all the fresh snow. Further down south there was also some fresh snow but not as much. Isola 2000 (101/175) received around 3cm of fresh snow on Friday 5th February. Cold weather means the snow is well preserved and it should remain good for this week Cauterets (40/260cm), in the French Pyrenees, also received fresh snow. 20cm landed on their upper slopes which refreshed the pistes well. On Monday the weather wasn't as good as in the Alps but a further dusting of fresh snow is expected. 20 of 22 lifts are running and the conditions are generally excellent.

SWITZERLAND Switzerland offers some of the best skiing in Europe this week, with amazing snow conditions following fresh snowfall last week and over the weekend. 15cm of snow fell at Arosa (100/150cm) on Sunday 7th February. On Monday the skies had cleared revealing some great powder bowls ready to be skied. Nearly all of their terrain is open, one lift remains closed for avalanche control work. The sun is shining at Saas Fee (82/222cm) on Monday. All the lifts and runs are open this week and the weekend's fresh snow means the skiing is excellent. The best conditions can be found on the upper slopes but it is still great down low too. Other features in the resort are also good, like the snow park and boardercross course. Things look good for the half term week coming up, with fresh snow and low temperatures in the forecast.

ITALY Loads of snow fell in parts of Italy over the start of the weekend. The parts of the country around the Swiss and Italian borders received the most. Cervinia (95/180cm) received a massive 40cm of new snow on Friday 5th February. This gave some amazing skiing over the weekend and our rep in resort said there was thigh deep powder off piste and knee deep on piste. On Monday all the lifts were open and the skies were clear so it's another awesome day. 35cm of fresh snow fell at Madonna di Campiglio (60/150cm). This was the first significant snow they recorded for around a month so it will have done wonders to the conditions all over the mountain. All 20 of their lifts were running on Monday so there is loads of skiing available. The easily accessed areas of powder are tracked out due to weekend crowds but venture further away and there are still fresh tracks to be had.

ANDORRA All of our featured Andorran resorts received fresh snow on Saturday 6th February. The deepest base in the country is at Arcalis (110/160cm). Fresh snow on Saturday topped up the piste depths and helped improve the piste conditions. There is plenty of coverage on all the runs and they are generally in good condition.The Ski Club rep in Soldeu (70/110cm) reported great skiing there on Saturday. The best conditions can be found on the upper slopes, as is usually the case, but lower pistes are in good condition. The fresh snow gave a nice layer of powder to ski on the pistes and this has now been packed down.

NORWAY/SWEDEN Fresh snow last week means that our featured Norwegian ski resorts offer plenty of good skiing. Oppdal (30/50cm) is where it snowed most recently; around 1cm fell on Sunday 7th February. With a base depth of half a metre on the upper slopes, skiing on the marked runs is good but off piste it is quite rocky, so stay on piste.Snow continues to fall at Åre (54/70cm) in Sweden. It snowed lightly for most of the weekend and this amounted to around 15cm. Conditions are excellent both on the upper and lower slopes. Nearly all the lifts are open as well so there is plenty of skiing available. It is looking good for the English half term week next week.

GERMANY As with neighbouring country Austria, lots of snow fell at most of our featured German resorts over the weekend. Up to 25cm fell in places which made for some awesome powder skiing.Garmisch (25/225cm) received the most, with the 25cm falling on Saturday 6th February. With over two metres of snow on the Zugspitze Glacier there is plenty of great skiing to be had. Even low down, where there is only 25cm of compacted snow, the skiing is great due to the grassy terrain. It doesn't require much snow to cover it. 10cm of snow fell at Lenggries (60/90cm) and their base depth has risen to nearly a metre at the top. All of their lifts were running this weekend and they should stay running this week. Bits of powder can be found off piste but it is best to stick to the marked runs.

BULGARIA Skiing at Pamporovo (50/70cm) has improved once again. Fresh snow over the weekend has covered the pistes in a layer of powder. The snow continued to fall on Monday and cold temperatures mean that there is nice powder. The resort had a poor start to the season so it is great to see things improving. It's snowing at Bansko (140/165cm) too. Not as much snow fell as at Pamporovo but it's enough to freshen up the pistes. Ten lifts were running on Monday, meaning four are closed. This is presumably due to the bad weather at the top. Heavy snow is forecast this week which should improve the skiing loads.

SCOTLAND A light dusting of snow fell at The Lecht (20/55cm) on Sunday night. This won't really have made any difference to the piste conditions however as it was only a very light dusting. Most of the lifts were running on Monday but some of the higher ones were on hold due to strong winds up there. It's best to stick to the open pistes at the moment as the snow off piste is icy and patchy in places Cairngorm (30/120cm) still has the deepest Scottish snow by far. Most of it is hard packed now due to strong winds and freeze-thaw conditions. The groomers are now beginning to build the park, in the usual place by the Ptarmigan Bowl. This should add some fun to the area when they get it open.Over half a metre of snow on the upper slopes at Nevis Range (20/60cm) means skiing is generally good. As with the other two mentioned, stick to the pistes as away from them the snow is hard and icy. Greatglen and Braveheart chairs are both closed.

USA This weekend was the turn of the Californian resorts to get dumped upon. Nearly 60cm fell on Mammoth (244/366cm) over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. With more than three and a half metres of snow on the upper slopes the skiing is awesome and the fresh powder makes it even better. You can still find plenty of powder over the whole mountain and the good news is that more snow is forecast in the coming week Vail (89cm) in Colorado received fresh snow too. 5cm fell on Saturday 6th February, which has helped freshen up the pistes. The Ski Club rep in Vail said that the snow made for some great skiing both on and off pistes and the resort was unexpectedly quiet over the weekend.Over on the east coast, many resorts have benefited from the snowstorm in the news at the moment. Unfortunately they didn't receive 90cm like some of the cities but around 20cm fell at Stowe (71/132cm) on Saturday night. More snow is expected from the storm in the first part of this week so things could improve further.

CANADA Canada still has relatively mild weather for early February. This milder weather has been around since New Year and it is usually much colder at this time in the year. The mild weather means the base of Whistler (267cm) is prone to receiving rain instead of snow at the moment but above 1000m the snow is in great condition. The resort is expecting a big snowstorm around Wednesday this week with around 60cm of new snow forecast. Some of this will make its way down to the village too, refreshing the runs down there. Off piste skiing in Whistler is still excellent at the moment and with nearly three metres of snow, coverage is fantastic. A few centimetres of snow fell up at Jasper (125cm) over the weekend. The Marmot Basin ski area is enjoying a great season in terms of snow. All lifts were running on Sunday, giving access to some good off piste terrain in the upper bowls.

EUROPEAN WEATHER OUTLOOK Cold weather is making a return to the Alps this weekend, particularly the second half of the week. Light snow is expected in most parts of the French Alps on Tuesday and Wednesday this week but it isn't expected to amount to much. By Friday, the temperature at Flaine will have dropped to -15°C but it should warm up to -8°C by Sunday 14th February.The further east in the Alps you go, the colder it should be. Kirchberg in Austria is expecting a high temperature of -16°C on Thursday 11th February. The resort is very low too at 800m. Light snow is expected between Tuesday and Friday, hopefully amounting to around 20cm in most of the region.22cm of snow is expected at Oppdal in Norway this week. Cold, dry weather at the beginning of this week should give way to warmer and snowier weather by the end of the week. The heaviest snow should fall over the weekend.

NORTH AMERICAN WEATHER OUTLOOK Most of the expected snow in America this week is on the east coast. Around 18cm of snow is forecast to land on Smugglers' Notch over the course of the week. The temperature should also stay fairly low, around -10°C for most of the week which should make for excellent snow conditions.Up in the northwest of America snow is expected on Wednesday and Thursday. This is expected to bring up to 25cm of fresh snow to Timberline in Oregon. The temperature is expected to increase as the week progresses.Up in Canada it is expected to be a snowy week, particularly for resorts in the south and west of the country. 85cm is the amount of snow that should fall on the upper slopes at Whistler this week, which is excellent news in the run-up to the Olympics. The snow will make its way down to the village at times, but it will mainly be sleet down there. Further inland from Whistler it should be colder and less snowy. 32cm is expected at Revelstoke, bringing some fun powder skiing to the area.