Last Saturday the marmottes were basking in spring sunshine. Then on Sunday 60cm of powder snow fell on the Val d'Isère/Pisaillas glacier over 24 hours, bringing a fantastic late season bonus for skiers. Downhill progress was marred only by the heaviness of the snow.
Otherwise it has been a warm and sunny week with low level snow disappearing quickly. The norm has been ice in the mornings followed by about an hour of perfect spring snow conditions when the sun has warmed the snow, followed by slush and lunch. Elsewhere in France, Val Cenis in the Alps near the Italian border (15cm-315cm) has also had 20cm of new snow this week.
Although many lower resorts have closed this week in Switzerland, Zermatt (7cm-402cm) has new snow and is still looking good. Saas Fee (60cm-455cm) improved with a dusting of new snow early in the week.
In Austria Ischgl (0cm-149cm) will be open until next weekend, with upper slopes still skiing well. Kaprun (70cm-364cm) is also good at altitude with some new snow, but is slushy in the afternoons at lower levels.
In Italy Cervinia (75cm-360cm) had powder snow this week on upper slopes but lower down the snow is heavy.
There is still a week officially left of the season in resorts with glaciers. Here in Val d'Isère anything could still happen. New snow (10cm-15cm) is expected today, with a mix of cloud and sun for the weekend.