It continues to be one of the best seasons for many years. The Ski Club of Great Britain leader in Klosters, Switzerland, which has just received 50cm of new snow, described Wednesday as one of the best powder days of his skiing career. The Austrian resorts of Lech/Zurs have 65cm of fresh powder. This season's superstar continues to be Alyeska in Alaska, which this week added 150cm of new snow to it's seasonal accumulation of 16 metres of snow.

There is powder everywhere in Austria where Kaprun (140-260cm) has 50cm and Saalbach (115-310cm) 60cm of new snow, which was still falling throughout Thursday.

In France the Portes du Soleil (Avoriaz, 260-300cm, and Les Gets, 115-230cm) had 20cm of new snow while the Three Valleys had a light dusting of new snow.

Temperatures in Switzerland have been variable. Engelberg (56-521cm) and Flims (110-380cm) had 45cm of new snow, Murren (190-396cm) 44cm of new snow. Saas Fee (75-353cm) has less new snow but visibility is good.

After high winds closed lifts in Italian Cervinia (90-290cm) on Wednesday, Thursday provided ideal skiing conditions under blue skies.

Saturday could see Austrian skies temporarily clearing before snowfall returns on Sunday. There will be predominantly blue skies in France, Switzerland and Italy, but they could have a dusting of new snow in places. Up to 60cm of new snow is expected in Canadian resorts while Colorado (US) is forecast to receive some 40cm of new snow.