Only three days to go until the official start of winter, which for snow lovers means one thing – time to start planning your ski holiday in detail. For expert advice, join our Live Ski Q&A at 1pm on Friday 26 October on theguardian.com/travel. Whether you want to try a different resort this year, want the low down on affordable ski holidays, need to know where's best for beginners, intermediates, advanced skiers – or a group including all three, or simply want to know how to look good on the slopes this year, post a question in the comments below and the panel will do their best to answer as many queries as possible during the live Q&A.
The panel:
Ed Leigh: Before joining Ski Sunday as a presenter Ed edited White Lines Snowboard Magazine for four years. His passion for snowboarding may have started in the unglamorous surroundings of a Gloucester dry slope in 1989 but since then he has travelled the world, and is an expert in exotic winter destinations, as well as being well travelled in the Alps and north America.
Gemma Bowes, Guardian Travel editor: Since learning to ski on Kidsgrove Dry Ski Slope in Staffordshire, Gemma has skied and snowboarded every season for the last 24 years, all over Europe, but frequently to St Anton, Mayrhofen, Verbier and Tignes, as well as making several American snow-bound road trips in Utah, Colorado, California and Wyoming, plus trips to Canada, Russia, Japan and Turkey.
Felice Hardy: Felice is editor of the ski information website welove2ski.com, has written more than 20 travel and ski guide books and contributed to numerous national papers, lifestyle magazines, and radio programmes. She has skied in 12 countries including Chile and Japan, and, as a mother of three, is an expert on family skiing.
Nicola Iseard: Since learning to ski aged four, Nicola has skied every winter, all over Europe, and regularly to the Savoie region. She is a qualified BASI ski instructor, and editor of Fall-Line magazine. Having just put together a Gear Guide for the magazine, she's an expert in ski kit.
Hannah Engelkamp: A former editor of Fall-Line magazine, Hannah now edits MadDogSki.com, an online guide to 60 resorts in the Alps, Canada and New Zealand. She gravitates towards German-speaking countries – "I'm half-German so the comfort food, language and oom-pah culture all appeal to my genes," – but has also skied in the main French resorts, North America, Japan and Scandinanvia.
