Snow finally begins to fall on Europe's ski resorts

This year's ski season has got off to a rather lukewarm start in Europe but ski companies were breathing a sigh of relief as up to 30cm of snow fell across France, Switzerland and Austria today. In France, Val Thorens, Tignes and Courchevel all received fresh dumps of snow with Val D’Isere reporting a fall of 20cm. And it is hoped that the snow will continue to fall with a number of French resorts expecting to receive anything between 10cm to 40cm of snowfall later this week. In Switzerland it was snowing in both Andermatt and Arosa, which allowed riders on their slopes for the first time last weekend. Davos had 5cm of fresh snow and Zermatt received 10cm of fresh snow. Samnaun also had a good day on Monday, and received one of the highest amounts of fresh snow in Switzerland with around 30cm. In Austria, Obergurgl reported a fall of 10cm of fresh snow today and has 15 out of 24 ski lifts open. Lech fared less well with 5cm of snow and only four out of its 84 lifts open and St Anton had just 3cm of snow with only two out of its 84 lifts open. Resorts in Germany, Bulgaria and Scotland are yet to open for the season. Vicky Norman of the Ski Club of Great Britain told TravelMail: ‘There’s great news in numerous European resorts who finally, after weeks of dry, warm conditions, have received anything between a light dusting and 30cm of the white stuff. ‘Resort villages have been transformed from green to white overnight and the forecast implies more snow is on the way. This has been a great confidence booster and could be the first signs of what could turn out to be a fantastic winter season.’ Europe has been experiencing its warmest and driest autumn since 1864, which meant that many European ski resorts had been forced to delay openings due to a shortage of snow. Resorts in France and Switzerland had been particularly badly hit. Nine out of 12 French ski resorts had to delay their openings, including the Grands-Montets at Chamonix, Meribel and Megeve. In the French Pyrenees only two out of 36 resorts - Puigmal and Vallnord – had opened by the end of last week. Val d’Isère and Tignes in France, along with Zermatt in Switzerland and Ischgl in Austria, had managed to open on schedule with around 20 per cent of their pistes, but others had to postpone their opening days. In Switzerland, canons were working overtime to produce fake snow at Klosters but temperatures were too high for cannon to operate except at night. World Cup races scheduled for Val d’Isère that normally mark the beginning of the European ski season had to be moved to Beaver Creek in Colorado.