Anyone still waiting to secure their ski holiday for the coming winter might be interested to hear the views of one leading tour operator on how 2011-12 looks set to play out, particularly for families.
"Our reservation team tell me that quite a lot of clients still haven't yet realised that most English schools break up on Friday 16 December so families can get a week of skiing and be back for Christmas and pay 25-40% less than following week,"
said Xavier Schouller, boss of French ski specialists Peak Retreats (www.peakretreats.co.uk), the tour operator which takes guests to unspoilt, traditional villages in the French Alps and which recently won 'Best Ski Company' for the third consecutive year in the prestigious annual Guardian/Observer Travel Awards.
Then later on in the winter, for the February half-term holiday 2012, the following scenario is explained by Mr Schouller,
"We had thought that because the English February half-term was going to fall on the first and traditionally considerably quieter week of the February holidays when only a third of French schools are on holiday from the 11th there was going to be much more availability than in previous years but this prediction is proving wrong and availability for that week is becoming as tight as in previous years."
There's no repeat of the end-of-April Easter in 2012 and here are Mr Schouller's views:
"At the end of the season most schools break-up for Easter holidays on the 31st of March, instead of in April, this is making a is psychological difference for us as March still seems like winter whereas April is the beginning of summer and bookings are already 150% up on Easter last year."
And it seems skiers and boarders are still putting best-value ahead of near snow-certainty
"We thought that more people would ask for glacier resorts this year. This is not the case as people are still looking for great value for money after all (and some snowsure but lower resorts offer considerably better value than the Val d'Iseres of this world) and people have come to understand that last season was a freak season," said Mr Schouller,
"With recent massive investments in snowmaking by French resorts most were still open in April when many people thought that the season at ended. Samoens for instance closed on 10/04/11 and it is one of those resorts that many people wrongly perceive as not as snowsure as others. Flaine, also part of the Grand Massif ski area, often boasts the biggest snow depth of the French Alps despite going only to 2500m at the top. It is also clear talking to clients that many people also did their research and looked at historical snow records over longer periods and booked resorts that have been proven to offer consistent snowsure skiing."