Swiss ski areas are celebrating what is for many the second healthy snowfall of February, with resorts in the Valais canton reporting up to 70cm of snow in the past 48 hours.
Among the bigger accumulations reported so far were 46cm in the Lotschental, 40cm at Arolla, 33cm at Laax, 25cm at Verbier and 20cm at Zermatt.
Although the snowfall was nothing like the massive accumulations in January, much of that snow is still lying and the fresh snow caused an avalanche near Zermatt, leading the resort closing its rail and road access for a period on Thursday for what was the third time this year.
Unlike the previous closures last month however, this one only lasted a period of hours rather than days and the tourist office stressed there was no danger to anyone in Zermatt.
The avalanche danger in the area is currently at level three, 'considerable,' on the scale of five.