Snow depths are up (in many cases from zero on lower slopes) at ski resorts that have had limited terrain open in recent weeks due to the warm weather and lack of early season snowfall in the Alps.
A change in the weather since the weekend has seen heavy snowfall for many areas since Sunday, but the big accumulations of 60cm+ reported at some areas are on higher slopes, which in most cases had average snow cover already. It's the lower slopes where the snow is needed.
In France, a number of famous areas have been struggling to open much terrain but the situation is now improving. Les Gets, which had had to completely close its ski area, opened one short run on Tuesday and from Wednesday 11th January has six lifts operational again. There are seven runs skiable once more (six blues and a green) although the connection with Morzine has not yet re-opened.
La Clusaz posted the picture top with the message, "What if we were start winter all over again?"
In Switzerland, Gstaad, which previously had less than 20% of its terrain open and no snow on its lower slopes, reports there's now a 20cm resort-level base depth. It now reports about 40% of its slopes open.
Crans Montana, which was not so badly hit but was suffering too, says it has gone from zero to 30cm of snow lying on its lower slopes.
With temperatures at lower elevations still marginal, it's uncertain how long the new valley snow can survive, but resorts are already working hard to maintain and built on what's there.
In Austria, the huge Skiwelt region warned that it was taking advantage of lower temperatures to run its snowmaking guns during the daytime. It noted it usually only ran its snow guns at night but said it wanted to make as much snow as they could while temperatures are low.
The heaviest snowfall in the Western Alps has now passed but the latest forecasts indicate a temperature spike previously expected for the end of the week shouldn't be as warm as initially feared and. It also currently looks like there will be more snow showers and mostly sub-zero temperatures into next week.