How bad is this years snow.

As i am a newcomer to the joy of skiing i was wondering how this years snow (so far) compares to that of previous years.
Judging by most online forums i know this year has seen a low in snowfall in certain areas but is it much less than recent years?

Will 2011 go down in history as a bad year?

I think it depends where you ski.
I was in St Moritz 2 weeks ago and the snow couldn't have been much better.
It is currently pretty decent in Austria too.
I understand much of France is struggling lower down particularly.
I really don't think there is a particular problem with the snow, as its only just February, and there's another 2 months left of the main season to go yet.

I's not a bad year for skiing, because mainstream resorts have plenty of snowmaking and can ensure that holidaymakers have a good experience. 20 years ago, you skied what nature supplied.
Some skiers will whinge whatever the conditions. I was in the Mon't de Arbois cafe in Megeve one January, taking a coffee break from fabulous knee deep powder on piste, and overheard to 2 young English guys on the phone to their girlfriends. They were complaining that the slopes were all lumpy and it was too hard to ski.
Bless )

Engadine apart and I guess a few other places there seems to be not as much snow falling this year especially France, but I still had a great ski holiday so over all not too bad this year.

Strangely enough we had a foot of fresh powder snow at Tignes when we were ski-ing there in October :D

I just hope Courchevel gets plenty of snow in the next 2 weeks, ready for our arrival there :D

Apparently it's quite skiable at the moment, but more snow would be nice.

Ally

Nobody seems to have come back and reported unskiable conditions yet, so maybe it's not as bad as all that (fingers crossed touch wood again).

We skiied in Megeve 1st January and for January i was abit disappointed. It rained a bit and the slopes were sometimes icy. . .normally in Jan you have plenty of fabulous snow.

Its clearly not a vintage year with some resorts luckier than others. But its is not too bad either. As earlier comments have indicated, snow-making facilities now mean that it would be very unusual not to have most of the main resorts open.

I had super conditions in St Anton for 1st week in Jan, though it was extremely cold. Heading off to Soll on Saturday for a long weekend. From the reports available, it seems that they had some fresh snow on 26 Jan and conditions are pretty good at the moment though I am sure they will need fresh snow soon.

One thought that has struck me in recent weeks reading comments from Tony, Dave Mac, Pavel and others is that snow conditions don't really matter too much once you have reached a reasonable level of competence - you will be able to have a good days skiing in virtually any conditions. A good reason to develop and perfect your skill levels!!!

While most of us crave beautiful sunny days following a nice big dump of snow, it is really beginners and early intermediates who struggle with less than perfect conditions. And this can include "too much" fresh snow on the piste!!!