Italy appears to be edging ahead in Europe, and indeed leading the whole world, for snow depth at present.
The Passo Tonale glacier is the only one in the world to report more than a 4m base (4.2m) in 2014 to date and Madesimo is Another world leader with the deepest snow reported anywhere for a non-glacier resort.
Elsewhere an increasingly large number of the country's resorts are reporting 2m+ lying on upper slopes whereas France, although conditions are generally good there too, is not yet quite reporting any areas with a 2m base or more.
Italy seems to have benefitted the most from the snow storms of the past three weeks which seem to have repeatedly tracked predominantly across the southern side of the Alps and over the Dolomites, but being much less generous in the north.
The latest accumulations over the past 72 hours have again brought big falls to Italian resorts from West to east.
The country first started to build bases on Sunday/Monday and by Tuesday accumulations were reported to have reached 20cm of fresh in the Milky Way, 25cm at Courmayeur and as much as 50cm at Breuil Cervinia. Moving west there was 20cm of new snow for Bormio and Sella Nevea over on the Eastern border with Slovenia had 50cm of fresh snow.
"Up to 30 cm of fresh snow have fallen on the Dolomites, turning the landscape into a white paradise. The conditions for spending a fabulous "white week" couldn't be better," said a spokesperson from Dolomiti Superski where Cortina d'Ampezzo (pictured) was one of the beneficiaries of the latest big accumulations.
Other big 24 hour accumulations included 30cm for Madonna di Campiglio and 40cm at Macugnaga.
