Ski areas in Austria have been posting images of deep powder snow waiting local skiers when the country's resorts open for 2020-21 in a week's time.
The snow looks to be particularly good on glaciers – which had already opened in late summer and early Autumn before the country went in to its second lockdown in early November.
At that point most were posting snow depths below two metres, but several (Hintertux and Stubai) say base depths are now above three metres (10 feet) following the big snowfalls earlier this month.
The image above is of the search for buried entrance of the glacier caves on Hintertux.
The Austrian government say ski areas can open from Christmas Eve but only to locally based skiers with hotels closed. In France hotels are open but ski lifts are closed. Austrian ski areas hope to reopen to international tourists on January 7th, when French and Italian ski areas may open for the season.