Snow

I think a lot of it is to do with inexperience. Its easy to think that a ski resort is guaranteed to be covered in snow throughout the winter months, people who are inexperienced will look at the nice pictures in the sales books and think that's exactly what it will look like. They assume this because it's a ski resort, then upon arrival when they are met with greenery and sun they are shocked but have plenty of time to ponder this on the LONG chairlift up to the snow.

Its only once you actually look at annual weather data etc and take note of resort heights and which have glaciers you start to tailor your holidays accordingly.

Unfortunately I only have one trip this season in the first week of march, still not booked as I'm willing to risk paying a littler more on the prices now to ensure I get the snow. But at that time of year I can assure you it will be high up with a glacier.

Always book a glacier, it's a skiing holiday after all. I can pay a lot less for green hills at home.

We had so much snow in La Plagne just before Xmas though that it made life pretty difficult. I'm not complaining (although I was when face down off piste and couldn't get up again cos the powder was sooo deep).

In my 20 or so years of sking I have only once been caught out once with crap snow, I can't even remember the name of the resort but I know it was Austria and as it was with a group I had to go with the majority.

It's not entirely down to inexperience, I know that to get reasonable snow I have to go high, but it's not always possible for me in particular. We have a budget to stick to and with that budget we have to book late which often means less choice. Unfortunately we can't go in January when some of the best deals are because of work (booo!)

Last year I ended up in Niederau which is only about 850m at resort level because we booked late and it was all we could get for our budget, fortunately the snow was skiable even lower down and I had a great time.

I'm just grateful that I can go skiing, even if it's not pefect.