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A plan to re-open the former southern Colorado ski area, currently known as Cuchara, that last operated in 2000, hangs in the balance.

A group of supporters of the project to reinstate a chairlift at the park, known as Panadero Ski Corp, have raised a reported $450,000 in donations and are ready to move forward, however others locals are not so keen.

Currently operating as a "mountain park" a group that includes back country skiers and "dog walkers" along with those with memories of a series of commercial failures of the former lift operating venture between 1982 and 2000 are not so keen on a new lift appearing.

But it is non-profit Panadero Ski Corp that bought the 47-acre park in 2017 for $150,000, opening it for public use, and has worked to get the base lift running again, with volunteers relying on more than $300,000 for parts and labour.

There's currently something of a stand-off between the two sides with a major area of contention being who operates the lift. The local government have said they won't be involved in that, but finding a viable model to do so privately or with a not-for-profit operator is proving as issue.

A very long-standing plan to build an indoor snow centre within a former quarry at Great Blakenham in Suffolk may finally be scrapped, according to the project's latest backers.

Originally launched as Snoasis in the early years of this century, the project to build by far the largest indoor snow centre in the UK with a 400m+ indoor snow slope at a cost of around £500m faced strong local opposition and went all the way to the Houses of parliament to finally win approval, but then nothing happened.

More than a decade after 'going quiet' though, Snoasis re-emerged in 2020 with a new team, an apparently scaled down, more eco-friendly looking indoor snow centre and generally more of a Center Parcs vibe, as The Valley Ridge resort.

The scaled down indoor slope will now be approximately 180m by 47m high, similar to the other indoor slopes in the UK. The snow park will have slides, toboggan runs, tubing, themed rides, ice caves and an ice cafe.

Original plans for additional facilities including a casino, gaming room and nightclub will be replaced by more family-oriented attractions like bowling, climbing walls, virtual reality, sports bar and a cinema, indoor tennis, indoor golf and a spa. Outdoors there will be tree trekking, high ropes, ziplines, archery, adventure golf, electric bikes and watersports.

Markus Berger, a spokesman for Switzerland Tourism and Berno Stoffel, the director of the Swiss Cable Cars Association, have reported that business levels at Swiss ski areas this winter returned to about 85% of the level they were at before the pandemic began, on average.

They were interviewed on Swiss radio as the country's 21-22 season drew to a close. About a dozen Swiss areas remain open to the end of the month but most have ended their seasons.

It was reported that the Swiss season got off to a good start for early snowfall in most areas, only the more southerly resorts suffering from a lack of snowfall there. However for most areas a sunny late winter and spring after the snowy start coupled with virus restrictions easing kept business levels high through the Easter holidays.

Mt Berger noted that the drop in the number of foreign tourists due to virus travel restrictions continued but was compensated by an increase in the number of Swiss guests. Switzerland decided to effectively ban British arrivals in mid-December, by insisting on long quarantines for new arrivals, just as the season began, due to the surging omicron variant. The decision was quickly reversed but many trips were reported to have been cancelled as a result.

Mr Stoffel said that his members noted younger Swiss skiers in particular appeared to rediscover skiing as a leisure activity during the pandemic.

Alaska's capital city of Juneau is reported to have spent $1.3 million US dollars on a second-hand gondola lift purchased from an unspecified ski area in Austria for the publicly owned ski area of Eaglecrest.

The city's authorities had approved the plan to install a gondola at the area several years ago with the aim of broadening its appeal in to more of a year round destination. One revenue stream from the gondola is planned to be passengers on cruise ships on day visits wanting to quickly get up the mountain to view the area from above.

Installing the lift at the ski area on the city's Douglas Island is expected to be the most expensive part of the project, with a cost estimate of $4.5 million.

The overall project budget may go as high as $10 million.

There is currently debate as to whether the gondola is operated by Eaglecrest employees when complete or contracted out to a private operator.

Two of the main lifts at Mammoth Mountain in California are being upgraded, with work getting underway this summer, although the replacement lifts wont be operational until winter 23/24.

Canyon Express (Chair 16) at Canyon Lodge and Broadway Express (Chair 1) at Main Lodge will be upgraded to high-speed six-pack chairlifts.

The new lifts are part of a $344 million spend by the Alterra Group across its resorts and is one five large scale projects also including work at Steamboat in Colorado and Palisades Tahoe in California, Deer Valley Resort in Utah and Crystal Mountain in Washington.

"This historic investment is clear evidence of our commitment …towards the long-term future of our mountains," said Rusty Gregory, CEO, Alterra Mountain Company. "More than ever, we continue to infuse meaningful capital into projects that will transform our base areas while significantly improving our physical and digital on-mountain offerings to ensure that our guests experience the best of the mountains."

Most ski areas in the US have now closed for the season but over 100 remain open to Easter weekend and many are enjoying the fruits of some of the heaviest snowstorms of the season.

There's been heavy snowfall across much of the West of the country but the Pacific Northwest region and the states of Washington and Oregon have done particularly well.

Mt. Hood Meadows in Oregon got more than six feet (1.8m) of snow in just five days.

"Our temperatures have been in the teens which means that it's just constantly building and building. People are just loving the powder,"

Dave Tragethon, VP of Sales & Marketing at Mt. Hood Meadows told local media.

Mt Hood Meadows now has one of the world's deepest bases at more than 15 feet (457cm) and stays open to May 1st. Nearby Timberline, has North America's deepest at over 16 feet (490cm). It has a summer ski operation through to early September if the snow lasts.

Elsewhere in the western US roads have been closed by snow and April snowfall records set in the High plains region of the Midwest and into Montana.

Around Lake Tahoe, which currently has 38% of its average annual snowpack for this time of year after a disappoint season for snowfall overall, despite record dumps in late December, there was cold weather and moderate snowfall to perk things up a little for Easter, although 100mph wind gusts were also reported.

Ski areas in the Rockies have done well from the recent snowfalls too with Vail, which has extended its season to May 1st, posting 16inches of snowfall as of yesterday, Aspen over two feet.

Two-time Olympian Jamie Nicholls has spoken in support of the Halifax dry ski slope, where he trained as a youngster. British team members at Beijing 2022, Katie Ormerod and Katie Summerhayes, also trained at the facility.

Speaking about funding for local snowsports facilities that are supported by funding from the National Lottery, Nicholls said,

"They're very important, and they are all dotted around the country. You only need to go on Google and search 'my nearest slope to snowboard' and I'm sure there's one not too far away, whether that's an indoor place or a dry slope." Snowsports have really kicked off in the UK. For a place without snow it's amazing and we've got such a good group of athletes at the Olympics currently. I'd love to see that keep going. I want to be on the sofa when I'm retired and old, still looking back and thinking what we started is still going, and I'll still be able to watch future Olympians who have started on dry slopes and indoor snow domes. That would be amazing."

Team GB and ParalympicsGB winter athletes come from a wide range of backgrounds, starting their journey at local National Lottery-funded facilities across the UK, just like the one in Halifax. James 'Woodsy' Woods also started his career in nearby Sheffield.

"I don't think we all focused on going to the Olympics. We were riding and enjoying it and it was a passion for all of us. The Olympics came about and it naturally fell into place that we'd all give it a try and try and go there - and we've all been. These facilities are open - you can go and ride there whenever you want. The beauty of Halifax, for example, is that there is always a permanent jump there. That's why I got so good, because I just rode every single night seven nights a week, for pretty much my whole childhood."

There's been heavy snowfall in the Alps as the snowy start to April, after a largely warm and dry March, continues.

However, the news isn't all good. There's also been rain at lower elevations and the forecast for the weekend is for increasingly strong winds, gusting at up to 100kmh per hour at higher elevations. The avalanche danger warning is now also high in many areas.

More than half of ski areas have already closed for winter 21-22 so it is mostly the resorts with higher slopes that are still open.

"We've had +35 cm overnight on higher slopes, conditions above 1800m are just perfect," a spokesperson for Serre Chevalier Briançon commented.

Val d'Isère, pictured today and one of the highest resorts in the Alps, reported 40 to 50cm of fresh snow in 24 hours and opened the ski slopes of Tignes and Val d'Isère gradually through the day as each was deemed safe.

"Caution, there's a strong risk of avalanche (4/5). Stay on the open slopes," a spokesperson warned.