Shiga Kogen-Yakebitaiyama: Schneevorhersage

It's still early-days but this months snowfall in the Alps appears to have laid the base for a great start to the season, with high resorts like Val Thorens saying they already have enough snow to see them through the whole season ahead. The past week has seen more big accumulations of typically 50-100cm (20-40") on high slopes, 10-20cm (4-8") at resort level, the latest is a month which began with big snowfalls too. It's all very different to the start of last season when ski areas struggled for cover below 1,800m altitude. It also comes after a warmest and dry first half of autumn/fall. Tignes is pictured above after fresh snow yesterday, Avoriaz below after a snowfall on November