With milder temperatures becoming prevalent across continental Europe, piste conditions in all resorts are beginning to show signs of wear, and lower slopes in particular are becoming very heavy and slushy, although uppermost runs remain in reasonably good condition.
So if you're going skiing this St Patrick's weekend, our advice is to stay high. This week will see fresh falls of snow across the Alps of between 10 to 50 cm, with the heaviest accumulations in the French, Swiss and Italian Alps.
Rain has fallen on lower runs in all the Andorran resorts in recent days, and conditions at resort levels are pretty heavy. However, snow has fallen at higher altitudes and conditions on upper runs remain relatively good with snow depths of up to 160 cm at mountain-top level.
Best conditions in Switzerland are to be found at altitude, both in terms of snow depths and piste conditions. Lower runs in most resorts are now beginning to wear thin and are becoming slushy by mid-afternoon; however, upper runs in resorts such as Andermatt and St Moritz are offering good conditions at present.
Italian resorts such as Cervinia and Courmayeur have received fresh falls of snow over the weekend, although accumulations were modest. Warmer weather has meant that this has fallen as rain below elevations of about 1600 m. Conditions at mid-mountain level and higher are still pretty good, and all links in the Milky Circuit remain fully open.
Snow Reports provided by snowpiste.com