THE SEASON SO FAR...

Although temperatures have warmed up things over the last week or so, the season has started well, with snow conditions good or better in most French resorts.

La Rosiere from Clocheret lift, Les Arcs

For a good overview of some of the snow depths in key resorts, click here.

And to look in a little more detail at your favourite resort, you have the strangely addictive www.snoweye.com at your disposal.

Nightmare start to the season goes to La Giettaz in the Aravis.  The two new chairlifts planned for this season did not open in time for the Christmas and New Year holidays...

In Les Arcs, there's not too much new to report, although the upmarket Edenarc development is continuing its slow move up the slopes.

Les Arcs is of course one of the many resorts whose lifts are controlled by the giant Compagnie des Alpes, and they have declared war on the so-called lits froids, and plans to buy up ageing apartments ready for renting out or re-sale.  Les 2 Alpes, Serre Chevalier and Les Menuires are also on the hit list here.

At La Plagne, there is much change at Plagne Centre in terms of both lifts and an upgraded shopping centre: see www.perso-laplagne.fr for regular updates.

And there are more developments on the way....

Further up the Tarentaise, La Rosière will truly be a Premiership resort when 40kms of new lifts open in 2016/17.

Meanwhile, €140m of investment is going into 10 new lifts at Courchevel and La Tania; more here.

Away from the Tarentaise, Avoriaz is udergoing a significant makeover.  Again we see a move towards bigger apartments.  In contrast to Les Arcs, the original architect is still overseeing things.

At the other end of the spectrum, Saint-Hugues in the Chartreuse is up and running, with its bargain €10 day pass offering something completely different.

WHERE TO SKI? Winners and Losers 1995-2013

The excellent Where to Ski and Snowboard 2013 is now available - it's easily the best guide to resorts, their rude comments about Les Arcs' architecture notwithstanding.

As its name suggests, it's an annual publication, which first appeared in 1995.  A look at that first book tells us which resorts have maintained and/or strengthened their position, and which are on the wane, at least in the British market.

One change, of course, has been in the title of the book - the original guide did not include the word "Snowboard", although there was a chapter devoted to the growth of "Le Surf", as the French used to call it.

"It is estimated that by the year 2000, 

one in three people riding the lifts 

will be a snowboarder"

Not sure if the snowboarder ratio ever got to quite that level; certainly in Les Arcs last year, the number wasn't getting much above 10%.

Back to the resorts.  Then - and now - the bulk of the guide is devoted to chapters on the main destination.  There were more chapters in 1995 than in the latest edition, with the net effect being there are more resorts who have "lost" their individual chapters than there are winners/newcomers.

In France, the winners - each now proudly boasting their own chapter - are Samoens, La Tania and Les Gets.  The losers are La Clusaz, Les Contamines, Valloire, Isola 2000 and Valmorel.

In Austria, the main winner this year is Soelden.  It was in the original guide, but then lost its place, and has now been rightly restored as "Austria's best kept secret", with its 130km of pistes, near-2000m vertical descent and, er, varied nightlife.

Hochsoelden

WTSS 2013 also gives good coverage to the Vorarlberg region.

A number of Austrian resorts are no longer covered in detail - the most notable perhaps being Zell am See, Zell am Ziller and St Johann in Tirol.  Each were mainstays of the ski brochures during the 1980s and 1990s.

Other Austrian resorts no longer covered include BKK, Fieberbrunn, Galtur, Innsbruck and Niederau.

In Italy, Bormio is out, with Passo Tonale and the Trentino region on the rise, each boasting a chapter for 2013.

Finally, Switzerland.  Arosa, Flims, Lenzerheide and Les Diablerets no longer justify a chapter.  The rising star is clearly the Val d'Anniviers, with four pages now devoted to Zinal, Grimentz et al.