The world’s best snow

Where can you be sure of the white stuff this winter? Here is a guide to the most reliable resorts

Many elements make up a great ski break – cosy chalets, Michelin-starred mountain restaurants, Austrian waitresses with pigtails – but there’s one thing you really can’t do without. Snow. If there isn’t any, you’ve got the makings of the world’s most alcoholic hill-walking holiday. If there’s lots, you’re in heaven. The problem lies, of course, in finding it.

Last winter in the Alps was, by common consent, a disappointing one – and, coupled with our growing anxiety about climate change, it has made everyone nervous about the conditions awaiting them on their next trip. For my part, I’m not so worried. It could be a great season – no two winters are ever the same in the mountains. And, if it isn’t, I’ve got my list of bankers to fall back on.

These are the resorts that, even in a poor winter, shouldn’t fail me. I say “shouldn’t” because there are no guarantees – but, over the years, they’ve been as reliable as they come. If you’re going to get great snow anywhere this season, chances are this is where you’ll find it.

TIGNES, France

It was the resort we loved to hate – the ugly, purpose-built “mistake”, which you only stayed in when you couldn’t afford its glitzier neighbour, Val d’Isère. Not any more. Tignes sits at 2,100 metres (with the lifts rising to 3,456 metres), and lower, less snowsure resorts are now eyeing its altitude with envy. Money is pouring in, and a rash of redevelopment has softened all those hard concrete edges. The resort has even acquired a first-rate mountain restaurant, Lo Soli – a sure sign it’s coming in from the cold.

The skiing is superb. Tignes sits in one of the most beautiful natural bowls in the Alps, with a glacier at the top end and plenty of chilly north-facing slopes. You won’t be able to see a thing if the clouds come down (almost all the slopes are above the tree line – which means you’ll be engulfed in a world of white), but when the sun’s out, everyone, from beginners to iron-nerved experts, has a ball.

Travel brief: the nearest airport is Chambéry, where a week’s car hire starts at £142 with Avis (0844 581 0147, www.avis.com). The three-star Lévanna (00 33 4 79 06 32 94, www.levanna.com; doubles from £98, half-board) is the hotel of choice. Or book a package with Erna Low (0870 750 6820, www.ernalow.co.uk), which has a week in the upmarket apartments at La Ferme du Val Claret, arriving on February 2, from £256pp, including Eurotunnel crossings.

SAAS-FEE, Switzerland

They’ve already had snow on the streets of Saas-Fee this autumn: 5cm of it towards the end of last month. It’s gone now, but there’s plenty up on its glacier, where they’ve had regular top-ups throughout the summer.

This Swiss resort isn’t just snowsure, it’s pretty, too. Strung out beneath the crevasses of the Allalin glacier, it’s a traditional, car-free village, dotted with ancient hay barns and untroubled by notions of glamour. The only problem with the place is that the glacier takes up so much room, forcing the pistes to either side of the valley. A couple of them are absolute scorchers, though, and you can ski from 3,500 metres all the way down to the village at 1,800 metres. Treat it as a short-break destination for a group of gung-ho intermediates, and it’ll do you proud.

Travel brief: the nearest airport is Sion, but most people fly into Geneva. From there, you can travel by train and bus – a return ticket costs £52, through the Switzerland Travel Centre (020 7420 4900, www.stc.co.uk). The three-star Hotel Waldesruh (00 41 27 958 6464, www.hotelalphubel.ch; doubles from £90, half-board) is unpretentious and convenient. Or book a package – outside the peak weeks of February, Easter and Christmas/New Year, a four-night break at the three-star Park Hotel starts at £365pp, half-board, including flights and transfers, with Ski Solutions (020 7471 7777, www.skisolutions.co.uk).

LECH-ZÜRS, Austria

Lech and Zürs have long been popular with the old-money set, but they’re far too snowy for the likes of you and me to ignore. Lech averages more than seven metres a season, and Zürs gets even more – the highest figures for Alist Alpine resorts.

The pistes suit intermediates best, but there’s some fantastic skiing and boarding to be done in the powder, too, and few of the regular clientele seem interested in tackling it. There’s even a first-rate terrain park, though most of the young guns with the skills to tackle it will be put off by the lack of full-throttle nightlife.

Travel brief: the nearest airport is Innsbruck, where Hertz (0870 599 6699, www.hertz.co.uk) has a week’s car hire from £198. The Pension Fortuna (00 43 5583 2424; doubles from £96, half-board) is small and offers good value. Or book a package with Made to Measure (01243 533333, www.mtmhols.co.uk), which has a week at the three-star Pension Fernsicht, arriving on February 2, for £995pp, half-board, including flights and car hire.

OBERGURGL, Austria

Obergurgl is a long way up for Austria (1,930 metres) and is about as snowsure as an Alpine resort can get without offering glacier skiing. Unusually for such a high-altitude spot, the main village is also built in a traditional style that doesn’t try to compete with the natural architecture of the mountains.

There isn’t a vast amount of skiing to be done here (the resort is home to 110km of pistes, compared with 300km in Tignes, above). But the crowds, traffic and lift queues that are a feature of most modern resorts are almost absent here. This is a place to take your foot off the gas and soak up the visual splendour in an unhurried atmosphere.

Travel brief: the nearest airport is Innsbruck (see Lech-Zürs, above). Doubles at the four-star, slopeside Hotel Jenewein (00 43 5256 6203, www.hotel-jenewein.com) start at £118, half-board. Or book a package with Inghams (020 8780 4433, www. inghams.co.uk), which has loads of options here. One week at the pension Haus Gurgl, arriving on February 2, costs £522pp, B&B, including flights and transfers.

CERVINIA, Italy

The resort itself is a scrappy, unsatisfying mess – one of the least attractive I know. But that’s only if you keep your eyes fixed on the buildings. Look up, and – Oh. My. God – there’s the southern face of the Matterhorn, towering overhead. Seen from the Italian side, Monte Cervino (as it’s known) is less elegant and more forbidding, and is all the more impressive as a result.

Beneath it stretch some of the most reliable pistes in skiing. They’re almost all above the tree line, as in Tignes (above), so you’ll be skiing by sense of smell if the clouds come down. But you’ll always find snow here, with more over the border on the glacier above Zermatt. One piste in particular makes the trip worthwhile: Red 7, which runs through 8km and 1,400 vertical metres, and is widely regarded as the best intermediate piste in skiing.

Travel brief: the nearest airport is Turin, where Budget (0844 581 9998, www.budget.co.uk) has a week’s car hire from £131. The three-star Hotel Compagnoni (00 39 0166 94 90 68; doubles from £91, B&B) is the best mid-priced place in town. Or book a package with Crystal (0870 160 6040, www.crystalholidays.co.uk), which has a week at the Club Hotel Petit Palais, arriving on February 3, for £615pp, half-board, including flights and transfers.

SAN CASSIANO, Italy

These days, not all snow falls out of the sky. Large quantities of the stuff are sprayed from snow cannons, too, and the developing technology has vastly improved the consistency of the skiing in resorts all over the world.

Nowhere is this man-made cover better than in the resorts of the Dolomites. Here, the locals have discovered that their cold but dry climate is ideally suited to snow-making, and now 90% of the region’s pistes are protected.

Sounds a bit fake? Well, it’s worth bearing in mind that every course in World Cup skiing is prepared with man-made snow – and if it’s good enough for Hermann Maier and Bode Miller, we probably shouldn’t grumble. Besides, the quality of the stuff has improved enormously in recent years. Most skiers won’t notice the difference.

San Cassiano is a great base from which to explore the area. It’s a small, underdeveloped village that offers a deep slice of la dolce vita to complement the easy skiing.

Travel brief: the nearest airport is Innsbruck (see Lech-Zürs, above). To get the full flavour of the place, stay in the luxurious Hotel Rosa Alpina (00 39 0471 849500, www.rosalpina.it; doubles from £140, B&B) whose restaurant was recently awarded a second Michelin star. Or book a package with Momentum Ski (020 7371 9111, www.momentumski.com), which has a week at the Rosa Alpina, arriving on February 2, for £995pp, half-board, including flights and car hire.

SNOWBIRD and ALTA, Utah

They call it the Lake Effect. It’s the kink in the Utah climate that means storms suck up moisture from the Great Salt Lake and dump it on the Wasatch mountains beyond. Right in the firing line is Little Cottonwood Canyon, and, as a result, the resorts wedged between its narrow walls – Snowbird and Alta – have clocked up exceptional snowfall averages. Snowbird’s is 38ft in a winter, Alta’s 43ft.

A handful of resorts in North America post higher figures, but none can match the Snowbird-Alta offering of a big ski area, decent lifts and steep, craggy terrain. The only drawback is Alta’s refusal to admit snowboarders, a weird throwback to the days when the sport was seen as a “killer craze”. Haven’t you heard, guys? The two sides made peace years ago.

Travel brief: fly to Salt Lake City and get a shuttle up the mountain (£14pp; www.altashuttle.com). The Inn at Snowbird (www.snowbird.com) has doubles from £66, room-only. Or book a package with Ski Independence (0845 310 3030; www.ski-i.com), which has a week at the Lodge at Snowbird, arriving on February 2, for £1,280pp, room-only, including flights and transfers.

ASPEN, Colorado

Another way of ensuring your snow is good is to target an underused upmarket resort. Of course, that doesn’t guarantee new snow, but what there is will be well groomed, and won’t be chopped up into a cruddy, bumpy mess by thousands of skiers. Fact is, many of us prefer perfectly groomed pistes to deep snow anyway, and will be happier in these conditions than in a foot of fresh powder.

Aspen is a classic of the genre. It may be one of the most famous names in skiing, but the life is slowly being squeezed out of it by the rapacious second-homes market. Outside the weeks of Christmas, New Year and Presidents’ Weekend (February 16-18 next year), the vast billionaires’ dens are empty – and so are those expensively manicured slopes. It’s absurd, really, given the quality of the pistes, which are north-facing, the altitude (the skiing lies between 12,500ft and 8,000ft) and a respectable snowfall average. It’s simply ideal for intermediates – so no wonder that, once they’ve skied here, many Brits never want to go anywhere else.

Travel brief: Aspen has its own airport, reached from the UK via Chicago. From there, take a taxi into town. The Durant (00 1 970 925 8500, www.durantaspen.com; doubles from £75) is one of the last good cheapish B&Bs. Or book a package with Ski Safari (01273 224060, www.skisafari.com), which has a week at the central Hotel Lenado, arriving on February 2, for £1,279pp, B&B, including flights.

WHISTLER, British Columbia

Normally, I wouldn’t mention Whistler in this company. North America’s biggest, most bustling resort can be impressively snowy, thanks to the big storms that can blow in from the Pacific – last November, for example, it was blanketed by 13ft in a single month – but the maritime climate can swing either way, and the resort has endured plenty of snow droughts and heat waves in recent seasons.

So, why does it get a mention here? Because this winter there’s an anomaly known as La Niña brewing in the ocean, and it looks set to deliver a snowy season to the resort. It’s not guaranteed, but the signs are good. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the American equivalent of the Met Office, says it anticipates a wetter-than-average start to the winter in the Pacific northwest, which means snow at altitude. If its forecast is right, then Whistler’s exceptional variety of terrain and highly motivated ski school should come into their own.

Travel brief: Vancouver is the nearest airport, and transfers on the Perimeter express bus (www.whistlerblackcomb.com) cost £33 each way. For spacious accommodation near the slopes, try the Pan Pacific Mountainside (00 1 604 905 2999, www.panpacific.com; doubles from £170, room-only). Or book a package with Frontier Travel (020 8776 8709, www.frontier-travel. co.uk), which has a week at the Listel Whistler Hotel, arriving on February 2, for £1,081pp, room-only.

For more details of all these resorts, visit www.welove2ski.com

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