The Alps are having a winter preview.

It’s been snowing across much of the central spine of the Alps, starting in the west and working eastwards. It’s still snowing in parts of Austria and Italy now.

South-eastern Switzerland has done well, which is great news for the Diavolezza glacier, south of St Moritz, which opens for skiing on Saturday.

Here’s how it was looking at the top of the slopes this morning.

 
And this was the view from the Nira Alpina hotel down in the Engadin valley.

 
Pictured below, is the Austrian resort of Ischgl, which hugs the border with Switzerland.

 
Below is the Ice Q restaurant, at 3000m in Solden – which gets a starring role in the upcoming 007 movie, Spectre.

 
Pictured below is Kuhtai, south west of Innsbruck.

 
And here’s a shot of the snow still falling below the Hintertux glacier in the Zillertal.

 
Meanwhile, in the west, you can see the evidence of yesterday’s snow in high-altitude Val Thorens.

 
It’s going to continue snowing in central and eastern Austria for a while – and then the storm will move back westwards across the Alps, edging into Switzerland this evening. It’ll extend into parts of Italy and France too. The latest Welove2ski snow forecasts for today and tomorrow summarise the effects.

 

 
This isn’t the start of winter. Although the snow will be settling down to 1000m in France and Switzerland tomorrow, it’s due to warm up again next week. But still: SNOW. We love it!