New tours in the backcountry of Zell am See and Kaprun will be available from January in addition to the 138km of groomed piste the resorts offer.

From January 2009, experienced skiers and boarders can head for the virgin backcountry to enjoy downhill runs off the prepared pistes. This is possible thanks to Volker Hölzl and his ‘Freeride Experience’ team who will commence guided tours of the back country areas previously known only to a very few locals.

The 39-year-old Hölzl was born and bred in Zell am See and has been exploring the mountains and the deep snow of the region for many years.

From 8th January Hölzl and his colleagues Nici Winterstein, and Tom and Matthias Mayr invite guests to participate in a series of three, three-day weekend trips to the back country. Alternative dates are 15th to 18th, and 22nd to 25th January.

The weekend programme starts on Thursday. In the evening, the certified guides go through Friday’s programme in the wide open nature with the participants. The groups comprise a maximum of seven people who are taken to the backcountry by an experienced guide. But before they set out, the group is equipped with the latest Blizzard Titan Argos IQ and Titan Cronus IQ freeride equipment.

Participants are also kitted out with freeride poles, avalanche transceivers and shovels.

At 8.30 on the Friday morning the small groups, ranging from beginners to pros, go on separate routes with the guides deciding on the route depending on the conditions on the day. The tours last until 4pm approximately. For lunch, the groups drop in at an Alpine hut before Volker Hölzl accompanies his guests to the most charming inns and bars of the region in the evenings.

Participants can expect to make up to 200 runs between 700 to 3,200 metres of altitude during the weekend.

www.freeride-experience.at

Both of Andorra’s ski areas opened at the weekend with up to a metre of fresh snow on upper slopes, which some resorts are claiming is the best snow conditions they’ve seen in 40 years.

On the Spanish side of the border Baqueria Beret, one of the country’s three largest resorts, also opened. All three resorts and a dozen others in Spain, several of which – including Formigal and Sierra Nevada – had already opened a week ago, are opening at least a week ahead of schedule.

On the French side of the Pyrenees, home to another few dozen ski areas, resorts are sticking more closely to their planned opening dates despite huge falls there, with St Lary at one point reporting the biggest snowfall in Europe.

However a second major French ski area has opened, joining Tignes which has already clocked up two months of its 2008-9 season having opened in September. Val Thorens, Europe’s highest ski resort, opened on Saturday with an extensive ski test. “At the moment, we have 40 cm of snow in the resort and 70 cm on the summits and it is still snowing.” said a tourist office spokesperson.

Despite having had its earliest opening in its 80 year history with ski lifts, due to huge snowfalls a year ago, Kitzbühel has been battling to shake off an image of being a potential early victim of global warming. The resort – which has one of the lowest major ski areas in the world – had a difficult winter in 2006-7 when the famous Hahnenkamm downhill race, in common with many others in the Alps and North America, had to be cancelled. A high profile UN report on climate change also indicated that resorts like Kitzbühel might be one of the first to suffer as winters shorten and snowlines rise due to global warming.

Now the resort has hit back publishing a document entitled, “Ten Reasons For Certain Snow in The Kitzbuhel Alps.”

Among the ten reasons listed, the document states, “The average annual snowfall in Kitzbühel has remained constant since official records commenced in 1958. Each year, more than 2.5 m of snow falls in the valley, and a total of eight metres in the mountains. Anomalies such as winter 2006/07 have occurred in the past in 1989, 1972 and 1963.”

It goes further and claims, “Since 1993 the Kitzbüheler Alpen region has become markedly colder. Snowfall is now a more frequently occurrence, providing more snow, which remains longer on the ground. Hahnenkamm is covered in more than 20cm of natural snow for almost six months of the year.”

Amongst the reason for Kitzbühel’s great snow the reports points to a northwest orographic barrier at the Alpine Divide. One of the most prevalent weather conditions in the northwest is the cloud band over the Alpine Divide which generates heavy snowfall in the Kitzbühel Alps. In addition the majority of the region’s pistes are found in snow guaranteed areas in a north, north eastern or north western geographical location, where the sun dips gently, allowing the snow to last longer on the ground.

The region’s grassy slopes also offer the perfect base for snow-covered ski pistes. While ski resorts with rocky or rugged terrain require very thick layers of snow, the smooth grassy slopes of the Kitzbüheler Alpen only require a 20cm compact layer to create the perfect piste. Woods on the left and the right of the pistes prevent snowdrift.

Despite the increasing natural snowfall, the whole area has invested in 3,440 snowmaking machines (1,360 snow cannons and 2,080 snowguns), which make snow over 762 km of pistes – two-thirds of all the slopes in the wider Kitzbuhel Alps ski region.

The Kitzbüheler Alps region has an average of 157 days when the temperature drops below zero. This usually happens at night, when it invariably snows. Of these 157 days, there are 77 days (2.5 months) when the temperature never rises above zero allowing it to snow around the clock.

The snowmaking facilities in the Kitzbühel Alps were all upgraded with the latest technology last winter. This ensures that the entire ski resort of St.Johann in Tyrol can be covered in snow within a mere 60 hours. And within 72 hours, 110 km of local piste in the ski resort SkiWelt can be snow covered and prepared.