In reply to TobyA:
Well as you probably saw on the news, the huge dump the Alps have been waiting for finally came at the weekend. We went from bare rock/grass to 50cm solid base in 48 hours. With the huge amount of fresh and high winds you take your life in your hands venturing off piste right now though.
I did a 6km XC ski loop in our local forests with the dog this morning - was around -10 and the first time I'd been out this year so wasn't the best. I plan to do a longer run tomorrow with the skating skis (wasn't sure of the state of the trails so stuck to classic today, but they're perfect right now).
Our lift-served pistes are open now but I need to work for the next two days (torture as I can see people being dragged up the lifts from my office window) - the weather should be better on NYE (still really cold, but clear and sunny) so looking forward to some skiing.
May drive over to Superdévoluy (100km of pistes) on NY day depending on the hangover to do some actual snowboarding (our pistes are only drag lifts, so prefer skiing them).