This winter the ski industry has been cursing the British media for painting such a bleak, one dimensional picture of snow conditions in the Alps. If you skied post-February above 1800m, you will know that the reports were little more than scaremongering and that for most skiing holidays in the French Alps conditions weren't half bad, if you didn’t, check out the following article that appeared in The Telegraph on 31st March for a more balanced view of a ski season “that started badly but improved at altitude”.



The snow lies deep across much of the Alps this weekend, with skiers and snowboarders enjoying groomed pistes and perfect powder in the higher resorts. This season has been described as the worst for winter sports in two generations, but, as it moves into its final month, reports of the demise of European skiing are greatly exaggerated.



Popular destinations from Val d'Isère and Les Arcs to Zermatt, Cervinia, and St Anton are currently in superb shape and are at their best for the time of year. I am off as usual today with my family to Vaujany in France, where we have spent the first week of April for the past dozen years. Conditions are reported to be good - even better than last year.



At 1,250m in April in this delightful corner of the Dauphiné I expect wild flowers rather than snow on the meadows above the ancient farming village. The higher runs going up to 3,330m are coated with a substantial 250cm of cover, while neighbouring Alpe d'Huez has more than a metre in town.



But because of the entrenched public belief that snow has generally failed to materialise in the Alps this winter, tour operators have suffered from a surfeit of empty beds.



So what kind of a winter has it really been? There has been plenty of snow in parts of the Alps this winter, but it has by no means fallen evenly. Most lowland resorts in Austria, as well as parts of France and much of Switzerland, have had some of the worst overall skiing conditions since 1963-64.