Today’s my birthday So, as a perfect gift we got a surreal amount of snow overnight. It might also be about the last time we ski in the Grand Massif for a while as we’re selling our apartment there.

There’s been an incredible amount of snow fallen in just a few hours overnight. It’s really not at all unusual to get some late season snow but I really can’t recall the last time we got so much at such a low altitude.

Watching French TV last night there were reports of some chaos on the autoroute between Lyon and Grenoble but I was still pretty surprised to see so much snow overnight.

Below 1500m the snow was a little heavy but above it was incredibly good.

Our flat is at around 1100m and we got a lot of snow at that height and below, so much that for the second time this season and the first time ever at Morillon we need snow chains to get out the village.

We were up in Zinal staying at the Hotel Besso to have another look at the area. Spring is arriving in the Valais and it was a really nice evening in the Val d’Anniviers as we arrived.

Zinal is a small picturesque old village at the end of the Val d’Anniviers. Further up the valley is the Matterhorn and the view is always dominated by impressive peaks. We were staying at the Hotel Besso in Zinal and managed to try La Ferme which is one of the local restaurants and Le Pub which is a good local bar.

There was a frost over night and Saturday morning the snow was in excellent condition. The best slopes were the north facing ones and a couple were just excellent, hard packed to point of a being little icy and steep.