Once again, the ski resorts of Europe and North America are starting their countdown to winter. The first snows have fallen on the summits, the golf clubs are being packed away, the skis dusted down and tour operators are busy finalising plans for the forthcoming season. At Ski Solutions, we have kept our ears to the ground for news of exciting new chalet developments, and are delighted to share with you our pick of the crop for the forthcoming winter season.

Val d’ Isere

Designed with couples and small groups in mind, featuring a choice of menu, free beer fridge, breakfast and cleaning every day, hot-tubs, cinema room and priority ski guiding. This concept experience combines the best features of a chalet and hotel holiday into one exceptional package.

Package Prices from £819pp

Ski Solutions Deal:Save £100pp 9^th- 30th Jan, 6th Feb and 20th & 27th March .

Arabba

For catered chalet fans looking to ski in Italy, the options have previously been rather limited. This year, we have the beautiful Dolomite resort of Arabba as an option for groups of between 6 and 12 persons. The chalets are located two minutes from the resort centre, and five from the gondola.

Package Prices from £549pp

Ski Solutions Deal:2 for 1 ski hire or free ski carriage on every departure date

Verbier

For a resort with an abundance of chalet riches, it is remarkable how few quality properties become available to the UK package market. This fully-en suite, freestanding chalet is one minute from the slopes and three minutes from the Medran lift.

Package Prices from £549pp

Ski Solutions Deal:2 for 1 lift passes on January departure dates

With a technical innovation that allows more freedom of movement but sacrifices nothing in precision or skiing performance, the Quest promises to be the first truly high-performance all-mountain boot ever built.

The technology: Salomon’s Ride and HIke - the very first of its kind.

Switzerland’s two open glacier ski areas have seen remarkable August snowfalls with Saas Fee reporting 45cm of new snow on Sunday, with more falling since, including another 5cm yesterday. Neighbouring Zermatt, the only area open 365 days and home to Europe’s highest lifts, reported healthy snowfalls too. Saas Fee describes current conditions as “packed powder” and has a 1.6m base with Terrain Park and half pipe open. Both resorts set off Powder Alarms on Skiinfo.com, triggered for snowfall of 20cm or more, obviously a rare event in August. Zermatt triggered another powder alarm on Tuesday with another 28cm of snow reported.

SYNERGY SNOWSPORTS is a unique Snowboard and Ski Company offering holiday's and camps with British instructors in Switzerland's Davos Klosters resort. The SYNERGY team are all BASI qualified UK natives who are passionate about delivering the very best coaching experience in the world.

One of our favourites, the HOTEL PLATTENHOF has a great offer for Lech fans. From just £675 pp, you can enjoy a four-night break in this comfortable four-star hotel at the foot of the slopes on selected dates in March. (Prices include scheduled flights and car hire.). Just call our A LA CARTE team on 020 7471 7777 for details of this and other GREAT HOTEL OFFERS .

February skiers have been enjoying some great conditions - though maybe not the blue skies they had hoped for. Whilst there have been some great days, there has been no sustained period of high pressure over the Alps this winter and so the snow that has falled every few days has been well preserved - great news for March skiers! Call us NOW for some GREAT DEALS...

Lift companies across the Alps have been busy this Summer investing in new lifts and improvements. Below is a round-up of our findings:

FRANCE
La Plagne/Les Arcs
The Vanoise Express is back in action! Repairs to this key link between the two resorts have been completed and testing is underway to ensure that the life is working for Winter 08/09.

Good news for skiers heading to resorts such as Zermatt , Saas Fee, Verbier or Crans Montana this winter is that a new flight route from Stansted to Sion has been launched. Scheduled to operate on both Saturdays and Sundays throughout the winter and with civilised flight times (Dep 10.00 STN - Dep 14.00 Sion), this flight is bound to prove a popular choice so early booking is advisable. Call us now for details...

Six of the first 11 hotels in France to be awarded five star status are in Courchevel . A recent change to French accommodation assessment has allowed hotels to claim 'five star' status in line with the maximum level in most countries around the world. The hotels now rated five star are the Amanresorts Mélézin, Annapurna, Les Airelles, Cheval Blanc, Kilimandjaro and the Lana .