The Southern French alps is seeing some snow at the moments as temperatures hit freezing over much of Europe. I was out in the Chartreuse on Saturday and at 2000 meters the conditions were artic. Austrai, Romania and Bulgaria have had a lot of snow. At the Chalet Capra (1500 meters) on the main 7C highway in Romania’s Fagaras mountains there has been 40cm of snow and there is a risk of avalanche.

In Austria a search for a missing 47 year old Hungarian hiker has been abandonned for the moment due to poor weather. The avalanche occured around 15h00 on Saturday at 1800 m in the Hochschwab. Rescuers had been confronted by drifts up to 3 meters deep in places. They are hoping to restart the search on Wednesday with the arrival of better weather.

http://www.networld.at/index.html?/articles/0742/10/186775.shtml

http://forums.ski.com.au/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=290682&page=1#Post290682

Looks like there is some great touring in Austria at the moment. It is cold here in Switzerland where I am today but no sign of snow - although it has got pretty cloudy over the last couple of days.

The Italian’s have managed to put their snowboards on down in the Maritime Alpes at the col du Larche (just over the border from France).

http://www.gulliver.it/2007/index.php?modulo=itinerari&template=dettaglio&n_area=1&id_gita=352