It’s another perfect day. A good re-freeze, cool air, warm sun, and fabulous skiing off-piste and on.

If you think our photographer has gone a bit uncontroversial, he has copped some flak recently about everything from not showing enough people in helmets to British bottoms and pretty blondes… Yes, of course we think people should have helmets (as well as kevlar body armour, self-inflating sumo suits and a little boy with a red flag walking ahead). And yes, of course the elegant lady in the perfectly-fitting one-piece with the well-kempt husband may have been from Bolton. And no, Kevin (and all other Kevins), Georgeous George doesn’t get a third ‘G’. Just ask our prettiest chalet girl.

So, anyway, here’s a nice view of Solaise.

The first skier came down the Plan this morning as the church bells were striking nine. Today is our thirteenth sunny day in succession, but it’s the last: we’re forecast snow tonight and crappy weather all week. (We didn’t put it quite like that to the arriving guests on our coaches yesterday. We mumbled something about ‘fresh powder’…)

The big excitement in Val d’Isère today is not in the background, which is just a few lucky people enjoying the usual gorgeous weather, wonderful snow and empty pistes, but in the foreground: our photographer has finally found comfortable ski boots! After thirty-three seasons of pain and frustration, mostly in unbuckled boots, frequently in unmatching boots, in every model from wax-injected Hansons to foam-injected Langes, on every base from orthotic footbeds to saucepanfuls of melted candles, in liners cut away so his sock met the shell, or shells cut away so his toes met the air outside, our man thinks he has finally sorted himself out.

Do ski boots make your life hell? Would you like to know the secret solution? Watch this space tomorrow…

If you have exceptional aesthetic awareness, total recall and a boring life you may remember our shot from the winter solstice, showing the sun rising behind the Solaise cable car station. Look where it rose this morning! Conditions are incredible, the forecast is for a week of wall-to-wall sunshine, the pistes are empty, we’re selling off our remaining March holidays for less than they cost us, and you can’t think of an excuse to join us? One can overestimate one’s indispensability. When our photographer last asked his employer, staff, spouse and children whether they’d miss him for a week, they held a whip-round to help him pay…

10cm of snow had fallen by dawn this morning, and we’re forecast another 30cm or so today - one of those Val d’Isère specials, where the snow comes from the east and we’re the only people to get it. Other ski areas must be spitting, because the warmth across the Alps last weekend turned the snow slushy up to about 3,000m, and by yesterday the slopes were getting icy. A foot of fresh powder will bury the ice nicely. We’ll send you a picture tomorrow or Monday. If you’re going skiing anywhere else this season, you should probably unsubscribe…

If you had to define heaven on earth, wouldn’t it be this? A wonderful, sunny morning, the air at -15º, the OK empty, a race on the Raye, the snow perfect corduroy with just a handful of tracks? Our photographer was fascinated by the carve lines in the foreground, and finally decided that they had been made by a BASI instructor on twin tips, which would explain the extreme wide stance and thick tracks. But what had caused the scrape marks between the skis? Then a skidoo zoomed past, and he understood.

This is the magnificent view of the Face de Bellevarde from our Chalet Grand Paradis this morning.

Don’t wipe your glasses or tap your screen: that’s really how it looks. It’s still snowing. And freezing (-21º up high!). The first half of February will have been one of the least sunny ever, which is tough on the racers, organisers, spectators and YSE guests here this week, but brilliant for those of you coming out later in the season.

Somewhere in the snow is a girl racing down the Face in the Ladies’ Giant Slalom. Our photographer couldn’t see a thing, so he retired to the Bar des Sports and got a much better view on Eurosport. And a vin chaud. Chemmy looked good. Well, Chemmy always looks good, in spite of the GB catsuit which gives our racers red, white and blue-striped bums like mandrills…

Some bright spark had the idea of offering sleigh rides in Val d’Isère this week. The horse seems about as thrilled with the idea as the tourists do, especially in today’s blizzard…

These are our slopeside chalets Petite and Grande Bayème, disappearing under the latest amazing snowfall. 30cm have already settled today, and we’re expecting a metre by tomorrow evening when this weather system moves on. There’s still more powder forecast for Monday, cloud for Tuesday, then sunshine on Wednesday.

The photographer was actually up to his chest in snow to get this shot! If you can handle bottomless powder on empty slopes, we still have three or four rooms free from Sunday, a little more on 1 February, and a handful of chalets from 8 February, including Grande Bayème, which is practically between the men’s and ladies’ courses of the upcoming World Championships. While the first week of February is always one of the quietest of the season, the pistes are normally quite busy during the second week, when one third of French schools are on holiday. Not this year! Every bed in town is taken by a racer or racer chaser, and there’s going to be razzmatazz in the village, but no-one on the slopes.

Another lorryload of snow heads off to be dumped in the river. You’d think there’d be a better use for it. Shouldn’t they sell it to Méribel or something?