Briton found dead in ski resort

A 24-year-old British man has been found dead in a ski resort, the Foreign Office said.

Police believe Paul Rea wandered off and got lost in freezing temperatures after becoming separated from friends on a night out in Pas de la Casa in Andorra. His body was discovered on Friday covered in snow in the Envalira tunnel close to the French border.

A spokesman for police in Andorra told Spanish news agency Europa Press the body showed "no signs of violence" and it was likely Mr Rea died of hypothermia. He said police believed he became "disorientated" and headed off in the wrong direction away from the centre of the resort.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are aware of the death of a British national in Andorra on March 12. "Next of kin are aware. We are providing consular assistance and a post-mortem is under way."

Still snowing in Spain

Skiers in the Spanish and Andorran resorts enjoyed a late season dusting of fresh powder over the weekend, promising good conditions for Easter.

10cm of fresh snow fell on Monday in Formigal, Spain’s largest resort, on top of an upper slope base of 230cm. Over the border in Andorra, our featured resorts also enjoyed some fresh snow on Sunday but this has not dramatically changed the skiing as typical spring conditions still dominate. It's predominantly sunny this week, which means that although the snow is firm in the mornings, it will soften during the day, especially on the lower and south facing slopes. However the good news is that temperatures are forecast to remain around freezing until next weekend maintaining the good snow conditions. Cloudy weather is also expected for the middle of the week, which could deliver further fresh snowfalls.

The Vallnord resort of Arcalis is reporting the deepest snow base depths (140/250cm), but all of the other Andorran resorts we report on have at least a metre of snow on their lower pistes and around two metres on their upper slopes. Formigal is offering free lift passes with to all new bookings until the end of the season, which has been extended by another two weeks into May thanks to the great snow conditions.

Heavy snowfalls in Pyrenees bury ski lift

Cauterets ski area in the French Pyrenees has been digging out its ski lifts after recent heavy snowfalls, and the Andorran resorts have also benefitted from last week's heavy snow.

The ski area of Cauterets has reported receiving more than five feet (160cm) of snow between 11th and 12th February and a further 280cm over the following 7 days! The resort is currently reporting an impressive snow depth of 450cms on the upper slopes at 2415m.

Conditions are generally pretty good in the French Pyrenees and Andorra at the moment following the heavy snow last week. The sun is out but the pistes are remaining firm and are perfect for those wanting to fine tune their technique, with the greatest piste depth in Andorra to be found in the Vallnord resort of Arcalis (270cm on upper slopes).

The Pyrenees, which contains about 60 ski areas in France, Spain and Andorra, has had a particularly memorable winter with big snowfalls through the season. It’s good news for the region which has seen a slight drop in the numbers of British visitors over the last three seasons (from 7% in 05/06 to 4% in 07/08) but with this bumper snow figures should be back on the rise.