• Spring is usually the best time to make a guided descent between the glacial crevasses of the spectacular Vallée Blanche above Chamonix. The most commonly-skied route starts beneath the sharp spire of the Aiguille du Midi and runs for more than 14 miles. It is well within the capabilities of skiers able to make basic parallel turns, though you may need to screw up your courage for the initial walk down steps cut into a narrow spine of snow from the lift, for which you are normally roped up and provided with crampons.
Budget self-drive packages to the resort for the week leading up to Easter are still available from Eurotunnel Motoring Holidays (0870 3332001). Three sharing self-catering accommodation would pay £110 a head (£165 each for two). The firm has other late deals in the French Alps. Four people sharing a self-catering studio for seven nights starting on April 7 in Flaine, for example, would pay £98 a head. Two sharing would pay £196 each. Similar accommodation is on offer in Méribel at £123 for each of four or £245 if two share. And a week starting next Saturday (March 31) in La Tania, which is connected by gondola lift to the Trois Vallées, costs £93 a head for four in a two-room apartment or £185 for two. All prices include Channel Tunnel crossings.
• Long weekends in late April, allowing three full days of skiing in the French Alps, are available from Thomson. Four resorts are on offer - Val d'Isère, Tignes, Val Thorens and Courchevel. Departures are on April, with prices starting at £229. That gets you flights from Gatwick to Lyon, a hire car and chalet accommodation with breakfast, packed lunch and dinner with wine. Travel arrangements are flexible. If you are prepared for a late-night drive, you could, for example, do a full day's work on a Thursday and fly out at 7.10pm, arriving at 9.45pm.
• Last-minute deals to Italy are available from Inghams (020-8780 4400). The firm is offering one-week chalet packages to Selva for £259 and half-board hotel holidays in Livigno for £269. The former is part of the enormous Sella Ronda network in the Dolomites, where a single lift pass covers nearly 740 miles of pistes connected by 464 lifts. The latter, which is most suitable for intermediates and where snow conditions were reported to be excellent this week, is close to the Swiss border. In both cases, flights are from Gatwick and prices are based on two sharing accommodation, which will be allocated on arrival.
• Free lift passes worth up to £100 a time are on offer to customers buying early April packages in the French resort of Courchevel from Flexiski (0870 9090754). The deal applies to bookings at the Hotel de la Croisette in Courchevel 1850 between April 5 and 19. Four nights (April 5 - 9) cost £625 and a week (April 5 - 12) is £715. Prices include flights from Heathrow, Gatwick or London City, accommodation and breakfast.
• Zermatt should still offer good conditions in the run up to Easter, at least on the upper slopes. Powder Byrne (020-8246 5300) still has holidays available there with departures from Heathrow on April 8. One week's half-board costs from £829. The firm offers various arrangements for parents wanting to ski without their children. Creches for children between six months and three years cost £150 a week and clubs for four to nine-year-olds and 10 to 14s for £265 and £245 respectively.
