Moritz landscape by Plinio Colombi, with powder snow settled on trees and paths leading into distant mountains.

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Take a metre of powder snow, then melt and freeze, melt and freeze, and after eight to 10 years you have a centimetre of ice.

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Normally, visitors to this ski resort seek nothing more dynamic than pumping knee-deep powder snow or perhaps enjoying a knees-up in one of Davos's nightclubs.

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It also has lots of different exposures so there is likely to be sun or powder or wind-loaded snow somewhere.

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The snow (or "Champagne powder, " as the locals boast) is so reliable that each season, the first event of the World Cup skiing calendar is held at Lake Louise.

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All the other features are perfect too, and the current model is even better than my originals: extra-long cinch-down gauntlets mean no snow can get inside, even in the deepest powder.

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Whistler-Blackcomb is a snow enthusiast's dream, with some of the most sought-after powder in skiing and snowboarding, plus the highest vertical drop of any resort on the continent.

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As I write winter snow is pounding the Midwest and skiers in Utah and Colorado are having some late fresh powder.

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The only drawback is its snow: because the resort is only 2, 048m above sea level, there is reliable powder only in late June, July and early August, depending on the season.

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