The past year ended with an exceptional fall of snow over the Alps, up to the point that several touristic roads have been temporarily closed because of avalanches. And the scenario has not changed in these first weeks of the new year. I've been in the eastern Alps between the end of November and the beginning of December: at the time the exceptional snowfall hadn't occurred yet, but temperature was already very low and I could enjoy a number of frozen landscapes. It is likely I've also reached my record low temperature, at -9°C (many years ago I've been around that temperature in Burgundy).