As for your last sentence... i've been skiing every year for the past 15 years to the alps. 1 week each year. Do you know how many times I have seen it snow in those 15 weeks ? once, and about an inch. Every single week I choose to go, it's dry and sunny. Don't get me wrong it's nice to ski in the sun, but I want to see a massive dumping of snow atleast once in my life. I just got back from Les Arcs last week, and then the day after I got back they had 60cm of fresh snow fall. Even last year when they had a huge amount of snow and 3 meter high drifts, I still managed to choose the dry week