If you’re still dithering over whether to go skiing this winter, here’s our advice: drop everything, book a deal and go, because for years to come, wistful skiers will look back on the 2008-09 season as the one when the only things heavier than the snowfalls were the discounts.

Huge demand at the back end of the 2007-08 season prompted overoptimistic tour operators to overstock for this season. Then the economic avalanche struck, leaving thousands of holidays unsold during - ironically - a season of fine snowfalls.

The dearth of bookings has led to a blizzard of cost-cutting, with many ski holidays now discounted by 50% or more. Skiworld (0844 493 0430, skiworld.ltd.uk) is offering half-price chalets in Vail, Les Arcs, Méribel , Courchevel and Mayrhofen. The family ski specialist Esprit (01252 618300, www.espritski.com ) has even more staggering discounts: a week at the Chalet Sonnenalp, in Kaprun, Austria, leaving next Saturday, is £699 for a family of four, including flights - if you’d booked when the brochure came out, you’d have paid £649pp - and a week for a family of four at the Chalet Verwall, in Obergurgl, also in Austria, leaving on March 22, is down to £995 from £2,626.

Thomson Ski (0871 231 5612, thomsonski.co.uk) has a self-catering week in St Jean d’Arves, France, for £139pp, and Neilson (0870 333 3356, www.neilson.co.uk) is giving away ski passes in Bulgaria, France and Spain.

Next winter, however, will be very different. Prices will be higher, as operators stung by the collapse of sterling pass on the extra costs to the consumer. There will also be less choice, as some of the smaller, more vulnerable ski operators shut up shop and those companies that remain offer fewer holidays.

Crystal Finest’s 2009-10 brochure provides a taste of fees to come. The price for Christmas week 2008 at the Hotel Seizena, in Courchevel, France, was £1,055pp. Next Christmas, it will be £1,319. A week at the Rimrock resort in Banff, Canada, which cost £599pp this January, has gone up to £879 in January 2010 (0871 231 5670, www.crystalfinest.co.uk ).

If you need more persuasion, did we mention the snow? It’s still falling, with more than two metres reported in Austria, ski lifts buried in the Pyrenees and, in Mammoth, California, dumps so deep that small trees have been buried, posing a hazard to skiers.

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