We’re another week closer to the main ski season and more big name resorts have been opening and more snow falling from Asia to North America and of course on Europe in between.
After Kitzbuhel, Les 2 Alpes, Arapahoe Basin, St Moritz and Killington opened in the past week, Arosa Lenzerheide is amongst those aiming to open this weekend.
Austria
Austria continues to have the most ski areas open of any country in the world with eight glaciers to choose from and also now Kitzbuhel, which opened terrain on its Pass Thurn sector last weekend (pictured above).
France
Les 2 Alpes (video above) has been open this week along with Tignes. Les 2 Alpes will close after this weekend until early December, leaving only Tignes open for most of November until the main season sees more French resorts opening towards the end of the month. Tignes reported fresh snow in the past week.
Italy
Three ski areas are open in Italy this weekend and there’s been fresh snow at others, including in the mighty Dolomiti Superski region, as pictured above. Cervinia, linked to Zermatt, is now open full time and a second glacier area at Val Senales is also open. It’s believed to be the last weekend of the season at Passo Stelvio which has been open all summer however.
Switzerland
(Participants in the first trip from The Snow Centre to Saas Fee as part of the new partnership with Switzerland Tourism pictured top)
Switzerland should have six areas open this weekend, second only to Austria in terms of numbers open. Joining Saas Fee and Zermatt (open since the summer or earlier), and Engelberg and the Disavolezza glacier near St Moritz (opened last week) are Glacier 3000 at Les Diablerets and the country’s first non-glacier resort to open for 16-17, Arosa Lenzerheide, thanks to a special snowmaking machine.
Scandinavia
In Scandinavia the two open resorts of Ruka in Lapland (pictured above this week) and Geilo in Norway have been snowmaking on their slopes to top up bases cleverly made from snow saved from last season!
Canada
The first ski areas are due to start open in Western Canada early in November, but some BC areas say they’ve already had a metre and a half of October snow! So things are currently looking good…
USA
Killington in Vermont (pictured above) opened on Tuesday joining Arapahoe Basin in Colorado so ski areas are now opens on both the East and West sides of the US.
New Zealand
Almost all ski areas in the southern hemisphere have ended their 2016 ski season as spring hots up south of the equator but Turoa at Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand (above) will stay open for at least one more week…
