Can beginners snowboard in Switzerland in October? Is it worth going?

My husband and I are travelling to Italy in October 2012 and we were wondering if we can possibly get around 3 days of snowboarding in during our trip. The dates we are looking at are the 8th to the 12th of October.

We are only beginners (we just came back from our first trip to Whistler at the beginning of this month), so we'd be wanting to board beginner runs and have a lesson on our first day.

Is it worthwhile going in October?
What are prices like at this time of year? Is it expensive (keeping in mind that we are Australians, so the Swiss Franc is on par with our dollar at the moment)?
Is the snow "soft" enough in Switzerland at this time of year for beginners (i.e how much ice will I be landing on?)?
Or would it be best to leave Switzerland for another time and just put our $$$$ towards a New Zealand snow trip next July? (It's quite hard to find info about Swiss ski packages etc on Australian travel sites etc; Canada BC, Japan and New Zealand trips are the most popular amongst Aussies).

Thanks!

You would be limited to some of the glaciers in October. This means very, very limited skiing, at very high altitude on uncertain snow (mainly ice).

It would be a real gamble for you.

You could get fresh snow, you could get atrocious weather, you could get sunshine - anything really.

If it were me I would save the money to ski during the core season (whether Northern or Southern hemisphere) and use your time in Italy for other activities.

panda_girl wrote:Is it worthwhile going in October?

If you need guaranteed snow, and "easy" conditions then - probably - no.

There is just no way of knowing what snow there will be in The Alps in 8 months time.

...but if you're happy to roll the dice a little... DO IT!

You might end up walking grassy Alpine meadows, or you might be up to your knees in powder. TBH, you won't know which until the week before.

Warren Smith runs his ski academy courses in Saas Fee every summer and they regularly seem to get good conditions. This is a video taken in July 2011 ...

Thank you both so much! I think we'll commit to spending our time to seeing the sights in Italy ... I'd love nothing more than to go snowboarding again, but my butt requires soft powder to land on!! I'll save my pennies to visit New Zealand instead. Thanks!

Last summer was quite exceptional - I kept getting powder alerts from various resorts in July and August. It has been raining a lot in Switzerland (I don't think we had a week without rain) and all this rain fell as snow at altitude. But then we had a very warm September and a warm (and dry) October. And when I arrived in a resort beginning of December most of the slopes were brown with only one run open. I would say, save the money and ski during main season.

have a look at Cervinia..they advertise preski from October...and are high...very very high

http://www.cervinia.it/pages/Giornalieri_plurigiornalieri_i_en/464?#ixMainSection

daved wrote:have a look at Cervinia..they advertise preski from October...and are high...very very high

http://www.cervinia.it/pages/Giornalieri_plurigiornalieri_i_en/464?#ixMainSection

Yeah, but when there is no snow it doesn't matter how high the resort is; that's the main problem. High altitude preserves the snow for longer that's why it's preferable for the end of the season trips, but this snow needs to fall first and early season/pre-season record is very mixed in this respect. Can be powder and can be sheets of ice.

Its not how high the resort is ...its the fact that they have a glacier and it snows there(on the Monte Rosa) in the middle of summer