Livigno is the latest Italian ski area to announce it will open earlier than planned, this coming weekend, on Saturday18th November. That's a fortnight ahead of its planned date of the 2nd December.
It joins Madonna di Campiglio and the Presena Glacier which also plan to start their seasons early, this weekend, thanks to all the early November snowfall. Livigno has had over a metre of snow on its highest slopes, posting separate powder alarms for 50cm and 45cm of snowfall in two 24 hour periods over the past few weeks.
Four Italian ski areas have already opened, including Cervinia, which now offers year-round access to the glacier skiing above Zermatt, but on Tuesday also saw the first runs opening on the Italian side of the border for this season too.
Sulden has the most terrain open in the country so far with 15km of runs and two ski areas have opened in the dolomites in the past few days, Cortina d'Ampezzo and the 3 Zinnen Dolomites area, each with less than 3km of slopes available initially.
The French ski season gets underway on Saturday too with Tignes and Val Thorens opening early. Austria and Switzerland should both have at least 10 areas open from this weekend.