Switzerland has overtaken Austria to become the country with the most ski areas open in the world at present – although its lead is expected to be short lived.
After ski areas at southern hemisphere nations began to close down in late September and seven Austrian glacier ski areas opened Austria was reporting the most ski areas through October and the start of this month.
At the weekend though, although Kitzbuhel became the eighth Austrian resort to open, Switzerland saw three more centres open, taking its tally to ten, the first in the world to reach double figures for the 25-26 season.
The newly opened Swiss centres are Arosa, Davos and Gstaad's Glacier 3000 ski area. They join already open Adelboden, Engelberg, Murren, Saas-Fee, St Moritz (Diavolezza Glacier) Verbier and Zermatt.
Andermatt will be the eleventh Swiss area to open this coming weekend.
However most Swiss areas are currently only operating at weekends through November.
It's also likely the USA will overtake Switzerland in the next few days. Despite several resorts in California and Utah delaying opening last weekend due to conditions, it reached seven areas open, mostly in Colorado, last weekend.
With colder weather in the Midwest and East leading to half-a-dozen ski areas there announcing imminent openings and more scheduled openings this weekend its likely that number will at least double, probably triple, by this coming Friday/Saturday.