Kitzbuhel
More than 30 ski areas will be open in the Alps this weekend, including several that have opened early as a result of up to three feet (90cm) of snow falling over the past week, according to reports from snow reporting agency www.skiinfo.co.uk.
Austria will have 10 ski areas open, eight of them glacier areas but also Schladming (which opened last weekend) and Kitzbuhel (which opens on Saturday, October 30th). The eight glacier areas include the recently re-opened Dachsteion as well as the country's highest slopes on Pitztal. Solden, which hosted world cup ski racing last weekend is another option, as is the Kitzsteinhorn glacier above Kaprun and the Stubai glacier near Innsbruck. The Hintertux glacier has more than 42km (26 miles) of runs open – more than anywhere else on the planet at present.
Neighbouring Switzerland has six ski areas to choose from, all with glaciers. The new option this weekend is the Vorab glacier above Flims and Laax. You can also ski or board at Glacier 3000 above Les Diablerets near Gstaad, at Diavolezza near St Moritz and on the glaciers at Engelberg, Zermatt and Saas Fee. The latter is staging World Cup snowboarding this weekend with twin super pipes up on the Alladin glacier.
In Italy Passo Tonale re-opened last weekend and Cervinia will open on Saturday. They join the less internationally well known Val Senales and Passo Stelvio glaciers which have been open all summer. The latter has a two metre base, deeper than anywhere else in the world at present.
In France it's the second weekend of Les 2 Alpes' one week October opening and it closes on Monday for most of November before re-opening for winter. However Tignes remains open as it has been since mid-September.
Up in Scandinavia eight ski areas are due to open in Norway, joining Ruka in Finnish Lapland which opened a few weeks ago, beating Schladming to be the first non-glacier resort in Europe to open.
In the USA, Sunday river in Maine was first to open a week ago. It was joined by Arapahoe Basin and Loveland in Colorado last weekend and this Sunday the first ski area in Canada to open for winter 2010-11 should be switching on its lifts – Mt Norquay, near Banff, will be celebrating the start of its 85th season.