'First tracks' packages are a standard offer at many leading North American resorts, you typically sign up and pay a small fee a day or two before, then get exclusive access to the slopes for 30 or 60 minutes before the ski area opens to, "the general public."
For most it's a bit of a strain to get up early enough, but feels worth it, so long as conditions are good, to be first in the powder or perfectly groomed slopes. You can often head in for breakfast just as the lifts open to everyone else.
'First tracks' packages are less common in the Alps, but this winter an increasing number of ski areas are offering them.
In Switzerland the Graubünden region's top resorts have several such offers available – generally on Sunday.
Every Sunday morning from January to March the first cable cars start moving in Lenzerheide at 6.30 am.
In St. Moritz, where everyone starts a bit later, it's at 7.45am you can be among the first to carve your skis through the snow.
At neighbouring Arosa, you can sit down for a Schwiizer Zmorga (Swiss Breakfast) in the Weissenhorn mountain restaurant as dawn unfolds in front of your eyes before snaping on your skis and beginning a dawn descent on the slopes. Brigels also offers a dawn buffet and the cable car for Alp Dado begins at 7am.
