Kitzbühel in the Austrian Tirol is again the first ski resort without a glacier in the Alps to open for winter 2017-18.
Like several other resorts it uses the technique of storing a huge pile of snow from last season through the summer in a protected area before spreading it on the slopes to create a ski run. In Kitzbühel's case a run that's 2km long.
The snow is in very good condition according to lift operator Bergbahn AG Kitzbühel's Sylvia Brix explained,
"It's the best snow you can get because during the summer it loses a lot of water which makes it very compressed and great to ski."
The early opening has gained a lot of publicity in Austria and around 1500 people are expected to arrive to ski it. An adult day's lift pass cost 37 Euros.
It's the third autumn in a row that Kitzbühel has tried this technique and it's the earliest in the year they've opened – last season it was 22nd October, 2016.
The resort will open a second area using the same snow storage technique in just under a fortnight on 26th October on the Hahnankamm.
At least two areas in Scandinavia, Geilo in Norway and Ruka in Finland have opened for the season over the past two weekends using the same technique.
Elsewhere in the world Arapahoe Basin in Colorado and Timberline on Mt Hood in Oregon have opened in the last week in the USA using snowmaking and the glacier skiing and fresh snow on its permanent snowfield respectively and Cervinia in Italy is due to open weekends in October on its glacier from today onwards.
Image of Kitzbühel above was taken three days ago.