There's been excitement over the past 24 hours as a large swathe of Eastern European mountains have reported their first snowfall of autumn over the past 24 hours. Jasna in Slovakia, Bansko in Bulgaria and Kopaonik ski areas in Serbia are amongst those celebrating their dustings of white.
Unfortunately, a little further west in the Alps, conditions have largely stayed stubbornly dry and sunny, the freezing point still climbing above 4,000m, above the altitude of all European ski areas.
Nonetheless, some glacier ski areas in the Alps are announcing they'll open for their 26-27 seasons imminently, or in some cases summer ski areas that temporarily closed will reopen.
Of the four Austrian glaciers that hoped to be open by the end of September only one, Pitztal, has confirmed it will do so this Saturday. It has long operated an all-weather snowmaking system precisely to ensure early glacier opening, as has Zermatt, which long pre-dates the currently popular TechnoAlpin Snowfactory machines. It will join already open Italian glaciers Passo Stelvio and Val Senales. Kaunertal, which had planned to open this weekend has announced a delay; Solden and Hintertux, which have been more vague about their opening plans, but had originally been aiming for September, look to be delaying too.
In Switzerland Saas-Fee announced it will reopen part of its summer ski area on 3rd October. Zermatt, which suspended its year-round snowsports on 1st August (it was the only resort left in the world that had still been trying to maintain it) is not known to have announced a specific date to resume public summer skiing operations, but its all-weather snowmaking machine, the same model as Pitztals, has been filmed in operation, so it may be imminent.
In the north, Norway's highest slopes at the Galdhiopiggen summer ski area which were also temporarily closed last month re-opened last weekend but are currently only being used by pre-booked ski teams. Levi and Ruka in Finland are preparing to open for their seven month 26-27 seasons in a week's time however, they're unwrapping huge piles of snow stored through summer that will be spread back out on the slopes over the next seven days.
