Ski resorts across the Alps have been waking up this morning with the snow down to as low as 1600m altitudes.
Accumulations of up to 20cm have been reported over the past 48 hours. La Plagne is pictured above this morning.
It's especially good news for those glacier areas opening over the next 24 hours including Solden this morning and two more Austrian resorts, the Kitzsteinhorn above Kaprun and the Stubai near Innsbruck tomorrow. They'll join the five glaciers already open in Austria, Italy and Switzerland. French resorts aren't expected to start opening until the latter half of next month.
There have not been the usual early autumn snowfalls at altitude so far this year, just a few light dustings, mostly above 2,500m, so ski areas will be hoping this marks the start off a change to more wintry weather.
Passo Stelvio, one of the glaciers that's already open, is pictured this morning below.
