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Austria is the latest country to announce its glacier ski areas are to close to the general skiing public as the country starts a four week 'hard' new lockdown from Tuesday.

The announcement by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz led to open glacier ski areas promptly announcing their closure from Tuesday, but saying they'd stay open up to then on Sunday and Monday.

Eight glacier ski areas are currently open in the country, which hosted the first races of the FIS 20-21 World Cup tour in Solden a fortnight ago. Kitzbuhel also opened last weekend using snow farming to open a run.

The new lockdown rules appear to allow for ski areas to stay open for professional racers. The Arlberg region is due to host its first FIS World Cup races for more than two decades in mid-November. It's unclear what the status of the competition, which was due to take place without spectators, now is.

France and Italy announced November lockdowns leading to ski area closures earlier this week, although some Italian areas have decided to stay open anyway, arguing that they believe their safety protocols mean that won't be areas where the virus spreads.

The closures mean ski areas are now currently only open to the general public in Switzerland and Scandinavia.

Most leading ski areas in Austria don't open until mid-December anyway and there'll be a hope that the November lockdown will mean this can still happen, although that remains to be seen.

Austrian ski areas that usually open in November including Obergurgl, Obertauern and Ischgl will need to delay those plans.

Pre-season conditions are currently excellent on high slopes in the Alps after plenty of October snowfall.

The Stubai is pictured above earlier this week.

Four more Swiss ski centres have announced they're opening this weekend, taking the total to 10, the most in the world for one country at present – overtaking Austria's nine. However a number of the areas are currently opening at weekends only.

The 10 are opening following great snow conditions on higher slopes after generally cold weather and several heavy October snowfalls.

All are stressing how seriously they're taking preventing any danger of encouraging virus transmission, in a marked ramping up of safety initiatives following bad publicity at some glacier resorts in recent weeks with pictures of packed cable car cabins and big queues and groups, appearing not very socially-distanced and sometimes not wearing masks.

Arosa, Andermatt, Laax and Verbier are the four areas opening this weekend, joining already open Davos, Engelberg, Gstaad (Glacier 3000), Saas Fee, St Moritz (Diavolezza Glacier) and Zermatt.

But whilst up to now summer and autumn opening ski areas have been running gondolas and cable-cars at capacity when required, several, including Andermatt and Glacier 3000, now say they'll be limiting the maximum number of skiers in cabins to around two thirds capacity, and running lifts with windows open from earlier in the morning to soak up numbers. This is a step towards the model used by most southern hemisphere ski areas in the recently completed winter 2020 and North American areas planned operations limiting capacity to 25-35% on lifts.

Up to now the argument in the Alps has been that lift rides are too short to risk any virus transmission.

Andermatt is also limiting the number of people on their Gemsstock freeride mountain to 1000, around half the usual maximum. Again this is more in line with North American operating plans. Andermatt say this is needed to ensure not too many people are trying to use lifts or enter restaurants. Capacity in lift waiting areas is being cut by about three-quarters.

A third measure is insisting in advance online ticket purchase. That's the case with at least Laax this weekend, which is limiting access to season pass holders who have also made an online reservation for their place on the slopes on Saturday or Sunday (a measure employed by Vail Resorts in Canada and the US this coming November as its resorts begin to open). In Andermatt most guests need to book in advance too and are allocated an arrival time to ride the lift up to the snow slopes to avoid everyone arriving at once. Coffee and croissants will be served to make any wait more pleasurable.

All of the areas are stressing the importance of skiers obeying the rules and the hope that peer pressure along with staff supervision will make everyone behave responsibly.

At least three US and three Canadian ski areas are expected to be open this weekend as Halloween falls on Saturday, with November starting on Sunday.

At the same time a major snowfall expected to hit the East Coast at the end of this week could lead to more areas opening.

North America's ski season began over a week ago when Wild Mountain in Minnesota in the US Midwest opened following low temperatures and unseasonably heavy natural snowfall. A second area in the region, Trollhaugen, just over the state border in Wisconsin, opened on Sunday.

Before that though Mt Norquay at Banff in Alberta, Canada was the first larger ski area on the continent to open, last Saturday, with a full-scale ski run, Wild mountain is mostly offering a terrain park initially. It's Norquay's earliest opening in its 95-year history.

Next up was Wolf Creek, first to open in Colorado, following 22 inches (55cm) of snowfall at the start of this week. It opened yesterday.

Then a second Alberta resort, and one of Canada's biggest, Lake Louise has announced its earliest ever opening, today 29th October.

There's a chance other areas could open this weekend too. Arapahoe Basin in Colorado appear to have ruled out doing so but Loveland seem more optimistic posting,
"Conditions are looking very good for snowmaking through the week. Loveland hopes to open sometime late this month or early November."
Only three days left for "late this month."

France, Germany and Italy have all now announced some form of 'mini lockdown' which each mean ski areas will be closed in November, with the hope that this will lead to currently fast-rising virus cases dropping and that resorts will be able to open, under 'new normal' conditions of course, for Christmas and the main season in December.

Currently only one ski area, Tignes, would have been open in France at the start of November, none in German and three in Italy so the impact is not huge, and in fact the three Italian areas have said they are staying open to some degree. For Val Senales they're arguing they're operating under strict safety protocols and that they believe the mental and physical health mountain sports provide is greater than the virus danger.

Cervinia (pictured above on Saturday), which opened at the weekend, then closed on Monday, is re-opening for team-training only, it is believed, so far.

In each of the three countries it is not certain if resorts will re-open at the end of next month or start of November though, decisions are due to be reviewed and lockdowns potentially extended if results in quelling the pandemic don't stack up.

Austria currently has the most ski areas open – nine – and is also reported to be considering a similar short lockdown although nothing confirmed as yet.

Switzerland is due to have at least seven areas open by this weekend with Davos opening last weekend and Andermatt and Verbier opening in the next few days and Laax hinting at doing the same.

Both countries are both now reporting virus cases nearing the levels they were at back in the early spring and there's talk of a second lockdown for Switzerland too.

Ironically of course autumn conditions are superb after cold weather and abundant October snowfall on European slopes – glaciers reported up to 80cm (30 inches) more snow just at the start of this week in the latest of multiple snowstorm, interspersed by beautiful blue sky weather.

Most of the world's leading ski areas don't open anyway until the end of November or early December, and don't start to be busy enough to be profitable until at least mid-December. The worry will be the impact on skier confidence of the current lockdowns and of course that they have to be extended in to the main season.

Elsewhere there are six areas already open in Scandinavia, two each for Finland, Norway and Sweden. Cases are rising here too but currently national lockdowns do not appear to on the cards.

Similarly the North American ski season got underway a week ago with three centres already open and two more opening in the next few days. There is some talk here of possible announcements in individual states and provinces of ski areas closing as cases rise but as yet that's just speculation and there's no clear evidence that is a liklihood.

Plans for a $200m (Australian) indoor snow centre for Western Sydney first announced several years ago are still alive and the plans are in fact now one step closer, according to local reports.

The proposed Winter Sports World for Penrith in Western Sydney is the latest of multiple indoor-snow-centre projects announced for the city lover the past three decades.

The complex will feature a 300-metre-long snow slope, Olympic standard ice rink, ice climbing, rock climbing, altitude training, a hotel, restaurant and cafes.

The original optimistic announcement in 2018 envisaged the centre being up and running by 2021 but that date has slipped. However positive signs that the project is still moving forward include the recent submission of a planning proposal and a public exhibition of the plans where locals can let the local authority know what the plans mean to them.

Australian companies pioneered indoor snow centres from the mid-1980s and one of the world's first indoor snow centres opened in Adelaide around in 1987. There have been many proposals for new facilities in the country over the decades since but as yet none have made it to construction.

There have been more big snowfalls in the Alps over the past 48 hours. There's also been plenty of snow for the Pyrenees and Dolomites.

The biggest accumulations have been reported this morning on Austrian glaciers which are already open for the season - including 50cm at Solden, 75cm at Hintertux (pictured) and 80cm at the Stubai.

But most ski areas in France, Germany, Northern Italy, Switzerland, Spain and in other European ski nations have reported snowfall too, with snow down as low as village levels as low as 600 metres above sea level.

Around 25 ski areas have already opened in Europe with most of the rest due to open in the next 4-8 weeks.

Wolf Creek ski area in Colorado has announced it will start running its lifts from tomorrow Wednesday, October 28th, the first larger ski area in the US to open for the 21-22 season.

Colorado has seen significant snowfall since Sunday after a warm, sunny spell interrupted snowmaking efforts. Some areas reported nearly two feet (60cm) of snow had fallen by Monday evening.

"The powder is stacking up, 22" and still counting! Three lifts start turning this Wednesday, October 28th thru Sunday, November 1st - more Nov. dates to be determined. Local Appreciation prices to get your season started and don't forget your mask!" a statement from the area reads.

It is possible another Colorado ski area will open today, in order to claim first in the state. Of the usual contenders Arapahoe Basin has said the storm has been "good to us" and posted snowy images but not given any opening date.

Access to Loveland ski area was closed last week due to forest fires raging nearby but it too has been seeing significant snowfall.

"Feels like winter out there. We hope to open later this month or early November," a statement yesterday from there reads.

There are other possible Colorado contenders with a number snowmaking Ahead of the season and there have been snowfalls and cold snowmaking weather from California in the west to Vermont in the East in recent days.

The first ski area to open in the US was Wild Mountain in Minnesota a week ago, opening a terrain park, with Mt Norquay at Banff in Canada the first larger ski centre to open, on Saturday 24th October.

Reports coming in from Italy seem to indicate that ski areas already open there (there are four including Cervinia) will now need to close from Monday 26th October for a month as part of a new limited-duration national lockdown aimed at stopping the spread of the virus with the hope that a ski season might still be possible after it is scheduled to end, or at least be 'reviewed' on November 24th. One of the four, Passo Stelvio, was due to close next weekend anyway.