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Mt Hotham also announced later in the day that it has decided to closed too.

Australia's Thredbo Resort has announced that it has closed for the season two weeks earlier than planned due to the continuing warm conditions. Mt Buller is also closed.

After a snowy month in the first month to the 2023 season after a delayed start in early June for many, temperatures have been warmer than average for much of July, August and September with just a few snowfalls. Overnight lows did allow for snowmaking however and there was a 20-30cm accumnulation a week ago for most areas

Mt Baw Baw and Selwyn resort, which reopened this winter after a three year closure followed a devastating bush fire kin January 2020, close earlier this month.

Other continue with limited terrain, with Hotham announcing it had closed much of its terrain.

"Safety of our guests and staff is always our priority and with the warm weather and deteriorating snowpack, it's time to wish Ruined Castle, Scott, Eagle Express and Gully chairlifts a warm farewell until next season," a statement from Falls Creek on Sunday explained, saying they still have four lifts running.

The largest resort, Perisher, plan to stay open to the start of October and still has a metre of snow lying on its upper runs they say, 30cm below, and about a third of its terrain still open.

Forecasters predicted warmer weather this year in Australia due a "likely El Nino" event which means warmer currents and weather in the Pacific.

High slopes in Colorado have had a fresh dusting of snowfall less than a week after they saw their first snow covering of late summer/early fall.

Arapahoe Basin posted the picture above of its Montezuma Bowl chairlift. Other ski areas posting similarly snowy scenes included Aspen, Copper Mountain, Crested Butte and Keystone as well as Loveland, pictured below.

It currently has a 'countdown to the start of snowmaking' clock on its website, targeting October 1st to begin operations, conditions permitting.

Temperatures have been getting down to freezing or a degree or two below on Colorado's ski slopes, among the highest altitude in the world, overnight. However daytime highs are still melting early cover at present, although they should continue to cool.

Arapahoe Basin, Keystone and Loveland are among the usual contenders aiming to be the first to open for the season in North America, although the only confirmed 'tentative opening dates' published so far are in November.

Banff's Mt Norquay aims to open on the 4th and then Banff's other two areas Lake Louise and Sunshine
on the 10th, the same day as Breckenridge and Vail in Colorado, Brian Head in Utah and Mammoth in California.

Mayrhofen in Austria's Tirol region has long been one of the country's biggest and most popular resorts. As well as having a big ski area and lots of resort attractions for non-skiers too, it's the location of the annual Altitude comedy and Snowbombing music festivals.

This winter there's something new with a different kind of indoor leisure facility about to be unveiled.

The Visorium will gives Mayrhofen's visitors the opportunity to get to know historical stories, legends as well as landmarks of the wider Zillertal area through the medium of entertainment.

The journey leads through an "Adventure Golf" facility with 12 different golf courses, each telling an eventful story of something that shaped the valley or of an exciting legend that was told to locals in the Zillertal from childhood onwards.

Besides the golf here's the chance to immerse yourself in the local Scheuling forest of the Visorium and enter the laser tag arena where you can collect points and overcome obstacles. But watch out - because the "Woldschnogge" guards his treasured forest kingdom with all his senses and doesn't want to be disturbed under any circumstances.

The Visorium's 2,000m² of indoor space will also include Escape Rooms featuring original historical objects and furniture have been incorporated into the rooms and give the players the feeling of being in another time.

Méribel has announced that its Elements Park will be redesigned and renamed for the upcoming 23-24 ski season.

Designed to offer something for freestylers of all ages and abilities, the terrain park will become the Bump'N'Jump zone this winter.

"This new zone is full of thrilling jumps, bumps and boxes split across three separate fun runs," a resort spokesperson enthused.

The new 'Bumpy Run' will enable skiers and boarders to hurtle down a series of "whoops", small bumps and modulated snow waves.

The Funny Run will feature a series of easy modules, made up of mini boxes, arches, suspended elements and high-fives which are performed on various rotating characters.

Finally the Speedy Run is a new boarder cross accessible to all, lined with banked turns, jumps and other obstacles.

Access to the Bump'N'Jump zone is via the Legends chairlift and Arpasson ski lift.

It's commonly thought that multiple Alpine Skiing World Championships host Åre in Sweden I the biggest ski area in Scandinavia, but actually its Sälen, according to the SkiStar group which owns both centres as well as leading ski areas Hemsedal and Trysil, among others.

They describe Sälen as: "Northern Europe's Largest Resort."

This winter in Sälen's Lindvallen sector, Skistar are unveiling a brand new express lift, the Söderåsen Express, a 6-seater lift with windscreen/hood and heat in the seats for optimum comfort.
The lift will have a capacity of 2,400 skiers/hour and the trail length is 1,490 metres.

A further lift (Ulven) will be added to the same area, which is scheduled to operate in all weathers, thus increasing capacity and providing better access to the mountain. Ulven is 1240 metres long and has a capacity of 1200 skiers/hour.

Ski star are also upgrading snowmaking systems around Sälen and their big summer success, a mountain coaster (rollercoaster) at Valleberget, will run in late winter/spring when weather and snow conditions allow.

Ski resorts in Colorado have reported their first snowfall on high peaks of the 23-24 pre-season today.

Arapahoe Basin, Breckenridge (above) and Copper Mountain (below) were among the first to post snowy images.

The snowfall follows the first snowfall last week at ski areas around Banff in Alberta and prior to that snowfall at ski areas including Alta and Snowbird in Utah and ski areas in Oregon.

No ski areas are currently open in North America, but the highest ski areas in Colorado are often the first in North America to open for the season each fall, and Loveland ski area plans to begin snowmaking at the end of September.

It, along with other resorts including A Basin, Wolf Creek, Copper and Keystone will be aiming to open as early as possible in October, meaning the start of the new season is potentially just over a month away.

A strong El Niño system on the Pacific ocean is an increasingly strong probability for the winter ahead, influencing weather including snow conditions across North America and some believe further afield.

El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and eastern Pacific. It exchanges dominance with colder counterpart La Niña. Each can be 'strong' 'weak' or hardly noticed either way.

Both tend to bring warmer or cooler air and that air tends to impact certain areas on North America more each time. Ski resorts that usually benefit from one or the other will quickly shout about the likely abundant snowfall that's coming.

The problem though is that the trends rarely play out according to what's normal, with many other factors at play.

For what it's worth though the possible scenario associated with a strong El Niño system are lots of cold weather and snowfall in the North Eastern US and Quebec and Ontario in Canada.

However the warm temperatures might spell less abundant snowfall for California, after it's huge falls last season. The Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington state and Western BC) might have a rather lacklustre winter too.

Utah, which also saw record snowfall last winter, should be "average" this, and it's the same for Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and into Alberta and eastern BC.