Early Alpine snow kicks off a good ski season

All skiers should be getting ready for a good ski season with early snow falls and the promise of good ski holidays to come.

Lots of fresh snow has fallen in Austria this week and in many places it is still falling. There is plenty of fresh powder to be skied everywhere, even down at low levels. The open French, Swiss and Italian summer skiing resorts haven’t been so lucky but they have at least all received some snow.

It has been snowing very hard in Austria this week, even as low as 650m in some locations. The glacier resorts have been blessed with a large boost in snow depth and the very cold weather means that the new snow is beautifully powdery.The Mölltal Glacier (0/150cm) received 80cm of new snow on the upper half of the area this week. They are closed on Thursday due to strong winds but as soon as the wind dies down they will have fantastic skiing to offer. Hintertux (45/110cm) received loads of snow as well. 45cm fell at resort level which helps to give them a great early season snow base. It is very cold on the glacier though so wrap up warm.More snow is expected to fall in Austria between Thursday and Sunday. Hintertux is expecting a further 38cm of snow in that timeframe but after that the sun is expected to return.

Tignes (0/5cm) is the only resort in France we feature where you can ski at the moment. Unfortunately there is only 5cm of snow up on the glacier so the skiing is limited to a few of the upper runs. The weather is nice though and it is cold on the glacier so the little snow there is should stay in reasonable condition Les Deux Alpes is scheduled to open between 24 October and 1 November and then lifts will open for the main winter season from 28 November. Val d’Isere opens for the winter season on 28 November.It should be sunny and fairly cool in France over the weekend, with the freezing level varying between 1500m and 2500m.

Saas Fee (80cm) and Zermatt (55cm) have both reopened following the bad weather earlier in the week. Both resorts received fresh snow on Tuesday which helped refresh their pistes. Eight lifts are running on Thursday morning at Saas Fee and three are in operation at Zermatt. Sunshine should be the dominant weather in Switzerland over the weekend and into next week, although the temperatures will remain low.

Fresh snow fell at Cervinia (80cm) on Tuesday. The light dusting topped up the already good conditions but they remain closed on Thursday. Val Senales (0/30cm) is open though. Three lifts are running and the light snow that fell earlier in the week means snow conditions are generally good. As with everywhere in the Alps at the moment it is cold on the glacier so wrap up warm. Snow is expected at Val Senales over the weekend, with up to 21cm of new snow forecast by Sunday. Everywhere else should be fairly sunny with low temperatures for the time of year.