Autumn Ski Season Gets Underway in the Alps

22nd September 2024

Last modified on September 25th, 2024

Two glacier ski areas in Austria, Soelden and Stubai, opened at the weekend. A handful of others are following suit after the recent heavy snow in the eastern Alps. NEW

The heavy snow of last week has allowed some resorts to open early with others now preparing their slopes.

There were record September snowfalls and the lucky ones are reaping the benefits.

Stubai opened early on Friday 20th September.

It had planned to open in October.

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A post shared by Stubaier Gletscher (@stubai_glacier)

Stubai is near Innsbruck and is one of PlanetSKI’s favourite areas for early season skiing and snowboarding.

We have skied there pre-season on many occasions:

City + Ski: Innsbruck and Stubai

The resorts around Innsbruck are excellent for early skiing and last winter we were in Kuhtai as it opened:

Kuhtai opens for the season

There is also now skiing on offer in Soelden.

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A post shared by Marco Schmidlin | Alpine Skiing (@_marco_skiing)

The Austrian ski area of Hochkonig near Salzburg seized the moment and opened a t-bar after the snowfall, but the conditions have now deteriorated as the temperature has warmed up.

Auf dem Hochkeil bei Mühlbach am Hochkönig im Salzburger Pongau wurde ein Schlepplift bereits Mitte September in Betrieb genommen. Das Interesse war enorm – rund 300 Skifahrer und Snowboarder stürmten die Pisten.#hochkoenig #schnee #skifahren #snowboarden https://t.co/0K9VtOzrfo
— Leogang.rocks (@friedleleogang) September 16, 2024

More high altitude resorts are set to open over the next few weeks.

Pitztal in Austra is planning to open its glacier area next weekend on September 28th.

Kaunertal, also in Austria, hopes to follow the next week on October 4th.

Kaunertal reports that 30cm fell in the storm.

Kaunertal, Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

The summer alpine ski areas of Zermatt , Hintertux, Passo Stelvio and Saas-Fee are also open.

As is Val Senales in Italy, though skiing is only for race team training and not the general public.

Image c/o On the Snow

In Scandinavia the resorts of Levi and Ruka in Finland are set to open at the beginning of October.

On PlanetSKI we reported on the unprecedented amounts of September snow as it fell:

The storm brought avalanches, transport problems and flooding across the Alps, Austria and into Central Europe as we have reported in this related article into the impact of the storm: