More Ski Areas Open with Further Snow on the Way
28th October 2025
Last modified on November 1st, 2025
More snow is expected on Sunday after more than 1m of snow fell last weekend. Verbier opened a small area on Saturday. UPDATED
The Swiss resort of Verbier opened on Saturday, taking advantage of the recent snow.
It is on non-glacier terrain.
The Lac des Vaux area is open, allowing skiers & snowboarders to make their first turns of the season.
“For the past few days, the peaks of Verbier have been adorned with a magnificent white blanket, with over 40 cm of fresh snow at Lac des Vaux,” said a statement from the resort as it announced the early opening.
“The 2025/2026 winter season can therefore officially begin in ideal conditions.”
Throughout November, the ski area will be open only on weekends if conditions allow, before daily openings begin on 29th November 2025.
“A new weather front is approaching the western foothills of the Alps today,” said Fraser Wilkin from weathertoski.co.uk on Saturday.
“This will cross the entire region from west to east over the course of tonight and tomorrow, before the weather in the Alps settles down again on Monday.
“This latest storm will deliver some rain or snow to almost everywhere in the Alps, with the heaviest precipitation set to initially fall in the north (e.g. Avoriaz, Engelberg, St Anton) and, later in the weekend, in the south-east (Dolomites).
“Between now and Monday morning, between 15-20cm of new snow can be expected above 2500m in the north and south-east of the Alps.”
There was some ferocious weather last week in some parts of the Alps as multiple storms hit.
Rain at low levels and snow higher up, with the freezing level down to around 1,200m at times.
Tignes in France probably saw the most recent snow with well over 1m falling at altitude.
This is what it looked like in Tignes as the storm delivered.
Snow in Tignes, France. Photo credit Meteo Expert Savoie.
See here for a recently posted article about the season ahead in Tignes
Nearby Val Thorens has also done well with the sun now out as the storms have passed.
PlanetSKI will be in Val Thorens as the resort opens at the end of November, so fingers cross some of the snow remains at the top of the resort at 3,200m.
We reported on the 5 days of snow that started last week in this PlanetSKI article:
Resorts in Austria also saw the fresh snow and there are several glacier areas in Austria that are open.
Here’s Stubai near Innsbruck that received 30cm of fresh snow and is set to open more runs:
Ski areas currently open in the Alps:
- Austria: Pitztal, Hintertux, Stubai, Soelden, Kaunertal, Kitzsteinhorn & Molltal.
- Italy: Passo Stelvio, Cervinia & Val Senalis.
- Switzerland: Verbier, Zermatt, Saas-Fee, Titlis Glacier (Engleberg) & Diavolezza Glacier (St Moritz).
Davos in Switzerland has opened some cross-country trails and its fellow Swiss resort of Adelboden followed suit last weekend.
There are several areas open in Scandinavia, including Levi and Ruka in Finland.
So, what does all the fresh snow mean for the coming winter?
Not much really according to the alpine snow expert Fraser Wilkin from weathertoski.co.uk last weekend.
“As for what it means for the coming ski season, it is still not much unfortunately,” said Fraser.
“Were another big storm cycle to follow this, there would be a good chance that a firm base would be consolidated at altitude in some ski resorts.
“However, the weather is set to turn much milder from Tuesday onwards.
“Snow is likely to remain for some time at higher altitudes in those resorts fortunate enough to have received big dumps over the last few days (e.g. Tignes), but any low-lying snow will quickly melt.
“This will be exacerbated by the Foehn, which will make an appearance in the central/northern Alps mid-week.
In short, this storm is great news for the glacier ski areas and could still be of considerable benefit to some higher resorts as they approach the main part of the season in a month or so time.
“For the vast majority of resorts, however, it won’t make any material difference.”
However it has been great to see the snow and get us skiers and snowboarders in the mood for winter.
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