More Ski Areas Open for the Season as Xmas Approaches
7th December 2025
Last modified on December 14th, 2025
Saturday 13th December
It’s another fabulous day across most of the Alps today.
Many resorts are starting their season this weekend and there are now well over 250 resorts open.
It will remain sunny and clear over the weekend.
The weather is forecast to be mainly settled for the next few days with no significant snow in the forecast.
More snow would be welcome as the big November storms are a memory, though they have meant many pistes have good coverage if not soft snow.
Some of the low level resorts are looking a bit threadbare especially after the recent rain.
PlanetSKI’s Simon Wilson is in La Plagne in France for its opening weekend.
Weather:
- Excellent.
- Wall to wall sunshine
- Mild temperatures +2 max today after -2 overnight.
“Pistes generally in excellent condition after the huge dump in NW Alps at end of November,” said Simon.
“Above 2000m there is lovely soft piste snow, below 2000 a couple of crunchy spots, but you can ski right down in the trees towards the villages of Montchavin and Montalbert and the link to Les Arcs is open and in good condition.”
“Off piste suffered a lot after it rained right up to 2,300m here last weekend, but still some pockets of powder above that”.
La Plagne on its opening weekend, Saturday 13th December. Image © PlanetSKI
The star of the show in terms of the lift system is the new two stage gondola linking Plagne Bellecote with Roche de Mio and bypassing Belle Plagne.
The station hopes this will significantly lighten the bottlenecks and long queues that have plagued Bellecote at the busiest times of year.
La Plagne announced late this week that that the gondola up to the Live 3000 area (formerly La Plagne’s small glacier before it melted away) would not be running for at least a few days because of “technical difficulties”.
That’s a minor disappointment for the opening weekend visitors.
But it means that area will certainly be in good shape for Christmas, as long as the lift reopens.
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PlanetSKI’s chief reporter, Jane Peel, is in Tignes.
“What a stunning December Saturday in Tignes,” said Jane.
“Clear blue skies & sunshine, no wind, perfect snow and mild enough for an al fresco lunch.”
Tignes, Saturday 13th December. Image © PlanetSKI
After a full day’s skiing, Jane filed this snow report from the top of the Toviere gondola.
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Another our our reporters, Felix Milns, is further east in Wengen in Switzerland.
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Friday 12th December
Before we look at conditions in the Alps ahead of many resorts opening with the main Xmas/New Year holidays getting closer, we turn out attentions to Canada.
PlanetSKI editor, James Cove, has just arrived for an extended stay in Canada – a couple of months or so nosing round some of the finest resorts that Alberta and British Columbia have to offer.
He’s aiming to be back in Europe in late February 2026.
This weekend he’ll be reporting from Sunshine Village in Alberta.
It seems he is in the right place at the right time as it has some of the best conditions in North America.
Here’s the local snow report posted at the Arc’teryx shop in downtown Calgary.
He is in the city for a few days before heading to be based in Canmore near Banff.
Canada resorts snow report, 12th December 2025. Image © PlanetSKI
There is currently a high avalanche hazard in the Banff National Park with a Level 4 risk.
Avalanche Canada says there is a “widespread avalanche cycle” still moving through the region.
“With the large new load and several buried crusts mid-snowpack, there is a very high likelihood of natural and human-triggered avalanches.”
Parks Canada reports that around 70cm of snow has fallen on west-facing slopes and about 40 cm on east-facing slopes over the past six days.
Here is the latest avalanche forecast: www.avalanche.ca/map.
It is currently bitterly cold in Calgary with the daytime temperature at -19c.
Calgary, Canada. Image © PlanetSKI
“It’s forecast to be -10c in the mountains at the weekend so it is still set to be pretty chilly and it will be a case of wrapping up well,” said James.
“I was speaking to a friend last night who is in the Sunshine ski patrol and he told me that the snow is in excellent condition, probably the best in North America, and there has been more fresh snow in the last few days.
“He also said that the cold temperatures might put some people off coming, so it shouldn’t be too busy.”
Bring. It. On.
Sunshine Village, Banff, Canada. Image © PlanetSKI
In the Alps we have PlanetSKI reporters out in Tignes, St Anton, Wengen and La Plagne this weekend.
They will be reporting on conditions and looking ahead to the Xmas and New Year holiday period.
One of our regular readers, Heather Jefferies, is in her old haunt of Verbier.
“It is so good to be back,” said Heather.
“The pistes are in good condition, but more snow is needed.
“It’s best to stay high for the best conditions and the runs down to the village are open.”
Verbier, Switzerland. Image © Heather Jefferies/PlanetSKI.
More to follow folks…
Thursday 11th December
Our latest video report comes from Tignes/Val d’Isere in France:
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PlanetSKI’s chief reporter, Jane Peel, will be arriving in Tignes this weekend so do look out for her updates…
Wednesday 10th December
As forecast, there has been warm weather across the Alps this week with the freezing level hovering around the 3,000m mark.
There has been some snow and some rain in places.
Here was Flaine in the Grand Massif in France earlier this week as PlanetSKI reader Mike Welby passed through on Monday and Tuesday:
Other neighbouring ski resorts in the Grand Massif – Les Carroz, Samoëns & Morillon – open this weekend.
They are amoung the dozens and dozens of resorts in the Alps opening and join the hundreds already operating.
The weather for the next few days in the Alps and into next week will be settled with plenty of sunshine, but there is no fresh snow in the forecast.
Many resorts now have hard packed pistes after the recent thaw, but conditions remain generally good for the first half of December as the main season gets underway.
There were some fabulous conditions earlier this month in the northern and western Alps, but those days have passed.
Good snow depths though remain in that part of the Alps
In the south and the east of the Alps conditions are about par for the time of year, but in some cases below average.
PlanetSKI will have reporters in La Plagne and Tignes in France, St Anton in Austria and Wengen in Switzerland this weekend and they’ll be updating us from the slopes.
We’ll also be hearing from Sunshine Village in Alberta as PlanetSKI editor, James Cove, begins an extended stay in Canada.
He’s just touched down in Calgary where it is a balmy -19c.
Calgary, Canada. Image © PlanetSKI
Do check back…
Monday 8th December
This week there is no significant snow in the forecast and it will be dry and very mild with freezing levels often above 3,000m.
“This warmer weather means that snow conditions will take a hit over the coming days,” said Fraser Wilkin from weathertoski.co.uk.
“On the positive side, the lower ski resorts of the north-western Alps (e.g. Portes du Soleil) have a lot of early snow meaning that, while conditions will deteriorate, it won’t all suddenly disappear, like it has done very early in the season in previous years.”
More ski areas and resorts have opened – we detail them in our report from Sunday, lower down this article.
One, Schladming in Austria, started its season in style.
The Backstreet Boys transformed the Planai Stadium, that hosts the resort’s famous night slalom race, into a music stage for three consecutive nights.
More than 50,000 fans saw the band in action.
Backstreet Boys in Schladming, Austria. Image c/o Daniel Scharinger.
Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, AJ McLean, and Kevin Richardson delivered a show spanning three decades of their career.
They performed anthems such as ‘Everybody’ and ‘I Want It That Way’.
Backstreet Boys in action, Schladming. Image c/o Harald Steiner
Sunday, 7th December:
Resorts across Les3Vallees & the Portes du Soleil in France opened at the weekend as did the resorts of The Arlberg in Austria.
Resorts in the huge linked Italian ski area of Dolomiti Superski also opened at the weekend.
Hundreds of ski areas are now open across the Alps.
The weather has warmed up with a further rise in temperatures forecast, but some ski areas in the north western Alps have seen one of the best starts to a recent in recent memory.
In Val d’Isere in France at the weekend cloudy weather returned, but there is still plenty of snow at resort level at 1,850m.
Val d’Isere. France. Image c/o Helen Gillespie/PlanetSKI.
Val d’Isere. France. Image c/o Helen Gillespie/PlanetSKI.
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In Les3Vallees the resorts of Les Menuires, St Martin de Belleville, Meribel and Courchevel opened.
They join Val Thorens that opened a couple of weeks ago with PlanetSKI in resort:
Some areas in France, like Avoriaz, Flaine, and the Mont Blanc range saw their snowiest late-November in more than two decades.
However, it is not bumper conditions everywhere in the Alps with some areas having below average snow depths.
We will be updating this article with news from the Pyrenees and Scandinavia.
We have just posted a new and updated article on conditions in North America where some very welcome snow is falling with some resorts finally able to open after a delayed start to the season.
Do check back…
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