More Resorts Open as Further Snow Falls
7th November 2026
Resorts in Europe and the USA are opening some slopes. Verbier is the latest in the Alps, with Soelden offering more terrain this weekend. Resorts are opening in the USA and Canada. NEW
The Swiss resort of Verbier is the latest to have an early opening.
The Lacs de Vaux area is open this Saturday, 7th November.
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Here’s an earlier PlanetSKI post on the season ahead in the Swiss resort:
Verbier, Switzerland. Image © Heather Jefferies/PlanetSKI.
The main areas of Verbier are scheduled to open on December 5th with the resort closing on April 25th 2027.
Soelden in Austria has opened further terrain this weekend and in one of the resorts with the most slopes open.
The latest storm hit the south-western Alps and deposited up to 50cm of fresh snow in parts of Italy and France.
“Significant snowfall has afallen in parts of the southern French Alps (e.g. Isola 2000) and areas close to the Italian and south-western Swiss border, including Cervinia and the upper reaches of Zermatt and Saas-Fee,” said Fraser Wilkin from weathertoski.co.uk on Friday 6th November.
“Most other parts of the Alps have seen very little if any precipitation, however.
“Next week, the weather in the Alps will be a bit mixed, with some light rain or high-altitude snow in places early in the week but with temperatures also rising.”
See this post from Weathertoski.co.uk about where you ski in the Alps this November
Last weekend Mürren in Switzerland, and Sulden in Italy opened.
They were the first non-glacier areas to open and in Murren the Riggli chairlift and the associated slope in the Engetal were open.
For the first three weekends, the resort will be open for alpine skiing on Saturdays and Sundays, before continuous winter operations commence on 21st November.
The Molltal glacier in Austria was due to open last weekend but it postponed its opening due to insufficient snow.
The temperatures are markedly colder in the Alps and that means some areas are starting to make snow in earnest.
One such area is parts of the Dolomites in Italy.
It has one of the best snowmaking systems in the world and invested heavily several year ago.
Madonna di Campiglio is hoping to open for weekends only from 21st November.
Areas now open in the Alps:
- Hintertux, Austria
- Pitztal, Austria
- Soelden, Austria
- Stubai, Austria
- Kaunertal, Austria
- Kitzsteinhorn, Austria
- Engelberg, Switzerland
- Diavolezza Glacier (St Moritz), Switzerland
- Murren, Switzerland
- Saas-Fee, Switzerland
- Zermatt/Cervinia, Switzerland/Italy
- Verbier, Switzerland
- Sulden, Italy
- Val Senales, Italy
- Passo Stelvio, Italy
Zermatt/Cervinia and Saas-Fee have the best conditions, while Soelden and Hinterux in Austria have the most terrain open.
There are a handful of ski areas open in Scandinavia.
In Finland Levi and Ruka are open using snow stored from last winter.
In Sweden, Klappen has its snowpark open using snow from last season.
In Norway Gladhopiggen Glacier is open but only for race teams.
Over in North America some resorts are opening with others postponing things.
This weekend Sunshine Village opened a fun park but there is not enough snow to open any of the main slopes.
The access gondola is running and then people have to hike around 5 minutes to the park.
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Last weekend its neighbouring resort of Lake Louise opened some slopes
“Most of us in Banff think Sunshine has ‘opened’ so it does not look like it is way behind Lake,” said one local PlanetSKI reader to us.
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In the USA Mammoth Mountain in California opened on Thursday 5th November, eight days earlier than planned.
Mammoth’s original scheduled opening day was Friday, November 13, but due to some fresh snow it will open with its Lower Panorama Gondola and Broadway Express with access to three trails.
Mammoth will continue to expand terrain as soon as conditions allow.
In Utah Brain Head has been forced to postpone its opening.
The resort planned to open on Friday 6th November but poor snow conditions have delayed its start.
It has been snowing but much of it fell on warm ground and melted.
There has also been rain at low altitude.
“We’ve had some good early season snow,” said the resort’s general manager, Tom Pettigrew Pettigrew.
“We’re taking things day by day and we can’t wait to get the lifts spinning and welcome everyone back.”
No snow is forecast and the temperatures are set to rise.
No date has been set for its opening.
In the east Mt Rose opened on Friday 6th:
As the season approaches do check out a special section on the website containing all the news and developments for next season:
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