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When does the season start? - Patrick Thorne
Tuesday September 14, 2010 - Email this article to a friend
It's a question we often wonder about as there is usually a resort open somewhere in the Alps. Solden has opened for business, but is it really the first one?
With ski areas like Zermatt in Switzerland, Tux in Austria and Timberline in Oregon, USA open all year round for skiing and snowboarding and other areas opening at certain times in late spring, summer or Autumn it can be hard to decide.
For some resorts the 'next year's ski season' begins only a few weeks after the last one ends.
Saas-Fee in Switzerland for example, or the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier above Kaprun in Austria, that close for a month or two after the end of the winter season.
Then they re-open for 10-months from late May one year right through to the start of May the next.
So, they could claim already to be in the 2010-11 season.
Saas-Fee in October
But still other glacier resorts, like Les 2 Alpes and Tignes in France and Cervinia in Italy have a distinct 'summer' ski season.
They then close at the end of August or early September to gird their loins ready for a six, or eight, month winter ski season that begins in the Autumn.
With Timberline also having a fortnight's maintenance closure in mid-September it does seem that this is the most favourable month, if any, to say one ski year ends and the next begins.
The summer heat is dying away and temperatures are dropping, in North America some of the highest resorts in the world, but without glacier ski areas, like Copper, Loveland, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin, all in Colorado, are likely to start snowmaking, some aiming to open in early October.
Loveland has got its cannons out already as PlanetSKI has reported.
Snow making changes the timings
It's a similar picture in Scandinavia with resorts at northerly latitude, particularly in Finland, looking for October openings.
In the southern hemisphere the season is beginning to wind down.
But which will be first?
Solden opened on Friday as PlanetSKI has reported here.
A frequent claimant to the crown is the Pitztal glacier in Austria, which operates the country's highest lifts.
It has had its snowmaking system boosted recently by the installation of an 'all weather' snowmaking systems imported from Israel that can make snow in temperatures above freezing.
Officials from Sochi, that hosts the 2014 Winter Olympics, have visted this summer to see its capabilities.
This year Pitztal is aiming to open on Wednesday, September 15th.
A few days later Tignes will open and then in early October a rush of a dozen or so glacier resorts in Switzerland and Austria as well as.
Probably, the high altitude resorts in Colorado and northerly resorts in Scandinavia, will join the ski areas open for 2010-11 list.
Tignes in October
Well, whichever comes first, let's hope for a repeat of the great early season snow in the Alps of recent winters.
Bormio in Italy, Kitzbuhel in Austria and Cairngorm in Scotland all opening months earlier than usual.
Winter it most definitely on its way, whichever resort "opens first".
Patrick Thorne helps run www.skiinfo.co.uk which provides some of our snow information here on PlanetSKI and has some of the best snow reports around, covering all the resorts across the world.
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