The 21-22 ski season will get underway in Finland next week and more ski areas will open in Austria and Switzerland, nearly doubling the number of centres already open in the northern hemisphere.
Levi, Finland’s largest ski area (pictured below), along with another of the country’s biggest resorts, Ruka, both plan to open next Friday 8th October using snow stored from last season and spread back out on the slopes to create a few kilometre long runs in a process known as snowfarming.
Now three more ski areas in the Austrian and Swiss Alps have confirmed they’ll open for their 21-22 season next weekend too with Switzerland’s Titlis glacier above Engelberg becoming the third in the country to open joining already-open Saas Fee and Zermatt.
In Austria a fifth area in the Austrian Tirol, the Stubai glacier, has confirmed it is opening (pictured below) as is the Kitzsteinhorn glacier above Zell am See-Kaprun in Salzburgerland. It means about half the dozen or so glaciers that will be open in the Alps will be in Austria.
There has not been a lot of early snow in the Alps so far, just a few dustings up high (snowfall up high in Lech, Austria a few days ago is pictured top), but more significant snowfall is expected at altitude next week.
Two glacier areas, the Galdhopiggen in Norway and Molltal in Austria, which should be open now but have been closed the past few months due to warm weather melting snow cover are hoping to reopen imminently.
Elsewhere in the northern hemisphere snowfall in the Rockies and other parts of western North America has raised excitement levels here too, with ski areas in Colorado hoping to be the first to open for 21-22 season there, hopefully later this month. Crested Butte (planning to open in November) is pictured below on Wednesday.
