Next weekend the season gets broad. On Friday, 23, and Saturday, 24 October, five resorts open, among them two Swiss glaciers, the Titlis and Diavolezza, both of which had to postpone their start. At the same time the World Cup season begins in Sölden. And the weather plays along: on the Wednesday before, it snows in every one of the 51 runs of the European weather model, in all glacier areas.
Who opens when
| Day | Resort | What |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, 23 October | Mölltal Glacier | winter season, until 30 May 2027 |
| Saturday, 24 October | Engelberg-Titlis | glacier opening, two weeks later than planned |
| Saturday, 24 October | Diavolezza | glacier piste, provisional; until 15 November only Wed, Sat, Sun |
| Saturday, 24 October | Cervinia | winter season, until 2 May 2027 |
| Saturday, 24 October | Adelboden-Lenk | Tschentenalp training slope (snow farming), public on Sat/Sun afternoons |
| Sat/Sun, 24/25 October | Sölden | World Cup opener, two giant slaloms on the Rettenbach glacier |
The Titlis wanted to open on 10 October and moved to the 24th. Diavolezza had announced 17 October and on the 13th postponed, because of high temperatures, probably to the 24th; the cable car and the mountain inn stay open throughout. In Adelboden the Tschentenalp slope is mainly for training groups; private skiers can use it on Saturday and Sunday afternoons according to Tourismus Adelboden-Lenk-Kandersteg. That information dates from 2024 and has not yet been confirmed for 2026.
For the World Cup in Sölden the FIS cleared the piste at the snow control on Thursday, 15 October, the Tiroler Tageszeitung reports. According to the FIS calendar, two giant slaloms are raced on 24 and 25 October, the women on Saturday, the men on Sunday. For the public, the Tiefenbach glacier has been running since 16 October; the Rettenbach glacier belongs to the race.
A week later the next ones follow: Saas-Fee starts its winter season with 100 kilometres on 31 October, Mürren-Schilthorn runs at weekends from the 31st, and Zermatt begins on 1 November.
What is already running
Eleven resorts in the Alps are already open. Where the lift company states the open kilometres itself, our resort page shows them under “Open today according to the lift company”; otherwise there is a link to its status page. On Sunday, 18 October:
- Sölden: 23.9 of 147.2 kilometres, 8 of 31 lifts.
- Hintertux: 21 kilometres, 9 lifts.
- Pitztal: 3 kilometres, according to the lift company’s last update of 11 October.
- Kaunertal, since 17 October, plus Stubai, Kitzsteinhorn, Val Senales, Stelvio Pass (now daily 8 am to 4 pm), Zermatt and Saas-Fee with part of the glacier. At the Schilthorn the Pända Snowpark runs until 25 October, booking required.
On Sunday all lifts in Zermatt were listed as closed. That happens in autumn and changes from day to day; check the lift company’s page before you travel.
The weather: Wednesday is the day
For Wednesday, 21 October, all 51 runs bring snow at 3,000 metres, in every glacier area in our overview. In the middle run it is 25 centimetres in Saas-Fee, 23 at the Mölltal Glacier, 22 at the Titlis, 20 in Zermatt, 19 at Diavolezza and 12 in Sölden. After that it stays unsettled: on the opening weekend around seven in ten runs bring some more.
Show the figures as a table
| Entry | fresh snow of 1 cm or more | cold enough to make snow |
|---|---|---|
| 18 Oct | 32 % | 100 % |
| 19 Oct | 19 % | 99 % |
| 20 Oct | 67 % | 98 % |
| 21 Oct | 100 % | 98 % |
| 22 Oct | 81 % | 100 % |
| 23 Oct | 49 % | 100 % |
| 24 Oct | 69 % | 100 % |
| 25 Oct | 69 % | 100 % |
| 26 Oct | 49 % | 99 % |
| 27 Oct | 26 % | 100 % |
| 28 Oct | 25 % | 100 % |
| 29 Oct | 21 % | 100 % |
| 30 Oct | 21 % | 100 % |
| 31 Oct | 18 % | 100 % |
So by each opening day there is enough fresh snow everywhere:
All resorts up to 1 November as a table
| Resort | Wednesday, 21 October | by opening | by 1 November | runs with 20 cm or more by 1 November |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saas-Fee | 25 cm (17 to 38) | open | 79 cm (62 to 110) | 51 of 51 |
| Titlis | 22 cm (15 to 32) | 35 cm (24 to 50) | 64 cm (45 to 94) | 51 of 51 |
| Zermatt, Cervinia | 20 cm (12 to 32) | Cervinia 45 cm (31 to 58) | 61 cm (44 to 88) | 51 of 51 |
| Mölltal | 23 cm (16 to 35) | 35 cm (24 to 51) | 57 cm (36 to 88) | 51 of 51 |
| Kitzsteinhorn | n/a | open | 54 cm (36 to 80) | 51 of 51 |
| Hintertux | n/a | open | 48 cm (30 to 73) | 51 of 51 |
| Diavolezza | 19 cm (12 to 26) | 28 cm (21 to 37) | 39 cm (27 to 75) | 49 of 51 |
| Sölden, Stubai | 12 cm (7 to 18) | open | 36 cm (24 to 56) | 50 of 51 |
| Pitztal | n/a | open | 33 cm (24 to 54) | 48 of 51 |
| Kaunertal, Val Senales | n/a | open | 27 cm (20 to 47) | 45 of 51 |
Fresh snow at 3,000 metres in the middle run, in brackets the driest and wettest tenth. “n/a”: for Wednesday we only evaluated individually the resorts that open this week or appear in the text.
It turns colder from the weekend. In the American ensemble (31 runs), the only freely available one that reaches beyond two weeks, the week from 24 to 31 October is colder than the 1991 to 2020 average in 22 to 23 of 31 runs, by 1.3 to 1.4 degrees in the middle run, the same at the Titlis, in Sölden and in Zermatt. The week before is close to average. That is a direction, not a forecast. It matters for the resorts without a glacier that want to start in November: at 2,000 metres, ten Swiss locations together get around 1,400 hours of snowmaking cold by 1 November in the middle run, a good 130 each.
And Sunday? An honest recount
On 15 October we calculated a southern storm for this Sunday, with 30 centimetres in Zermatt and 44 in Saas-Fee in the middle run. It turned out much weaker. Today’s run calculates only 8 centimetres in Zermatt and 19 in Saas-Fee for the whole of Sunday, and at 4:40 pm on Sunday Zermatt Bergbahnen still gave 9 October as the last snowfall at the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. The model has moved the larger part of the precipitation to Wednesday. This is what the ranges in our charts are for: four days ago Sunday was ahead in almost every run, now it is Wednesday.
Read on: Where you could ski last weekend · World Cup in Sölden · Opening dates of all resorts · Open now · What will the winter be like?
Sources
- Dates: moelltaler-gletscher.at (“Opening 23.10.2026”), titlis.ch (glacier opening on 24 October, confirmed by our editors on 18 October), corvatsch-diavolezza.ch (announcement of 13 October), cervinia.it (“Winter season from the 24th October 2026”), dastrainingszentrum.ch (season start 24.10.2026), adelboden-lenk-kandersteg.ch (public times, as of 2024), schilthorn.ch, saas-fee.ch, matterhornparadise.ch, all retrieved on 18 October 2026.
- World Cup: FIS calendar (Sölden, 24/25 October 2026, two giant slaloms); Tiroler Tageszeitung of 15 October 2026 (snow control passed).
- Open pistes: soelden.com, hintertuxergletscher.at, pitztaler-gletscher.at (status report), read on 18 October 2026; Zermatt Bergbahnen snow report, 18 October 2026, 4:40 pm.
- Weather data: ECMWF ensemble (IFS 0.25°, 51 runs) and GFS ensemble (0.5°, 31 runs) via Open-Meteo, retrieved on 18 October 2026 at 16:46, calculated at 3,000 metres (Swiss locations at 2,000 metres); 1991 to 2020 reference from the ERA5 reanalysis. Script: scripts/oktober-prognose.mjs.
