In mid-October the choice is already wider than you might think. On the weekend of 17 and 18 October you can ski in eleven resorts in the Alps, four of them in Switzerland. New are Zermatt, open again since Wednesday, and Diavolezza, which starts on Saturday. But open means something different in October than in February: even the largest offer is 18 kilometres, and in some resorts it is a single piste.
What is open where
All eleven resorts as a table
| Resort | open | lifts | snow on the mountain | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hintertux | 18 of 64 km | 7 of 21 | 10 cm | since 2 October |
| Saas-Fee | 10 of 101 km | 8 of 23 | 50 cm | since 3 October |
| Sölden | 6.3 of 147 km | 4 of 31 | 48 cm | Tiefenbach glacier from Friday |
| Stubai Glacier | 5 of 65 km | 5 of 26 | 10 cm | since 9 October |
| Kitzsteinhorn | 4 of 62.5 km | 8 of 24 | 50 cm | lifts including access lifts |
| Stelvio Pass | 4 of 9 km | 6 of 6 | 40 cm | season until 1 November |
| Pitztal Glacier | 2.5 of 41 km | 2 of 7 | 50 cm | since 26 September |
| Val Senales | 0.9 of 42 km | 2 of 11 | 50 cm | mainly training |
| Zermatt | 6 pistes, no km given | 3 drag lifts | n/a | since 14 October |
| Diavolezza | glacier piste | n/a | n/a | from Saturday, until 15 November only Wed, Sat, Sun |
| Schilthorn | Pända Snowpark | 2 rope tows | n/a | booking required, until 25 October |
Snow on the mountain: at the highest measuring point according to the lift company. As of 14 and 15 October 2026.
Sölden switches glaciers. From Friday the lift company runs on the Tiefenbach glacier with the Tiefenbachbahn gondola, the Seiterkar chairlift, the Seiterjöchl drag lift and the glacier conveyor, on pistes 31, 33, 34 and 38. The Mutkogl drag lift is to follow in the days after. The Rettenbach glacier, where the World Cup races on 24 and 25 October, is no longer on the list for Friday.
Zermatt has been skiing again since Wednesday, two and a half months after the lift company halted summer skiing because of the heat. Open are the Plateau Rosa 1 and 2 drag lifts and the Matterhorn Glacier Ride II, with six pistes at Klein Matterhorn and Testa Grigia. Plateau Rosa 3 with a beginners’ area and a small snow park is being prepared.
What an open kilometre costs
A day pass costs almost as much in October as in winter, but the offer is a fraction. Divide the price by the open kilometres, and the cheapest and most expensive resorts are a factor of 18 apart:
This is not a verdict on the resorts. In October, Pitztal and Val Senales host mainly training groups on the glacier, while Hintertux and Saas-Fee already run part of their winter area. If you want a full day on the snow this weekend and not just a few runs, Hintertux and Saas-Fee offer by far the most. Zermatt, Diavolezza and the Schilthorn report no kilometres, so they are not in the calculation.
The weather: heavy snow in the south on Sunday
On 11 October we wrote that a southern storm with half a metre or more was in about one run in four. Four days later it is the normal case. For Sunday, 18 October, the middle of the 51 runs brings 30 centimetres at 3,000 metres in Zermatt, 44 in Saas-Fee and 12 at the Titlis. Tyrol stays almost dry.
Added up to 25 October:
Show the figures as a table, with Sunday on its own
| Resort | Sunday, 18 October | by 25 October | runs with 20 cm or more by 25 October | as of 11 October, by 25 October |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saas-Fee | 44 cm (5 to 73) | 75 cm (13 to 167) | 44 of 51 | 9 cm |
| Zermatt, Cervinia | 30 cm (3 to 56) | 53 cm (11 to 137) | 42 of 51 | 10 cm |
| Titlis | 12 cm (0 to 34) | 32 cm (6 to 70) | 35 of 51 | 20 cm |
| Diavolezza | 3 cm (0 to 22) | 19 cm (1 to 50) | 22 of 51 | 8 cm |
| Kaunertal, Val Senales | 1 cm (0 to 10) | 12 cm (0 to 33) | 17 of 51 | 10 cm |
| Sölden, Stubai | 0 cm (0 to 7) | 9 cm (0 to 30) | 14 of 51 | 17 cm |
| Pitztal | 0 cm (0 to 4) | 9 cm (0 to 27) | 13 of 51 | 17 cm |
| Hintertux | 0 cm (0 to 3) | 7 cm (0 to 37) | 13 of 51 | 20 cm |
| Mölltal | 0 cm (0 to 2) | 5 cm (0 to 41) | 14 of 51 | 19 cm |
| Kitzsteinhorn | 0 cm (0 to 1) | 5 cm (0 to 42) | 13 of 51 | 14 cm |
Fresh snow at 3,000 metres in the middle run, in brackets the driest and wettest tenth. The last column is the middle run of our calculation of 11 October, which counted from 11 October.
The temperature has turned since 11 October as well. Back then, the week from 17 October was colder than normal in 30 of 31 runs of the American ensemble. Now it is 3 of 31 at the Titlis, 1 in Sölden and 7 in Zermatt; in the middle run the week is between just under one and two degrees above the 1991 to 2020 average. That fits the southern storm, which brings moist, milder air. It is still cold enough to make snow at 3,000 metres on almost every day.
For the next openings this means: the Titlis gets 30 centimetres in the middle run by 24 October, at least 20 in 34 of 51 runs. Diavolezza opens on Saturday without fresh snow, and some comes on Sunday. The Mölltal Glacier (23 October) lies on the northern side of the pattern and gets only 4 centimetres by then. For the World Cup in Sölden on 24 and 25 October the week brings little fresh snow and somewhat milder air; the FIS snow control will decide.
How we calculated
Open kilometres and lifts are the lift companies’ reports, collected via the skiresort.info snow report, which the lift companies maintain themselves; for Sölden and Zermatt we checked them against the lift companies’ own pages. They change daily. We calculate the weather as in our October forecast: 51 runs of the ECMWF ensemble, for every resort at 3,000 metres, snow from precipitation and wet-bulb temperature. Orographic lift on the mountain is not fully captured in a model cell of about 25 kilometres; in the south the amounts are more likely to be higher than lower.
All open resorts are kept up to date on Open now, the dates on opening dates.
Read on: The weather up to the Titlis opening · Where can you ski in October? · World Cup in Sölden · What will the winter be like?
Sources
- Open pistes and lifts: snow reports on skiresort.info (maintained by the lift companies), as of 14 and 15 October 2026; soelden.com (ski area news, list for Friday, 16 October, and 6.3 of 147.2 km); matterhornparadise.ch (announcement “Wiederaufnahme Skibetrieb für Gäste” of 9 October, lifts and pistes as of 15 October, 09:10); corvatsch-diavolezza.ch (operating hours); panda-snowpark.ch.
- Prices: adult day pass from the deinskigebiet.ch overview.
- Weather data: ECMWF ensemble (IFS 0.25°, 51 runs) and GFS ensemble (0.5°, 31 runs) via Open-Meteo, retrieved on 15 October 2026 at 09:06, calculated at 3,000 metres; 1991 to 2020 reference from the ERA5 reanalysis. Script: scripts/oktober-prognose.mjs.
