Ski season opening and closing dates

The 2026/27 lifts start turning long before December. Sölden opens the Rettenbach glacier for autumn skiing on 25 September 2026, Cervinia follows on 24 October, Verbier on 31 October, Zermatt on 1 November and Kitzbühel on 6 November. Tignes and Val Thorens both open on Saturday 21 November, and both of those dates are already published officially. Eleven more resorts open on Saturday 28 November, Ski Arlberg brings Lech, Zürs and St. Anton online on 2 December, and the rest of the 3 Vallées joins from 4 December, with the full area officially open from Saturday 5 December. By 19 December every dated row in the table below is open.

The table below has all 55 resorts we cover. Thirty of the rows are confirmed, meaning the lift company or the resort's official site has published the 2026/27 dates. The other 25 are projected from provisional area calendars and each resort's recent pattern, and the status column tells you which is which. Sort it however suits you.

How to read the table

Confirmed means the lift company or the resort's official tourism office has published the date for 2026/27. Projected means we have taken it from a provisional area calendar or the resort's recent pattern and expect it to hold, but the operator has not yet put it in writing. Opening dates are usually the first lifts turning, not the whole area: Chamonix, Verbier and Kitzbühel all build out sector by sector over several weeks.

Three rows need a word more. Val Thorens is projected only because of its closing date: the 21 November opening is confirmed by the 3 Vallées lift company, while the 2 May close still sits on a provisional calendar. Schladming is the reverse: the 4 April 2027 close is published, but the official line on opening is as soon as snow conditions permit, so that cell says not yet published rather than a guess. And Hintertux has no dates because it needs none: the glacier runs 365 days a year.

Early season: glaciers first

Glacier skiing starts well before the main season. Sölden gets there first: its Rettenbach glacier opens for autumn skiing on 25 September 2026 and hosts the World Cup opener in October, before the main winter season starts on 12 November. Cervinia's Plateau Rosa sector is confirmed from 24 October, and on the other side of the same mountain Zermatt's winter season runs from 1 November, with the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise skiable year round. Verbier starts lifts on the Ruinettes sector from 31 October, weekends only through November and daily from 1 December.

Two more are worth knowing about. Engelberg's Titlis glacier is listed from 10 October, though that date currently comes from an aggregator rather than the lift company, which is why we hold it as projected. And Kitzbühel opens on 6 November with no glacier at all: weekend public skiing at Resterkogel, confirmed on KitzSki's official 2026/27 timetable.

Late skiing: who runs into May

Twelve resorts run into May 2027, plus Hintertux, which never closes. Five of those closing dates are already confirmed: Zermatt goes latest, to 3 May, with Tignes, Ischgl, Obertauern and Cervinia all running to 2 May. The other seven are projected at 2 May: Val Thorens, Val d'Isère, Chamonix and Argentière on the Grands Montets side, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Livigno and Engelberg.

Obertauern is the standout. It runs 20 November to 2 May with no glacier, one of the longest non-glacier seasons in Austria, and both dates are published by the lift company. If you want spring snow without queueing for a glacier, that is the booking.