Ski Season 2026/27: The Alps Opening Dates That Decide Your Trip

The 2026/27 Alps season does not open on one date. Zermatt runs its first lifts on 1 November, Kitzbühel and Verbier follow in the first week of November, the big French and Swiss areas switch on around 21 November, and the linked networks at Courchevel, Val Gardena and Les Arcs wait until December. Every date below comes from the operator’s own calendar, read on 8 November 2026.

The 2026/27 Alps ski season opens in three waves

Most season summaries collapse the Alps into one sentence: the resorts open in late November. That is wrong by six weeks at one end and nearly three weeks at the other, and it costs money. The areas that open first are the quiet and cheap ones. The areas that open last are the ones whose full network justifies a week’s pass.

Official calendars for 2026/27 separate into three waves.

The wave structure is the crowd calendar: the first two weeks cost less and ski on emptier pistes, and part of the advertised area is not open yet.

Wave 1: a glacier in October, then twice in the first week of November

Hintertux opens its glacier on 2 October 2026, the first area on this list and the only one already skiing when November arrives, per the Austrian tourism board’s season table.

Zermatt follows on 1 November. The operator’s pass terms are precise about what that date means: “The winter season starts on 01 November 2026 (opening Sunnegga/Rothorn and Gornergrat areas: 28 November 2026) and ends on 03 May 2027.” The resort starts on a reduced network and adds Sunnegga-Rothorn and Gornergrat four weeks later, closing them on 11 and 18 April 2027. Its 3 May closing date is the latest here.

Kitzbühel opens on 6 November, and its published timetable is the clearest example in the Alps of why “opening date” needs a second column. The operator lists four separate stages:

So Kitzbühel is open on 6 November and its full network arrives on 11 December, five weeks later.

Verbier opens on 7 November, and the qualifier matters as much as the date. The operator announced that “the Verbier ski area opens on Saturday 7 November”, then listed what would run: the Lac des Vaux slope, the Le Châble gondola, the Médran IV gondola, Funispace and the Lac des Vaux chairlift 1. That is five lifts serving one run, open at weekends through November. The operator’s season table puts Verbier and La Tzoumaz at 5 December and the full 4 Vallées area at 12 December.

Wave 2: 12 to 28 November, when the high lifts come on

Sölden carries two dates that are both true. Its price calendar for 2026/27 splits into a pre-season window running from 12 November to 4 December, a main season from 5 December, and a peak season, while the glacier above the village skis from mid-October. The Austrian tourism board prints the pair in one line: “Sölden 12 November 2026 (glacier ski area from mid-October, depending on conditions)”. Book the first week of the winter season and you pay the pre-season rate. Book October and you get the glacier and little else.

Obertauern is Austria’s earliest non-glacier area. The resort says its slopes are “ready for skiing from 20 November 2026”, and its Skiopening Week runs from 27 November to 8 December 2026. The Austrian board lists the same event window.

Val Thorens and Orelle open on 21 November, in the operator’s words, “in the starting blocks since last season closed”. Tignes opens the same day, and its own opening page describes a two-step plan: “Progressive opening of the Tignes ski area from 21 November and then the link ski area with Val d’Isère from 28 November.” The Tignes season runs to 2 May 2027, the Grande Motte glacier carrying the spring.

Switzerland adds three more areas on 21 November. Grindelwald Tourismus publishes all three of its sectors with dates and hours: Grindelwald-Männlichen open daily from 21 November 2026 to 25 April 2027, Mürren-Schilthorn open daily from 21 November 2026 to 2 May 2027, and Grindelwald-First open daily from 19 December 2026 to 29 March 2027. In the Engadin, Corvatsch starts its winter season on 21 November and Corviglia on 28 November, with the Diavolezza firn slope running since 24 October on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The last week of November brings full networks. Saalbach lists “27.11.2026 to 04.04.2027” as its planned operation. Zugspitze opens on 27 November and closes on 2 May 2027, with Garmisch-Classic scheduled for mid-December and Wank for 25 December. Kitzbüheler Horn opens on 28 November and closes on 21 March 2027. In the Portes du Soleil, the Crosets 8 chairlift starts on 28 November, ahead of the rest of the Swiss side.

Wave 3: 4 to 19 December, when the linked areas open

December is when the brochure numbers become true. Les 3 Vallées publishes one list for all its resorts: Courchevel 4 December, Méribel 5 December, Brides-les-Bains 5 December, Les Menuires 5 December, Saint-Martin-de-Belleville 12 December. Courchevel’s villages at Moriond and La Tania follow on 5 December. The links that make the 3 Vallées one area open on 5 December and close on 18 April 2027.

The Dolomites arrive the same week. Val Gardena lists its lifts as open from 4 December 2026 to 4 April 2027, and the Sellaronda circuit runs on the same dates. Two facts matter here. The circuit is closed as of 8 November 2026, which is what the official status page shows, so nobody is skiing it yet. And a December start date on an Italian calendar describes the season, not a promise that every lift in the circuit turns on day one.

The late wave closes with three areas. Avoriaz opens on 11 December. Les Arcs and the Paradiski full area open on 12 December and run to 24 April 2027. The Portes du Soleil as a whole, twelve stations under one pass, opens on 19 December and closes on 18 April 2027, the same day Grindelwald-First opens for its shorter season.

The full 2026/27 opening table

Every row was read from the operator’s or the tourism board’s own page on 8 November 2026. Resorts move dates when snow does not arrive, so treat this as the plan and the operator’s live page as the truth on the day you book.

What a week costs, at the operators’ own prices

Six-day prices, from the operators’ winter 2026/27 tables rather than from a price comparison site:

• Verbier and the 4 Vallées: CHF 409 for six days on the full 4 Vallées pass, CHF 400 for the Verbier local pass, and CHF 469 for seven days. A single day costs CHF 94 at the counter, from CHF 79 online.
• Les 3 Vallées: EUR 421 list for six days, EUR 378.50 inside the 5 to 18 December and 10 to 18 April windows, with one day at EUR 84.20 for an adult and EUR 69 for a child.
• Saalbach: EUR 440 for the six-day Ski ALPIN CARD in peak season, which runs 19 December 2026 to 12 March 2027, and EUR 82 for a single day. The SuperSkiCard costs EUR 406 for six days until 18 December and EUR 449 from 19 December.
• Sölden: the operator splits the season into pre-season from 12 November to 4 December, main season across most of the winter, and peak season, and prices each window separately. Booking the pre-season window is the discount.

Les 3 Vallées also sells its six-day pass at the five-day rate of EUR 345 for longer stays, and its Family Flex pass at EUR 310 in the December window instead of EUR 345. Tignes, Val Thorens and Val Gardena price by week and package, and their ticket pages would not open when this table was built, so no number appears for them here.

Where to base yourself

The first week is when the base town matters most, because you are choosing between a glacier, a valley and a village with two lifts running. Our country guides carry the towns with rail and road access to each area.

Austria. Innsbruck is the practical base for both Kitzbühel and Sölden, with Zell am See for the Saalbach and Kaprun side and the Hohe Tauern for the shoulder season. See the Austria guide.

Switzerland. For Zermatt and Verbier, base in the Valais and use the Switzerland guide for the Matterhorn villages. For the Grindelwald and Mürren sectors, Interlaken and the Jungfrau valley are the two options that keep the train in play.

France. Our France guide covers Paris, Lyon, the Riviera and the Atlantic coast, and the Alpine towns are a gap we have not filled yet. For Chamonix and the Mont Blanc side, the Chamonix alpinism itinerary covers the valley.

Italy. The Dolomites sit outside the cities in our Italy guide. If you want to pair the Sellaronda with a longer rail trip, the Alps to the Amalfi Coast route starts in the mountains.

Germany. Garmisch-Partenkirchen, under the Zugspitze, is the Bavarian option in the Germany guide.

Two longer routes cross the region: the Alpine traverse from Chamonix to Vienna and the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau route through the Bernese Oberland.

How to read a resort’s calendar

Four phrases decide whether an advertised date means you can ski, and resort timetables use all four without explaining any of them.

“Snow permitting” means the date moves if the snow does not arrive. Kitzbühel tags its 21 to 22 November Hahnenkamm weekend with that condition. Kitzsteinhorn’s 10 October date carries it too.

“Training sessions” means a race team’s hill, open to the public only on certain days. Kitzbühel’s Resterkogel is the model: training Monday to Friday, public skiing Saturday and Sunday, from 6 November.

“Partial operation” means part of the network runs and the rest does not. The Austrian tourism board uses the phrase for Kitzbühel from 21 November, and Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis uses it for its 4 December start, with full operations from 19 December.

“Season finale” means spring conditions and reduced hours, not the whole area. Kitzbühel’s finale runs 30 March to 4 April 2027 in the Hahnenkamm, Fleckalm and Pengelstein sector only.

A calendar with these qualifiers is the honest kind. A single confident date and no qualifier usually means the resort has the least to lose.

What could still move

Glacier dates are the safest in this table. Hintertux has been running since early October and Zermatt’s season runs to May, so the snow is not the variable.

Mid-November dates at altitude can shift by about a week either way. The 21 November group, Val Thorens, Tignes, Grindelwald-Männlichen, Mürren-Schilthorn and Corvatsch, depends on cold nights, which is normal for the date but not guaranteed.

December dates for the linked areas are firm, because the operators plan staffing and events around them, but check seven days before you travel. Each resort’s own page is the live version of its row, and every page we used is linked in the table.

FAQ

When does the Alps ski season start in 2026/27?

The first lifts run on 1 November 2026 at Zermatt, and Hintertux had its glacier open from 2 October. The main French, Swiss, Italian and Austrian areas start between 21 November and 19 December, so “the season starts in November” describes only the first wave.

Which resort opens first?

Hintertux, with glacier skiing from 2 October 2026. Within the larger resorts, Zermatt is first on 1 November, then Kitzbühel on 6 November and Verbier on 7 November.

Is early December cheaper than late December?

Yes, and the operators publish the difference themselves. Les 3 Vallées charges EUR 378.50 for six days inside the 5 to 18 December window instead of the EUR 421 list price, and Saalbach’s six-day SuperSkiCard costs EUR 406 until 18 December against EUR 449 from 19 December. Hotel rates move more than lift passes in that same stretch.

How long does the 2026/27 season run?

It depends on altitude. Zermatt and Tignes run into early May 2027, Mürren-Schilthorn and Zugspitze close on 2 May 2027, the main linked areas close between 18 and 24 April 2027, and Grindelwald-First closes on 29 March 2027.

Can you ski in the Alps in November reliably?

On a glacier or a high-altitude area, yes, with limited terrain. Zermatt, Hintertux, Tignes, Val Thorens, Sölden, Grindelwald-Männlichen, Mürren-Schilthorn and Corvatsch all publish November dates. Check the resort’s own page in the week you travel, because a warm spell at the end of October moves the opening by a few days.

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Sources: resort and lift-company calendars read on 8 November 2026: austria.info (national winter openings table), kitzski.at (planned operating times), en.tignes.net (resort opening dates), les3vallees.com (live openings), verbier4vallees.ch (7 November press release), matterhornparadise.ch (ski pass terms), grindelwald.swiss (winter sports report), engadin.ch (Engadin season starts), soelden.com (winter skipass prices), saalbach.com (operating times 2026/27), obertauern.com (ski opening), en.portesdusoleil.com (opening of slopes and ski lifts), seelesarcs.com (season dates in Les Arcs), valgardena.it (open lifts), zugspitze.de (season times). Prices are the operators’ published winter 2026/27 rates. All dates were verified on 8 November 2026 and will move if the snow does.