Vail Resorts fired the starting gun yesterday: Whistler Blackcomb is targeting Friday 20 November for opening day, conditions permitting. That's 93 days from now — and if that number feels familiar, it's because we started this countdown last week at a neat 100. ❄️
The announcements are landing thick and fast now, so we've done the homework — for the 16 mountains that matter most around here. Every resort in this article is one of the 16 you can play in Ready Steady Slope: each has its own Resort card in the box, so when these lifts start turning, you already know the terrain. We've checked every official 2026/27 opening date at source. Fourteen resorts have named the day. Two are keeping us waiting — more on those below. And because a date on its own is just admin, each one comes with the famous first lap we'd be queuing for. 🚡
The Dates at a Glance 📅
- Whistler 🇨🇦 — Fri 20 Nov 2026 (closing date TBC)
- Val Thorens 🇫🇷 — Sat 21 Nov 2026 → 2 May 2027
- Tignes 🇫🇷 — Sat 21 Nov 2026 → 2 May 2027
- Val d'Isère 🇫🇷 — Sat 28 Nov 2026 → 2 May 2027
- St. Anton 🇦🇹 — Wed 2 Dec 2026 → 18 Apr 2027
- Courchevel 🇫🇷 — Fri 4 Dec 2026 → 18 Apr 2027
- Mayrhofen 🇦🇹 — Fri 4 Dec 2026 → 11 Apr 2027
- Méribel 🇫🇷 — Sat 5 Dec 2026 → 18 Apr 2027
- Les Trois Vallées 🇫🇷 — Sat 5 Dec 2026 (full link-up) → 18 Apr 2027
- Verbier 🇨🇭 — Sat 5 Dec 2026 → 25 Apr 2027 (full 4 Vallées from 12 Dec)
- Alpe d'Huez 🇫🇷 — Sat 5 Dec 2026 → 25 Apr 2027
- Avoriaz 🇫🇷 — Fri 11 Dec 2026 → 18 Apr 2027
- Les Arcs 🇫🇷 — Sat 12 Dec 2026 → 24 Apr 2027
- La Plagne 🇫🇷 — Sat 12 Dec 2026 → 24 Apr 2027
- Chamonix 🇫🇷 — not yet announced
- Aviemore 🏴 — not yet announced (snow-dependent)
All dates are the resorts' own announcements and, as ever, subject to snow and operating conditions.
The November Wave 🏁
Whistler — Friday 20 November 🇨🇦. First out of the gate, and the biggest ski area in North America wakes up in stages: the tree-lined groomers spin first, and the great alpine bowls — Harmony, Symphony, 7th Heaven — join as the Pacific storms stack the base up. The run we'd queue for: a top-to-bottom cruiser through the forest to the village, legs burning by the bottom.
Val Thorens — Saturday 21 November 🇫🇷, kicking off with its Grande Première opening weekend. Europe's highest resort at 2,300 m rarely has to wait for snow. Our first lap: the Col de l'Audzin red under the Cime de Caron — over 1,000 vertical metres of rolling, early-season perfection.
Tignes — the very same Saturday, 21 November 🇫🇷, opening progressively. The Grande Motte funicular burrows through the mountain to 3,456 m, so the glacier laps start while the lower slopes are still filling in. The link across to Val d'Isère follows a week later.
Val d'Isère — 28 November 🇫🇷, with its First Tracks opening weekend. There is only one answer here: the Face de Bellevarde, the World Cup black that drops straight back into the village. Skiing it in November, weeks before the racers arrive, is one of the great early-season flexes. 🎿
Val Thorens and Tignes open on the same Saturday. Somewhere, two lift operators are checking their watches.
— RSS Team
The December Stampede 🚡
St. Anton gets December going midweek, on Wednesday the 2nd 🇦🇹, with the Stanton Ski Open festival that first weekend — the cradle of alpine skiing likes to open with a party. The mountain to earn it on: the Valluga, 2,811 m of mostly north-facing amphitheatre that holds snow superbly.
Then comes the big weekend. Friday 4 December: Courchevel 1850 and Le Praz spin up, and Mayrhofen's Penken lifts start turning — home of the Harakiri, Austria's steepest groomed piste at 78%. Saturday 5 December is the pile-on: Méribel (point it at Mont Vallon), the full Trois Vallées link-up — 600 km, the largest linked ski area in the world, open in a single day — Verbier's main sector (Mont Fort, 3,330 m; the full 4 Vallées follows on the 12th), and Alpe d'Huez — where the 16 km Sarenne, the longest black run in the Alps, goes back to work for the winter.
One week later the Portes du Soleil and the Paradiski join in. Avoriaz opens on Friday 11 December 🇫🇷, one of the snowiest villages in France and the gateway to the infamous Swiss Wall for anyone whose legs are ready that early. Les Arcs and La Plagne both follow on Saturday the 12th — the Aiguille Rouge summit at 3,226 m on one side of the valley, the Bellecôte glacier on the other. La Plagne reckons on roughly 70% of its area open mid-December and all of it by Christmas, which is about how the whole Alps works: the date is the start line, not the full picture. ❄️
Still Watching the Sky 🌨️
Chamonix hasn't published its ski-area dates yet 🇫🇷, but there's a genuine reason to watch this one: the brand-new Grands Montets gondolas make their debut this winter. And when the season does open, the 20 km Vallée Blanche — glacier, guide and all — will be waiting at the top of the valley.
Aviemore announces when the snow does 🏴. Cairngorm Mountain usually names a date in late autumn, and even then the weather has the final say. Honestly, we wouldn't have it any other way: the Ptarmigan Bowl, Britain's only mountain funicular and a proper Highland winter are worth the suspense. We'll update this post the moment either resort commits.
Can't decide? Play them all first. 🃏
Sixteen resorts, fourteen opening dates, one booking decision. If the group chat is already at war over Tignes-in-November versus Courchevel-in-January, the deck is the tiebreaker. Bomb the Sarenne on a Tuesday evening. Have a nightmare on the Harakiri without leaving the kitchen table. Play all 16 before you go, and let Ready Steady Slope settle the argument — 2–6 players, 20–30 minutes a round, no transfer coach required.
93 days. Wax the skis, scrape the board, shuffle the deck. ❄️🎿🏂🃏
– RSS Team