The Kitzbuhel ski village in the Austrian Alps

For the second straight year, the Austrian ski resort Kitzbühel broke it’s own early opening record when it opened on October 24th.

The 2009-2010 skiing season began earlier than ever before, two months earlier than the resort’s norm of opening for the Christmas holidays. Low temperatures, ultra-modern snow-making facilities and almost a metre of new snow have combined to allow the first October skiing in the 80-year history of the Kitzbühel cable cars.

The heavy snow should also form a great base for the season, although the geographical location of the Kitzbüheler Alpen means that snowfall is consistently heavy every winter. Kitzbuhel is often referred to as a ski area that could likely suffer from global warming, however it claims snowfall averages have not declined.

Kitzbühel ski resort will only be open on weekends until November 28th, after which it will be open daily. All seven of the ski resorts in the Kitzbüheler Alpen region have received plenty of fresh snowfall already and are ideally equipped for the coming winter.

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