Colorado's Keysone ski resort is one of several that have opened over the last week.

The 2009-2010 season is continuing its promising early start with more heavy snow reported this week and a plethora of resorts across the northern hemisphere opening earlier than planned.

Big name resorts to open in the past few days include Cortina in Italy, Hemsedal in Norway, Keystone and Copper Mountain in the Western US and Killington and Bretton Woods in The East and Verbier in Switzerland.

They join famous name resorts that had already opened early including Kitzbuhel and Schadming (at weekends) in Austria, Bormio in Italy, Ruka in Finland, Banff in Canada and Sunday River, Maine.

A dozen or so glacier resorts are also open. Among them are Saas Fee, Gstaad/Diablerets, Zermatt and Engelberg in Switzerland; Cervinia in Italy, Tignes in France and seven centres in Austria including Solden and the Stubai and Hintertux glaciers.

Dozens of smaller resorts have also opened and many more have announced they will open in the next seven days.

• Ski Resorts: click here to stay up to date with the latest from ski resorts from all over the world
• Snow: get all your snowfall news here