No snow. Snow cannons running around the clock so as not to postpone openings

Temperatures have dropped and now the night frosts have reached the plains too. In the morning we find our car windows frozen and the thermometer hovers around zero degrees. In the mountains temperatures fall as low as -10 degrees, and at altitude they no longer rise above zero, even in the middle of the day. In short, it really looks as if winter has arrived, but…

There’s no snow!

Snow is missing on almost all the Italian mountains: only above 2,000 m can you find the odd patch here and there from the previous snowfalls; otherwise the landscape looks brown, with the typical autumn colours. The days are nice and sunny with few clouds; with all this sunshine, you could say it feels more like September than November.

Snowmaking around the clock at Passo Resia

The weather isn’t the worst, but there’s no snow, and it’s not just a little that’s missing: a really huge amount is missing!
Almost all mid-altitude resorts have yet to see any snow, and other higher ski areas, although they can count on a bit of snow, would need a snowfall to build the base of the slopes.
To remedy the situation, for several days now the ski resorts have been making artificial snow 24 hours a day, temperatures permitting. The snowmaking systems are working flat out to produce as much snow as possible and avoid postponing the lift opening dates. Although a great deal of effort is being made, it seems that without new snowfall the situation cannot be unblocked. Starting from scratch and creating the base and the course of the ski slopes with artificial snow alone is an impossible task.
So the only ones still keeping the road to opening open for the coming weekends are the high-altitude ski areas (Campiglio on the Grostè, Faloria in Cortina, Livigno and Bormio 3000)
However, even for these the weather remains an unknown: in fact, even a brief halt in the snowmaking programme could lead to the opening being postponed.
The ones celebrating these cloudless days are the ski areas that are already open. The most important are Cervinia, Ghiacciaio Presena, Val Senales and Solda. They are grateful because, thanks to the unusual weather conditions, they can count on an oligopoly that would otherwise not exist.