Val Thorens in France (2,5 h drive from Geneva). There was a ski test last w/e and the pictures showed quite a lot of snow. Zermatt is also open as it has a glacier.

Avoriaz/Portes du Soleil though was cancelled by the Ski Club Geneva due to missing snow.

Verbier is open this weekend, but only the 'Lac de Chaux' area (3 runs).

More than that, the run from Attelas to Ruinettes will definitely be open. Verbier  is also the closest of all the resorts mentioned.

Verbier is my favourite, too (2 h drive from Geneva). Though 55/65 CHF for four runs...

I saw Val Thorens has good offers now (from 90 EUR for a week end incl. accomodation and skipass).

http://www.valthorens.com/winter-de/val-thorens/sonderangebote.354.html

Cheers guys. I like Verbier buit can only go for a day, so was hoping there might be somewhere a bit closer that was open already. Looks like most of the closest places aren't opening until nearer Christmas though...

Hello!! 

  If somebody wants try this weekend ... I would like join :)

From my understanding La Clusaz is opening this weekend in the Balme Area and also Courmayeur on the Italian side of Mt. Blanc is supposed to open this weekend.  With all of the snow falling this week I would keep an eye out for other resorts opening this weekend.

1 1/2h... I do it often.

Ah cool, didn't realise that part of La Clusaz was opening this weekend. That's probably the closest to Geneva I guess. What is the Balme area like? Will be going with someone who's pretty much a beginner so would need some gentle slopes...

Balme is the area all the way to the left:

http://www.chaletpro.com/upload_media/piste_maps/la_clusaz_piste_map.jpg

The first part off the lift might be a bit rough on a beginner.

http://www.aravis-panorama.com/webcamlaclusaz.htm#

On MountainDayz.com you can get the Verbier tickets with a 45% discount until Xmas. (disclaimer: I am a co-founder of MountainDayz)

Friends of mine were in Courmayeur yesterday and said there was knee deep powder and amazing piste sking. Any one keen to come to Chamonix this weekend to kick off the winter season?

On Sunday, we drove the 35 minutes to Col de la Faucille. Whilst it is a small ski area, there were no crowds, conditions were great and we had a blast.  Lift ticket only 24EU.  

Those pics look amazing!  Besindes Courmayer, does anyone know when the rest of the Cham resorts open? 

Their website http://www.chamonet.com/lifts/dates.htmlis still saying 22 December which is crazy with all this snow around.  Should be open now.

I find the websites for these ski resorts to be pretty useless, especially if you don't do French.

Grand Montet is supposed to partially open Saturday.  Other Chamonix resorts may open as well that will be announced sometime this week.

That's because you are looking at the wrong websites. The official website for Chamonix is

http://chamonix.com/welcome,0,en.html

and they announce partial opening December 8th, to be confirmed later in the week depending on the weather. And since people are bragging, I thought I'd post some of my own pictures from this weekend. Eat this, suckers!

Since we are all posting pictures from last weekend!

Chassoure?

What langauge is it that you do not speak. The Cham website is in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Chinese. 

Ski resorts cannot open just like that.  The persons responsible for preparing the pistes and running the lifts have contracts which start on 22nd December in Cham.  They have other jobs before then and it is a question of finding enough personnel who can start work one or two weeks earlier. 

Indeed 

Love it!! Looks promising!

It was La clusaz, balme areas. And it was pretty good. It could be an idea for next weekend

Hi there, 

are there any plans for the upcoming sunday to hit the slopes. I would be up for it...

Opening the ski season for me.

Looking forward to hear from your side.

Martin

great pictures.. i know partial openings this weekend at flaine, megeve, chamonix, la clusaz , avoriaz- weather doesnt look too good though