Early skiing season in Cortina d'Ampezzo Oct 30, 2009

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This year the winter come to Alps sooner than usual, the temperature fell sharply, and the desire to open up the ski resorts ahead of time has grown exponentially. In Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, the snow guns are working round the clock and one of the mountain regions, Faloria, is expected to start operating the new funicular system as early as November 13th, which is ahead by almost a month, as compared to the traditional season openings in the Alps. The Cortina d'Ampezzo opening is also ahead of the ski zone opening at the Dolomiti Superski resort, which covers the whole Alto Adige area between Veneto and Trentino, which has 1400 km of tracks, and where the beginning of the season was planned for November 28th.

The previous season was also relatively long and ended only in May because the summer and spring season break was shorter than anyone could have ever expected, beating all the records. In the Cortina d'Ampezzo town the temperature suddenly fell from +20° to below zero, and up in the mountains, at heights above 2000 meters, the temperature is currently around – 8°. The snow guns have substantially covered the tracks between Faloria and Tondi. At the moment the column of the thermometer slowly ascends toward higher temperature, but the association of funicular lifts in Cortina plans to keep its promise and still open the resorts on November 13th. Snowcats are gradually leveling the freshly "brewed" snow. For those who cannot find the patience to put on the skis, 25 km of tracks are already opened on the Plato Rosa glacier in Cervinia, right on the border with Switzerland (recently the resort received 15cm of snow precipitation). The funicular lifts are currently only working weekends, however, starting on October 31st, they will start operating every day of the week.

People are free to ski on the glacier in Val Senales (the resort is open 24/7, and is located in the Alto Adige region). Recently heavy snows have fallen at the Val Senales resort, and in Stelvio Pass region, but the lift will be shut down here on November 3rd.