Austrian Ski Resorts Opening Dates 2026/27 — Full List

Every August the same question shows up in group chats: when does the season actually start? Glaciers, sure, but which one first? And is it worth flying in for half-open lifts in October, or do you wait for December and ride proper terrain?

This page is the answer, kept up to date once a year. Sortable table of every major Austrian resort, planned opening dates for 2026/27, where to verify them yourself, and a short read on how to plan around the calendar without losing your mind.

If you book one trip a year, this is for picking the right month. If you book five, this is for stacking them. And if you ride park, scroll down to The park calendar — Austria’s park scene runs on a different timeline to the rest of the season, and the park-only resorts open weeks before the lifestyle ones.

The table

The dates above are planned or typical openings — what each resort communicates ahead of the season. Real openings move with snow conditions, often by a week in either direction. A warm October can push glacier openings back. A cold November can pull lower-altitude resorts forward. Always verify on the resort’s own site (column “Source”) before booking flights.

Resorts that open earliest

The early-season list is short and it’s almost entirely glaciers. Five names matter:

Hintertux Glacier is the weird one — open year-round. The lifts run 365 days a year, weather permitting. There’s almost always something to ride, even in August. Snow quality in autumn is the usual glacier compromise: hard-packed in the morning, slushy by 11. But it’s there, and that’s the whole point. For park, Hintertux is unique: Betterpark Hintertux is the only year-round park in Europe, with a beginner Easy Park, a 22m XL kicker on event weekends, and the Spring Battle every March (the biggest park event of the European season).

Pitztal Glacier typically pulls the trigger on its season opening in mid-September, and it has a real claim to “highest in Austria” — the lifts top out at 3,440 metres. That altitude buys cold mornings and reliable conditions earlier than anywhere else. The terrain isn’t huge but you’re not there for terrain. You’re there for the first turns of the year.

Stubai Glacier opens around late September and is the largest glacier resort in Austria — close to 35 km of pistes once the lower lifts are running, which doesn’t happen on day one but builds through October. Easy access from Innsbruck (40 minutes) makes it the obvious choice for a season-opener weekend. For park riders, this is the one. Snowpark Stubai Zoo is built and shaping by mid-October, and the autumn camp calendar (Prime Park Sessions, brand camps, Stubai Premiere) packs the place with serious park people. Lap counts here are higher than almost anywhere in the Alps because the dedicated park lift turns laps in two minutes.

Kaunertal Glacier is the quiet one of the bunch. Late September opening, smaller crowds than Stubai, and a freeride identity that pulls a particular kind of person. If you don’t ride park, this is your glacier.

Sölden doesn’t have a glacier in the same season-extending sense as the four above, but it does host the FIS Alpine World Cup opener every year on the Rettenbach Glacier, and the resort fires up its main winter lifts in mid-October. The combination of altitude, snowmaking, and the World Cup pressure means Sölden in October is usually the best non-glacier option in Europe.

Kitzsteinhorn (Kaprun) rounds out the early list with a mid-October opening. Glacier-fed, long top-to-bottom runs, and a quieter October vibe than the Tiroler glaciers.

If you only ride one early-season trip a year, Stubai is the lowest-friction option. If you want the first turns full stop and don’t care how much terrain is open, Hintertux. If you want park, wait until mid-October and pick between Stubai’s Snowpark Stubai Zoo and Kaunertal’s gear-heavy October events.

The park calendar

Park riding has its own season-within-a-season in Austria, and the resorts that actually shape from day one are not the same as the ones that open earliest. Park calendar, in rough order:

• Late September to early November — Stubai Glacier (Snowpark Stubai Zoo). This is the autumn capital of European park snowboarding. Brand camps, photo trips, pro sessions, and the full S-to-XL line back together by mid-October. If you only ride park once a year and want it dialled, this is the trip.
• October to December — Hintertux Glacier (Betterpark Hintertux). Year-round glacier means year-round park, but October-December is when the European park scene shows up in force. Setup is consistent and the autumn camps are smaller than Stubai’s.
• Mid-December to late March — Mayrhofen (Vans Penken Park). Once the lower-altitude season opens, Mayrhofen becomes the strongest park in Austria. Daily shaping, a real beginner park (Pintrack), and a crew that posts setup updates on Instagram. Tuesday after a weekend snowfall is the magic window.
• March — Hintertux Spring Battle. The biggest park event of the European season lands here every March. Even if you’re not competing, the week before and the week after are some of the best park days of the year because everyone serious is in town and the setup is at its peak.
• April — Mayrhofen Snowbombing week. Music festival on a mountain, with park sessions baked in. Whether this is your idea of heaven or your worst nightmare depends entirely on you.
• April-May — spring sessions. Most glacier parks run sun-soaked spring weekends through April and into May. Lower competition, softer landings, slower laps but more time on the kicker per session.

The names that matter for park: Stubai, Hintertux, Mayrhofen. Sölden and Kaunertal both have parks worth riding if you’re already there, but they’re not the reason to come.

Resorts that close latest

The late-spring list is also dominated by altitude. Five resorts realistically run into May and beyond:

• Hintertux — open year-round, so the question doesn’t apply
• Pitztal Glacier — typically into early May, sometimes longer
• Kaunertal Glacier — into the first week of June in good years
• Kitzsteinhorn (Kaprun) — mid-June, often the latest non-Hintertux closer
• Stubai Glacier — first week of June

Spring riding in Austria has its own personality. Sun’s high, snow’s wet by 10am at lower altitudes, and your line choice changes — slush bumps and corn instead of fresh tracks. The best riding tends to be 8–11am, then a long lunch, then a couple of soft afternoon runs. Kitzsteinhorn and Pitztal hold spring snow longest because of altitude. The Saalbach-style mid-altitude resorts close in mid-April for a reason.

If you’re chasing late-season days and want non-glacier terrain, Obergurgl-Hochgurgl runs to early May most years and feels like a proper resort rather than a glacier patch. Top elevation 3,082 m, full lift system, real on-mountain restaurants. Genuinely one of the more underrated late-season picks.

Glacier vs. non-glacier — what changes

The split matters more than the calendar lets on.

Glaciers open earlier, close later, and ride differently. Snow on a glacier moves — it’s literally a slow river of ice. Lift companies grade and groom the glacier surface daily, and crevasse zones are roped off, but the underlying terrain isn’t fixed in the way a regular pisted mountain is. You’re on a working glacier, not a packed-down snow surface over rock.

The trade-offs:

• Pros: reliable snow even in shoulder seasons, high altitude (cold, dry snow), fewer rocks because the surface is glacier ice rather than thin pack
• Cons: weather is harsher up high (visibility, wind), terrain is often less varied because you’re confined to safe zones, and the feel is somewhere between alpine and arctic

Non-glacier alpine resorts open later and rely on a mix of natural snowfall and snowmaking. The trade-offs flip:

• Pros: real mountain terrain, tree-line riding, longer top-to-bottom runs, more varied piste networks
• Cons: more snow-dependent in November, more crowded once they open in early December

For 2026/27 specifically: if you’re booking before mid-November, you’re looking at a glacier. If you can wait to early December, you have the run of every resort in the country.

How to plan around opening dates

A few practical things, learned mostly the hard way:

Don’t book flights based on the planned opening. Book based on the planned opening plus a week. Resorts open with limited terrain — sometimes one lift, sometimes a single piste from top to mid-station. The “real” opening, where most lifts are running and you can ride a full day, is usually 5–10 days after the announced date. If you arrive on day one, you’ll get the photo but not the day.

Watch the weeks around World Cup events. Sölden’s October opening is timed to the FIS World Cup, and the resort goes hard on snowmaking and preparation in the lead-up. The week after the World Cup is often the best skiing of October — terrain is open, the circus has left, and prices haven’t caught up yet.

Park riders: stack glacier trips back-to-back. Stubai’s autumn park season runs late September through October, then trails off. Mayrhofen’s Penken Park doesn’t fully open until mid-December. Hintertux fills the gap in November. If you can string two long weekends together, Stubai in late October and Hintertux in mid-November is the highest-quality park month-and-a-half in Europe.

Glacier weather changes the math. A warm October genuinely pushes glacier openings back. The 2023/24 season saw Stubai delay by a full ten days. If you’ve booked a flight to Innsbruck for a glacier weekend in late September and the weather forecast is 18°C, it’s worth checking the glacier site daily in the week before — they update their terrain status more frequently than they update the headline opening date.

The “soft opening” weekend matters. Many resorts run a weekend or two of limited operations before their full season, often unannounced. Hintertux’s autumn freeride weekends, Stubai’s pre-season park sessions, Kaunertal’s freeride opening — these aren’t on the official calendar but they’re on each resort’s social channels. Worth a follow.

Spring riding is underrated as a planning strategy. April and early May trips are roughly half the price of February, with longer days and softer snow. If you’re flexible on conditions and don’t need fresh tracks, the late-season list above is the cheapest serious skiing in the Alps. Glacier resorts in particular are often nearly empty in May.

Christmas and New Year is the worst week to plan around. Every resort is open. Every flight is full. Every chalet is double-priced. If your job lets you, the second week of January is the same skiing for two-thirds the cost.

A few resorts worth knowing about that aren’t in this table

The table covers fifteen of the bigger and better-known resorts. A few smaller ones are worth flagging because they punch above their size:

• Mölltal Glacier (Carinthia) — the only glacier resort outside Tirol/Salzburg. October opening, quiet scene, and a different feel than the Tiroler glaciers
• Gastein (Salzburg) — December opening, but the spring riding and the thermal baths combination is unique in Austria
• Heiligenblut / Großglockner (Carinthia) — small resort but the views down the Großglockner valley are some of the best in the country
• Ankogel (Carinthia) — one of the longest single descents in Austria, and a freeride-leaning crowd

We’ll add these and others to the main table for the 2027/28 update.

Sources

The dates in the table come from each resort’s published winter schedule or season information, linked in the table’s “Source” column. Where a resort hadn’t yet announced 2026/27 dates at publishing time, we’ve used the typical date from the previous three seasons and labeled the column accordingly.

Last updated: April 2026. Next scheduled update: August 2026 (when most resorts publish their winter schedules).

If you spot a resort that’s missed or a date that looks wrong, the email is in the imprint.

Track your days at any of these resorts

That’s the table. Whether you spend the season on a glacier or chase the conditions resort to resort, Slushbook keeps the log: where you were, what you rode, who with, what you landed.

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