by Patrick Thorne with First Tracks!! Online Media staff reports

Kiltarlity, Scotland, UK – It’s one of the quietest weeks of the year on the world’s ski slopes with fewer than 20 ski areas open worldwide. The southern hemisphere’s ski season is virtually over with just a few areas open in New Zealand, and although the snow guns have been firing up in North America, only one area is open so far.nIn Europe there are 13 ski areas to choose from on the glaciers where temperatures are hovering between -2 and +2ºC and the weather fair, but more centers will open this weekend, including the first outside the Alps. As was the case last week there are currently more indoor snow centers (around 55) open worldwide than normal outdoor slopes.

More northern hemisphere ski areas are open than in the southern hemisphere this week for the first time in four months and with most of New Zealand’s areas closing over the weekend, Austria now offers more open ski areas than any other country on the planet, with seven glaciers to choose from. Upper slopes at the Kitzsteinhorn glacier above Kaprun remain open with a 57cm (two foot) base. Nine kilometers of runs are open on the Molltal glacier which has a 90cm (three foot) base. Solden has more terrain – 22.1km of runs – open, but the snow depth is 45cm (18 inches), with another centimeter overnight. The Pitztal glacier has six lifts operating, Kaunertal three but the Tux glacier, open virtually year round, continues to have one of the biggest areas available, with 42km of runs and a nearly 600m of vertical. The Stubai glacier near Innsbruck has a 60cm (two foot) base and nine runs open.

Switzerland will have four ski areas open this weekend when the Diavolezza glacier joins Engelberg, Saas Fee and Zermatt. Engelberg’s lifts on Mt. Titlis are open beginning at 8:30 a.m. every morning where currently there’s a 40cm base. Nine lifts, including the six-seater Ice Flyer chairlift and three runs are open.

Saas Fee and Zermatt are open as usual with between 1.2 and 1.8m (four to six feet) of snow on the runs.It’s just over three weeks before the World Cup arrives in Saas fee for the first outdoor snowboarding competition of the season. The resort will be building twin half pipes in its Allalin glacier snowpark.

A fifth Swiss area, Glacier 3000 near Diablets and Gstaad, will open on the 30th.

Italy’s Passo Stelvio is reporting the deepest snow at presently at an open ski area anywhere in the world with a two meter (6.6 foot) accumulation. Val Senales is the other Italian center currently open with a 1.5m (five foot) base. Cervinia is due to re-open at the end of the month.

In France only Tignes is open and with the exception of a brief appearance by Les 2 Alpes at the end of the month, will remain so until late November. It currently has a 30cm (one foot) base.

Europe’s first non-glacier ski area is scheduled to open at Ruka in Finland this Friday. A 2km long cross country run opened already on Sunday, one of several in the country, and in fact Finnish media is reporting that there are more cross country tracks open in the country at this time of year than ever before. Most have maintained the snow.

In North America Timberline in Oregon is the only ski area open, although only on weekends, with a 75cm (2.5 foot) base. Teperatures, however, have dipped on both sides of the continent and Arapahoe Basin, Copper Mountain and Loveland in Colorado have begun making snow, as has Sunday River in Maine where a system test was conducted over the weekend. Resorts, however, had begun opening by this time last year, so it seems they’re a few days behind as we enter this “winter” 2010-11.

There’s been fresh natural snowfall, too. Breckenridge, one of the world’s highest ski resorts, and Crested Butte, Telluride, Aspen/Snowmass, Steamboat and Keystone in Colorado; Snowbird, Alta, Deer Valley, Park City, Canyons, and Brian Head in Utah; Mammoth Mountain and Squaw Valley USA, California; and Mt. Rose-Ski Tahoe in Nevada all reported a white coat at higher elevations over the week, while ski instructors at Silverton Mountain have made first tracks in Colorado on their mountain. Mt. Norquay by Banff looks likely to be the first area to open in Canada, for its 85th season, on Oct. 30.

There are few ski areas open in the southern hemisphere even though all ski areas have now closed in Africa, Australia and South America as three centers are open still in New Zealand. Mt. Hutt still has a 155cm (five feet) base and received another 10cm (four inches) of snow on Sunday. On Mt. Ruapehu both ski areas were closed today by strong winds and fresh snow bringing blizzard conditions, but Whakapapa has a 176cm (six foot) base and Turoa a little more. It will be the last area in the southern hemisphere open through to November.