Many of the world’s most important ski resorts have now opened for the 21-22 season, some for the first time since March 2020.

It’s a time of both high tension – not knowing what impact rising pandemic infection rates will have on ski area operations in Europe, and euphoria on the slopes as ski areas reopen. finally.

Lake Louise is pictured on Saturday November 26 with some of the best snow conditions in the world at this early stage of the season … sadly leading to the cancellation of the first Downhill World Cup of the 21-22 season, also the first in North America for two years due to the pandemic, although another is expected today.

In France, Val d’Isère, Chamonix and les 2 Alpes are among the ski areas that open this weekend, in Italy Livigno and Dolomiti Superski while most of the main ski areas in the Pyrenees, including Baqueira Beret and Sierra Nevada in Spain , also open. Germany, another country where ski areas couldn’t really open at all last winter, saw its highest ski slopes open on the Zugspitze.

North America’s largest ski area at Whistler Blackcomb as well as America’s largest, Park City, have both opened in recent days, as have more famous ski areas like Alta, Aspen, Big Sky. , Stowe, Mont Tremblant and Jackson Hole.

Pleasure travel is also now possible in Canada and the United States for skiers and snowboarders fully vaccinated for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Beaches across Japan have started to open after heavy snowfall this week. Furano and Rusutsu are among the first to do so, with Niseko (pictured below Friday) expected to follow next weekend. Leisure travel to Japan, however, remains closed for the time being.

In total, over 200 ski areas are already open in at least a dozen ski countries across the Northern Hemisphere, with some of the best early-season snowfall reported in the Canadian Rockies (Lake Louise pictured yesterday) and the Spanish Pyrenees.

It’s unclear what the coming weeks and months will bring, but for now in most countries – with Austria in a 20-day lockdown the current clear exception – the current ski season almost everywhere and most countries allow their ski resorts to open with a pandemic spreading the prevention measures in place.