Season’s End at 40 Resorts This Weekend, 20+ Open Later Into May

Around 40 of the 70+ ski areas still open in more than a dozen countries across the northern hemisphere end their 25-26 seasons this weekend having made it into May, but around two-dozen more will be staying open later into the month or beyond.

The last areas open in Germany, Slovakia and Spain are expected to close on Sunday or Monday, but whilst most of the resorts remaining open in Austria, Finland, France, Italy and Switzerland, but each will still have 1 or 2 areas open, Austria the most with four.

Norway’s 25-26 winter season is also expected to close but its first summer ski areas will begin operating in less than a weeks’ time next weekend. Sweden will just have its Arctic circle centre of Riksgransen open, offering skiing and riding under the midnight sun twice weekly. Scotland's Cairngorm is also still open and yet to name a closing date.

There are fewer areas open in the Western US this year than usual after a historically poor snowfall season led resorts usually open to late spring to close a month earlier than usual. There are though still more ski areas open here than any other country, a little over a dozen.  Half of these are expected to close May 3^rd, but some in the Rockies, on the East and West Coasts and the Midwest are expected to stay open later in the month, some into June. They include Killington, Snowbird, Mammoth and The Palisades, which recently announced it was re-extending its season after 84” (over 2.1m) of April snowfall having previously said they’d close early.  Jay Peak, pictured top this weekend, has announced it will re-open next weekend and possibly further weekends later this month.

Three ski areas will be open in Canada after this weekend with most still-open Japanese ski areas closing at the end of the country’s Golden Week celebrations on the 6^th.