7.5 °C at 3,000 m: why Diavolezza and Titlis opened their glacier pistes late

The Pers glacier and Piz Palü seen from Diavolezza, August 2016. Photo: Bgvr via Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Diavolezza, at 2,978 m in the Upper Engadin, opened its first piste on Saturday 24 October 2026, one week later than planned. Titlis above Engelberg opened its glacier the same day, two weeks late. On 16 October the Diavolezza top station still measured 7.5 °C in the early afternoon. MeteoSwiss station data show how warm that week was at 3,300 m, and a firn piste asks something specific of your skis.

• Diavolezza runs piste 01 and the Diavolezzafirn chairlift on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays until 15 November 2026, then daily from 19 December to 2 May 2027.
• Titlis moved its glacier opening from 10 to 24 October 2026; Stand-Trübsee follows on 5 December, the valley run on 19 December.
• The MeteoSwiss station on Piz Corvatsch (3,294 m) averaged −1.5 °C from 1 to 24 October, 1.5 °C above normal; its daily maximum fell from +6.0 °C on 16 October to −8.1 °C on 24 October.
• Snow farming has kept 60 to 80 % of the stored snow through the summer at Diavolezza since 2007, the operator says.
• La Dôle in the Vaud Jura keeps its season after a rent deal on 20 October, with 28 km of pistes instead of 34 km.

Diavolezza is the first ski area in the canton of Graubünden to open this winter, the operator wrote in its press release of 21 October 2026. "When the Engadin in the valley still shows its autumn side, our guests can already draw their first turns in the snow on the Diavolezza," said Markus Moser, managing director of Diavolezza Lagalb AG, in that release. Until 15 November the public skis on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays; national teams train there on the other days. After a maintenance break, daily operation runs from 19 December to 2 May 2027.

The first piste is firn run number 01, served by the four-seat Diavolezzafirn chairlift, with the first ascent at 07:40 and the last descent at 16:20, imticker.ch reported on 22 October. The cable car and the Berghaus Diavolezza are open every day.

Titlis-Engelberg opened its glacier the same Saturday instead of on 10 October. The operator's website gives 24 October 2026 to 2 May 2027 as the glacier season, with Stand-Trübsee planned for 5 December and the valley run for 19 December, skinachrichten.de wrote on 13 October. No reason was published, according to that report and to SnowBrains of 12 October.

The rest of the Upper Engadin follows later, according to the same release: Corvatsch opens on 21 November, Corviglia on 28 November, and Furtschellas, Lagalb and Muottas Muragl on 19 December 2026.

On 16 October SRF reported that Diavolezza had moved its opening from 17 to 24 October because high temperatures made snowmaking difficult. The same afternoon the top station at almost 3,000 m still measured 7.5 °C, the Engadiner Post wrote, citing Keystone-SDA. That was "too warm to prepare the pistes in the usual width and quality", Nicolà Michael, head of marketing at Corvatsch AG, told the agency. "The first half of October was about two degrees too warm in Switzerland," meteorologist Peter Wick told 20 Minuten on 19 October, ahead of two cold fronts.

We compared the daily values of the MeteoSwiss station on Piz Corvatsch, 3,294 m, in the same Upper Engadin, from the MeteoSwiss open data (SwissMetNet daily values, read on 25 October 2026). From 1 to 24 October 2026 the station averaged −1.5 °C, against a 1991–2020 normal of −3.0 °C for the same days: 1.5 °C warmer than normal, the 12th warmest of 48 Octobers since 1979. Days with a maximum above freezing, 11, were normal. The problem was the timing: the warmest days fell on the planned opening week.

At a daily mean of +4.5 °C the snow guns stand still and stored firn melts. Seven days later, with a minimum of −12.8 °C on 24 October, the piste could open. At Samedan in the valley (1,709 m) the same days were 1.2 °C above normal.

Diavolezza has stored snow since 2007. In May, piste machines push the old snow onto the glacier and cover it with a white fleece of bio-based polylactide that insulates it and reflects sunlight. In late summer 10 to 15 people remove the fleece and spread the snow into the first piste. "With this method, around 60 to 80 percent of the stored snow can be conserved," Nicolà Michael of Diavolezza Lagalb AG told watson on 22 October; energy and water use is about one third lower than with snow guns, he said.

At Titlis the tone is more careful. "The early season start in October on the glacier involves ever greater effort. We must therefore expect the winter season to shift in time in future," Norbert Patt, CEO of Titlis Bergbahnen, said in an interview with schweizeraktien.net on 22 October.

Not every Swiss delay is about temperature. In the Vaud Jura, Télé-Dôle SA and the French operator Sogestar agreed on Tuesday 20 October to run La Dôle this winter, Sports Infos reported on 22 October. Sogestar had asked for a cut to its fixed rent of 500,000 Swiss francs per season after two low-snow winters. The compromise closes the Tabagnoz and Cuvaloup drag lifts and cuts the sector from about 34 km to about 28 km of pistes. "The rent reduction is set in proportion to the number of kilometres of piste that cannot be operated," said Olivier Riesen, vice-president of Télé-Dôle SA, in that report. La Côte confirmed the deal on 21 October; the season pass stays at 417 euros.

An October glacier piste is one groomed strip of stored firn and machine-made snow. After a night at −12 °C it is hard and often icy; in the afternoon sun it softens. Width is limited, so turns are short and the edge does the work. On the makers' figures, narrow carvers suit such a strip best: a 65 to 72 mm waist and an 11 to 15 m radius at 165 to 175 cm.

Three current models in our catalog fit that description: the Head Supershape e-Magnum (72 mm waist, 13.1 m radius at 170 cm), the Stöckli Laser CX (69 mm, 12.8 m at 163 cm) and the Atomic Redster X9S (65 mm, 14.8 m at 174 cm). Wider all-mountain and freeride skis wait for December, when the full areas open and the first natural snow of 22 October has company. The Pick-a-ski tool ranks the catalog on edge grip and carving for a hard-snow shortlist.

• Diavolezza Lagalb AG press release (21 Oct 2026); SRF, Engadiner Post / Keystone-SDA (16 Oct); imticker.ch, watson (22 Oct)
• skinachrichten.de (13 Oct); SnowBrains (12 Oct); schweizeraktien.net (22 Oct); 20 Minuten (19 Oct)
• Sports Infos / ski-nordique.net (22 Oct); La Côte (21 Oct)
• MeteoSwiss SwissMetNet open data, daily values for Piz Corvatsch (COV) and Samedan (SAM), read 25 Oct 2026