Saas-Fee and Zermatt: the Swiss ski winter starts after a summer heat stop

Skiers on the glacier piste at about 3,500 m above Saas-Fee in February 2007. Photo: Fulvio Barudoni via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Saas-Fee started its 2026/27 winter season on Saturday 31 October 2026, and Zermatt's whole area follows on Sunday 1 November. Both glacier areas had to stop summer skiing in the heat of July and August. Now the two Valais resorts open the Swiss season on their glaciers.

• Saas-Fee opened the winter on Saturday 31 October 2026, with pistes down to Morenia.
• Zermatt starts its whole ski area on Sunday 1 November; Sunnegga and Gornergrat follow on 28 November.
• Zermatt closed summer skiing for guests on 31 July and reopened on Wednesday 14 October.
• Saas-Fee stopped summer skiing on 10 August and reopened two glacier lifts on 3 October.
• At the Gornergrat station (3,129 m) the daily mean fell to −8.9 °C on 24 October.

"On 31 October 2026 the starting signal for the 2026/27 winter season goes off in Saas-Fee," the operator Saastal Tourismus wrote on 29 October. The Magic Pass is valid from the first day. The regional paper Walliser Zeitung printed the announcement on 31 October.

Besides the glacier area, the pistes down to Morenia are open for the first weekend, among them the Weisse Meile, Gletscherband and Eiskristall runs. At weekends the Alpin Express (sections 1 and 2) and the Metro Alpin run. On weekdays the Felskinnbahn and the first section to Spielboden take skiers up.

At Hohsaas in Saas-Grund, day and multi-day passes get demand-based prices for 2026/27: who books early online pays less, the operator wrote.

Both resorts are known for summer skiing on their glaciers. In 2026 the heat stopped it. Zermatt Bergbahnen closed guest skiing on the Theodul glacier on 31 July 2026, because of "the exceptional weather of the past weeks". Some Swiss-Ski teams could keep training on prepared pistes.

Saas-Fee followed. Its last summer ski day was Sunday 9 August, and the pistes closed from Monday 10 August, skinachrichten.de reported. The operator named lasting high temperatures and warm nights as the reason.

On 9 October, the operator announced that guest skiing would resume on Wednesday 14 October. The Plateau Rosa 1 and 2 drag lifts and the Matterhorn Glacier Ride II between Klein Matterhorn and Testa Grigia run again.

"The season start of the whole ski area is on 1 November," the Swiss news site watson wrote. The Sunnegga-Rothorn and Gornergrat areas open on Saturday 28 November 2026, according to watson and nume.ch. The operator's own summer ski pass is valid until 4 November 2026.

The first snow of the season came in the night to Thursday 22 October. After it, the high stations stayed cold. MeteoSwiss data for Gornergrat at 3,129 m show daily means between −3.7 °C and −8.9 °C from 21 to 24 October, with a low of −12.2 °C on 24 October.

A warm spell followed: on 27 October the Gornergrat maximum reached +7.5 °C. In Zermatt village, at 1,638 m, it stayed dry from 26 to 31 October and no snow lay on the ground.

Saas-Fee and Zermatt are not alone. Other glacier and high areas started earlier or follow in November, according to watson. Most larger Swiss areas open between 21 November and 19 December, if there is enough natural or machine-made snow. The British site InTheSnow noted in September that heat had closed Zermatt's summer ski area for the second time in four years.

In early November only part of each area is open, and the glacier pistes are groomed hard. On cold mornings they are often icy. A narrow piste ski with a short radius holds best there.

Saas-Fee lists ski test days with Stöckli this winter. On the makers' figures, the Stöckli Laser SC has a 70 mm waist and a 14.9 m radius at 170 cm, and the Stöckli Laser SX a 70 mm waist and 16 m at 173 cm. Compare them, or let Pick-a-Ski rank the catalog for your level and terrain.