Kicking off the Ski Season - Oct. 22

As the summer has come to a close and the weather has cooled, leaves are beginning to change, and football season has begun, it is time to look forward to ski season!  

Although absurdly early, I went to Saas Fee for the weekend to ski with friends (I have never skied in November yet alone October!).  Saas Fee is the center of Switzerland and the skiing is on a glacier so it's possible to ski most of the year although it did take 3 lifts to reach the top of the mountain as there was no snow in the village.

Coverage wasn't bad for what was open, although not a lot of ski terrain was open.  Most of the area was dominated by ski teams (private club, high school, and national teams throughout Europe); it was likely that 10 pct. of the skiers were recreational.

In order to get skiers to the area early in the season, the resort was featuring a promotion to demo skis (essentially free with the lift ticket and hotel from now through the end of November). I managed to try 6 pairs of skis in a day and a half of skiing and many things I would not buy such as slalom and long GS racing skis.  I did manage to push the GS ski to the limit, get some air and then proceed with a GS style fall skidding down the hill to a stop and breaking the ski; I was perfectly fine so no worries.

All-in-all a great way to kick off the ski season; the only negative being there are limited restaurant choices this early in the season as not much has opened.  We laughed early in the day that a reservation would be needed and then struggled to find a restaurant with an available table for dinner and had to sit at the bar.