I know this might sound like a silly question, but I looked at the website for Engelberg and couldn't find an answer. It looks like the weather is going to be nice this Sunday and we'd like to go skiing -- are slopes typically open on Jan 1?

I figured that it was better to ask here and get a ribbing from EFers than to drive all the way to the mountains and discover they were closed. I assure you that I'd get more than a 'ribbing' from my wife if that happened.

It's the best morning of the year to ski - everyone is still in bed...

Yes the drag lifts will be open, but the weather will be terrible, so the chair lifts might be closed due to high winds.

http://www.meteoswiss.admin.ch/web/d...005.html#Karte

Sunday forecast is actually very good.

Loads of snow and still snowing in the Jura, with excellent weather forecast for Sunday. So a great day's cross country skiing, or skiing/boarding in all our (often snow challenged) resorts. La Robella, Les Rasses, Les Bugnenets in CH, and Métabief/Jougne just over the border- with the great little resort of Les Fourgs fab for beginners and kids. Enjoy.

For x-country Les Cernets, La Brévine and Les Rasses/Les Cluds should be perfect on Sunday too.

Yep, there open. I have been keeping an eye on the weather myself as I have the same idea. Some lifts are closed today but you can still get up... and the winds are stronger today than what is forcast for Sunday.

So game on . First lift in the morning and have the runs practically to yourself !

Today has been a fantastic day in Flaine France, 30cm light powder today, more than 1m expected in next 24 hours so expect minimal opening or total closure of many resorts due to high avalanche risk.

Yes, slopes will be open in Engelberg. http://www.titlis.ch/en/titlis/titli...ion_activities to see what is open and look at weather forecast to see weather for the next days. http://www.titlis.ch/en/titlis/titlis_live/weather.

Despite making it beyond midnight last night, I managed to resist the urge to hit 'snooze' and dragged myself out of bed and down to the slopes. I'm sure glad I did -- conditions were fantastic and we had a wonderful time.

A quick scan of the internet showed that half of Engelberg was closed, presumably because of the heavy overnight snowfall and the risk of avalanches. No matter. Conditions looked good at Adelboden with almost the entire mountain open, so that's where we headed.

The early mist and rain cleared by mid-morning, and by 11am we had warm, sunny weather for the remainder of the day.

potbelly was right on the money -- until lunchtime we had the whole mountain virtually to ourselves, and we didn't wait in a single queue all day. It was just straight onto the lift, down the run, then straight back up again. My kind of skiing.

In fact, the only waiting we did all day was in the skating rink car park, where I managed to get stuck as we were trying to leave. We had to wait for the man with the gravel truck to come and bail us out... and we had to wait just long enough for the owner of the car ahead of mine to return to witness the carnage of me sliding into her car.

Of course, she then stepped onto the ice herself and went arse-over-tit, which pretty much explained the situation better than my broken German can. The cars came off unscathed and she was surprisingly relaxed about it all.

All-in-all, a great day out and a wonderful way to start the New Year!

Point of order - only the glacier and one part (Standard, the blue section) of the home run were closed on Titlis today. The rest of the slopes were open and very nice indeed. And just the top drag lift at Brunni was closed - the beginners area at Klostermatt was also very good, apparently.

Good stuff. I do like Adelboden, although it's a year or five since we skied there. Great range of skiing available and a nice village too.