More than a dozen of the world’s top resorts have now opened for the winter – in most cases thanks to heavy snowfall which has brought several feet (60cm+) of fresh snow to some resorts in the Alps, as well as big falls in the Pyrenees and at least a foot (30cm) to most.

Breckenridge, Copper Mountain and Keystone in Colorado, Levi in Finland and Banff and Lake Louise in Canada as well as Passo Tonale in Italy joined the list at the weekend which already includes Killington and Mammoth Mountain in the US and Bormio and Cervinia in Italy. Geilo and Hemsedal in Norway are also opening.

Banff Mount Norquay, Mammoth and Bormio all reported they were opening up to a month early because of the snow.

Glacier ski areas have been open since September and October – they include the Tux glacier near Mayrhofen, the Stubai near Innsbruck, Kaprun’s glacier and several others including Solden in Austria. In Switzerland Zermatt is open year round and has been joined by Saas Fee, Engelberg and Glacier 3000 above Les Diablerets and Gstaad.

Whistler Blackcomb opens next week and has so far received about 30cm (a foot) of snow to get the base building.

This winter, skiers and riders will be able to travel from the park gate on Blackcomb to the park gate on Whistler in just 11 minutes via the new PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola. The resort has spent a total of $748,000 to improve the Nintendo Terrain Parks.

The terrain parks department has spent $40,000 this year on building new rails and re-designing old ones. They’ve also added two giant PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola cable spools to the arsenal of industrial-style jib features in the Nintendo Habitat Terrain Park. There will be more than 100+ features spread across the five Nintendo Terrain Parks.

Park skiers and riders will also notice that the Habitat Terrain Park gate on Whistler Mountain has been expanded higher up the mountain, adding more acreage to the park and less congestion at the entrance.

Whistler Blackcomb has also spent $30,000 re-contouring the Nintendo Superpipe in response to guest suggestions. The project included widening, deepening and improving the drop in. The walls are now smoother and more even for an improved pipe experience.

The latest addition top the growing number of metal downhill roller coasters and zip wires served by ski lifts at ski resorts in Europe is the new First Flyer at Grindelwald, Switzerland, which the resort believes is the first of its kind in Europe.

The First Flyer gives four people the chance to simultaneously yet independently, glide through the air on a length of cable about 800 meters long, at speeds of up to 84km and hanging up to 45m (160 feet) above the ground.

In effect, the construction is four parallel zip wires, which link the starting and finishing platforms without supporting masts. Guests sit in a special harness which is very similar to that used for paragliding. The harness is attached to a safe roller mechanism on the wire.

The facility is just as suitable for use in winter as in summer and makes a spectacular addition to the other mountain activities on offer. The First Flyer is suitable for people of all ages. It will fascinate children and adults and the fact that four people can use the First Flyer should make it popular as a family and group experience.

This kind of facility is currently found only in the USA (Park City, Snowbird, Utah Olympic Park, Icy Strait Point, Wildcat and Heavenly Valley) and in Siberia (Krasnojarsk).

The ride will open on 13th December 2008. www.ziprider.com