A flawless blue sky, larches turning gold, meadows still green: on Friday morning Sölden felt like the end of summer. The thermometer soon corrects the illusion, at 7°C in the village, 1,377 metres up. And, the curiosity of the day, 7°C at the foot of the glacier too, far higher: altitude made no difference.
Up on the glacier, the contrast is striking. Under a cobalt sky, the ochre and brown slopes, barely dusted along the ridges, look rather like Morocco's Atlas. Through the middle runs the World Cup piste, entirely white, already lined with its red safety nets, snow guns ranged along its edge.
Down below, the finish area is coming to life. The grandstand is up, the car park is full, the restaurant terrace is laid out in the sun, and stacks of barriers wait to be put in place. Shuttles up from the valley drop off their passengers: a week before the opening, the glacier already has the feel of a festival eve.
The FIS gave its green light on Thursday 15 October, without reservation. The women open the season with a giant slalom on Saturday 24 October; the men follow on Sunday 25 October.
Across the rest of the ski area, the resort lists 8 of its 31 lifts open and just under 24 of its 147 kilometres of piste: in Sölden, winter begins with a single run, and it is this one.
Every race of the season, with the state of its snow control, in our calendar.