It’s time to dust off the goggles and wax the skis.
After a slushy start last year, Europe’s ski season is off to an early start this year.
Germany’s highest mountain, the Zugspitze, opened for business last weekend with nearly 8 feet of packed powder blanketing the upper slopes, according to snow reports.
Two of its six lifts were open Tuesday, the mountain’s Web site said, and more lifts should be open for the weekend, said Elke Nitsch, reservation manager at Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Garmisch, Germany.
While finding snow is pretty easy, getting to it or finding a place to sleep near it isn’t such a cinch.
“We are solid booked for the Thanksgiving weekend,” Nitsch said of the Edelweiss lodge.
There are still plenty of other lodging options in the area, though.
And it’s too late to get on this weekend’s trip to Kaprun, Austria, with Kaiserslautern’s Outdoor Recreation office. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of places with snow.
“A lot of the places that didn’t get snow last year have already gotten some good powder,” said Mica Becker, a recreation assistant with Kaiserslautern Outdoor Recreation.
The Kaiserslautern office took its first ski trip to Stubai, Austria, at the end of October, Becker said.
Feldberg, a newbie-friendly mountain in Germany’s Black Forest, also has about 20 percent of its runs ready to go, according to the ski Web site j2ski.com.
A handful of other resorts in Germany, Austria and Italy are also open, with a limited number of trails, according to the site.
