The parking lot pulsed with bass-heavy playlists and breakfast cocktails. Ski boots clicked alongside trail runners; bikes leaned against tailgates next to rock skis. Spring in the Northwest is less about conditions and more about community-and the stoke was high.
Both days delivered clear skies and cold temperatures, with hardly a cloud overhead and almost no wind. Despite the strong alpine sun, temperatures remained below freezing, keeping the snow in excellent shape across the mountain.
Avalanche forecaster Matthias Walcher explained that water is now penetrating deep into the snowpack, weakening long-standing weak layers that formed earlier in the winter. This process significantly increases the likelihood of spontaneous wet avalanches, particularly on steep west-, north-, and east-facing slopes between 2,200 and 2,500 meters.
Switzerland's men have dominated the ski slopes of Milano Cortina. Not since the super-G and the team combined were added to the Olympic programme in 1988 has one country won four of the five events a feat achieved with Loic Meillard's victory in the slalom on Monday. Only Brazil managed to stop them in these Games. Franjo von Allmen has been their undisputed star, heading home with three golds in his hand luggage.
Les Deux Alpes keeps unfolding lap after lap, zone after zone, until you realize you've spent the entire day chasing terrain that never really ends.
Starting on March 11 with the giant slalom races Montana State athlete Justine Lamontagne took the win for the women. Johs Herland from University of Utah won for the men's category, ultimately leading to an overall event win for University of Utah.
Industry News is once again at the center of the para alpine skiing world this week as it hosts the FIS Para Alpine Skiing World Cup from February 2-6, welcoming many of the sport's top athletes to the French Alps. The event serves as a critical competitive checkpoint on the road to the Milan-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games and shows Tignes' decades-long commitment to inclusive winter sport.
Snowfall in France this week has been huge, with some resorts seeing more than 2 meters (6.6 feet) in the last five days. A massive winter storm hammered the French Alps from February 10-13, unleashing monster snowfall that has buried resorts and reshaped the mountain landscape just days before Valentine's Day weekend. Across the Northern Alps - including iconic resorts in Haute-Savoie, Savoie, and Isère - weather stations reported extraordinary snow totals.
After the men in Bormio had raced the Super-G under sunshine, the women faced fog and steady snowfall on the Tofane in Cortina. But just like the men, the Super-G was everything one could hope for in ski racing: drama, excitement, and an underdog taking the win. Italy's Federica Brignone, who had not raced a single Super-G in the 2025-26 World Cup season due to niggling pain from her leg fracture at the end of last season, took the victory by nearly half a second.
From Sunday afternoon through early Tuesday, guidance converges on timing but diverges on intensity, so confidence is highest in a light event rather than a strong storm. Snow should be most persistent Sunday evening into Monday night, then taper Tuesday morning. The conservative near-term expectation is light accumulation for many resorts, with localized higher-terrain totals near 7 cm in the western and southern Alps.
I parked in a big underground garage and popped up out of the ground like a rabid squirrel right at the lifts. This was the first and only day I've skied alone the entire trip (I've been out here since Feb 3). I had absolutely no idea where to go. I jumped on the Olympique tram-gondola because I'd never seen a setup like that before. Each cabin was massive, holding maybe 40 people or more, with tons of seating. Everything is so civilized here.
With only 14 days until the XXV Olympic Winter Games commence on February 6 it is time to start looking at the highlights of the Olympic calendar. There will be a total of 116 medal events at the Milano-Cortina Winter Games. We have highlighted some of the favorite events for the two weeks, with a focus on Alpine and Freestyle skiing events. We will highlight Snowboard and Nordic events in a separate post to keep it visually digestible for readersa LOT is going on!
The first ever FIS Freeride World Championships went off yesterday, squeezing almost all of the competitors into a tight weather window on the Basser Negre face at Ordino Arcalis in Andorra. More than a couple of feet of new snow led to a significant weather delay at the start of the event, and hid many of the smaller rocks throughout the steep, technical face, which would plague competitors for most of the event.
