The best early accumulations should stay on the upper mountain, with dense snow where it is falling. The main wave is favored Wednesday into early Thursday, and that is where the model signal is most consistent for both timing and the western tilt of the snowfall.
Standing among the Alps, it's easy to believe that they will last forever. They seem too big to fail, too old to change. This illusion of permanence has long entranced travelers who have visited to experience the intoxicating feeling of being daunted and dwarfed by a landscape's authority. But even mountains move: This past May an avalanche of ice and rock tore through the Lötschental Valley, erasing the village of Blatten in less than a minute.
I probably would have bailed halfway through (and lost all those bragging rights) if I weren't properly prepared. I had already learned the hard way during training for my trip, soaked and whimpering on the side of the trail without any fuel in my pack, ready to throw my hiking boots over a cliff like I was Reese Witherspoon in Wild. Turns out, getting the hiking gear right can make or break a hike.
Skiing is both a beloved pastime and a lifestyle throughout Europe, which means choosing a destination for a transatlantic ski trip can be a dizzying experience. While ski resorts can be found all over the continent, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and Norway are particularly renowned for their ski-friendly climates, terrain, and infrastructure. Villages like St. Moritz and Cortina d'Ampezzo have welcomed snow-seeking travelers for years.
In this context, Italy has the advantage of a portion of the Alps, a strip of about 1,200 km along the borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia. The Italian Alpine region hosts most of the facilities that have been prepared over the past five years for the Winter Olympics, which will take place from February 6 to 22, 2026, followed by the Paralympic Games from March 6 to 15.
