Do you watch Alpine skiing and say, “Big deal — they take a ski lift up the mountain”? If so, ski mountaineering is for you. And in four years, you’ll be able to watch it in the Olympics.
Ski mountaineering, or skimo to its devotees, is coming to the Winter Games in 2026 in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. It’s sort of like Alpine skiing, except the athletes start the race by climbing to the top of the mountain under their own power.
The climb understandably takes up the bulk of the race and includes sections of cross-country skiing and hiking when the snow gets deeper and rougher.
After that punishing workout, it might seem like a treat to ski downhill. Not always in skimo, though. The downhill sections can be rougher and less manicured than the well-groomed courses of Alpine skiing. The result is more like off-piste skiing, almost like breaking new trails in the backcountry. After all, a typical slalom course doesn’t have rocks and boulders to maneuver around, or varying depths of snow.
As in triathlon, transitions are important in skimo. Athletes hurriedly remove, replace or adjust their skis several times in a race.
The 2026 Olympics will host five ski mountaineering events. In the sprint, skiers dash up a mountain and then down again, perhaps only 100 meters each way, and the race is over in minutes.
The individual race is the event you will want to see, a grueling hour and a half that includes at least three ascents and three descents.
The fifth event will be the Olympics’ new favorite: a mixed-gender relay.
Why is ski mountaineering is being added to an Italian Olympics? Most likely because Italy is probably the best in the world at it. The Swiss and French could also contend for medals.
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