What is ski mountaineering?
Ski mountaineering is a sport of the skiing discipline which combines aspects of ski touring, backcountry skiing, Telemark, and mountaineering. The objective of the sport is to climb up a mountain wearing skis, and occasionally carrying them if the ascent is too steep, and then descend on skis after reaching a fixed point. It is practiced both at a recreational and competitive level, and is mostly popular in Europe.
The skis used for the sport should not weigh more than four pounds, and are classified into two major types, free-heel Telemark skis and a variation of Alpine skis in which the heel is free for ascents and is fixed during descents. Bindings, light and flexible boots, and ski skins to walk upslope, are the other equipment required.
Competitions are conducted on established trails on challenging alpine terrains, in which competitors are required to pass through a series of checkpoints. Races are mostly timed events in which the athlete to complete the ascent and descent in the fastest time is the winner.
The three most important races in the sport of ski mountaineering are, the Mezzalama Trophy in Italy, the Patrouille des Glaciers in Switzerland, and the Pierra Menta in France.
Rules and Competitions
Ski mountaineering races fall into several categories, each with its own unique aspects:
Individual: Most popular in the USA, these races have a mass start and usually take around 2-3 hours to complete.
Team: Teams of two or three skiers set off on a several-hour course that takes them up and down mountains and involves on-foot ascents.
Sprint: An exciting short-course race that takes just a few minutes, individual racers take on a single ascent and descent. 토토
Vertical: A single ascent, on skis, of 2,000-3,000 feet, with no downhill portion.
Relay: Teams of three or four compete in a relay circuit of about 15 minutes per leg.
Several international competitions are held each year, as well as the multi-stage World Cup organized by the ISMF. When ski mountaineering joins the Olympics in 2026, there will be five events: men’s and women’s sprint, men’s and women’s individual, and a mixed-gender relay.
History
In some ways, ski mountaineering is the closest modern analog to the historical role of skiing as a mode of transportation. From prehistoric times, humans have used skis to move across snow-covered landscapes, but those skiers also had to contend with the reality of topography: they would have to cross mountains too steep to ascend on skis and be prepared to ski down the other side just the same. In most modern ski competitions, an element of this has been lost: in alpine skiing, racers only go downhill, and in cross-country skiing, the racers only contend with very small changes in elevation.
The modern sport of ski mountaineering traces its roots to 1897, when Wilhelm Paulcke, a German, completed the first recorded ski traverse of the Bernese Highlands in Switzerland. Throughout most of the 20th century, other disciplines of skiing took over in popularity, and ski mountaineering was left out of most official ski competitions. While many events were organized by militaries in Europe since at least the 1940s, the first World Championships were not held until 2002. Since then, the sport has continued to grow in popularity in Europe and around the world, leading to it officially being added to the program for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
