Skiing Through Borders 

Skiers have always been open-minded types. There’s something about being together in the mountains, usually with a diverse group of people from various nationalities having fun on the slopes together, surrounded by the mighty and magnificent mountains, that helps us forget our differences. In the words of a well-known song, we can, if we like, imagine there are no countries, it isn’t hard to do. 

In a few resorts, we can also ski, seamlessly, from one country to another, too, adding to that sense of freedom.  It can be a lot of fun too, skiing into Italy for a ‘real’ pizza and espresso for lunch before returning to France or Switzerland before the lifts close, for example.    

You can also go on a bargain shopping trip skiing out of the EU to the tax-free ski resort of Samnaun in Switzerland from Austria’s Ischgl. The cross-border piste back from the Swiss side is known as the Duty Free run and is patrolled by customs men and women on skis! You need to be sure of your tax-free allowances before filling up a backpack for your return to Ischgl. 

There are two ski routes through the French Alps into Italy, either of which might follow Hannibal’s famous route with his elephants, two millennia before the ski lifts went in. 

The Via Lattea (Milky Way) is one of Europe’s largest ski regions, much of it on the Italian side, which hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics, last staged in Western Europe (until this winter, when the Games return to Italy, including Livigno and Cortina d’Ampezzo). Italian resorts on the pass include Sauze d’Oulx and Sestriere. On the French side, though, you can stay in Montgenèvre and then launch on day ski safaris into Italy. 

Back in the day, this was a bit of a risky process, completing the circuit and getting back in a day, with slow drag lifts and even a border post above Claviere where skiers had to present their passports. However, the rolling out of Europe’s open-borders Schengen agreement in the 1980s and 1990s, coupled with investment in fast, comfortable chairlifts, now makes it easy peasy. 

The other option is the Espace San Bernardo linking La Rosière in France with La Thuile in Italy via a windy plateau popular with kite skiers and offering over 150km of slopes. Some years ago, La Rosière dug up some huge elephant tusks from the snow, seeming to prove once and for all that this was where Hannibal crossed. Alas, the discovery was made on April 1^st and was an ‘Avril Poisson’ or April Fool. 

Another giant region that straddles two countries is the Portes du Soleil (“Gates of the Sun”), which is home to a dozen interconnected ski resorts located in both France and Switzerland. These include Avoriaz, Châtel, Morzine, and Les Gets on the French side, Champery and Les Crosets on the Swiss side. The main route across the border is the infamous ‘Swiss Wall’ run, a precipitous, giant mogul field which many opt to avoid by taking the quad chairlift that runs up it downwards instead or take an easier alternative piste.  

One of the most famous cross-border ski areas is also Europe’s highest and one of its most snow-sure, connecting Switzerland’s Zermatt and Italy’s Cervinia in a sector known as the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, located as it is below the stunning peak.  

Known as Ventina, this is one of the longest groomed runs in the world, starting at one of the world’s highest lift-served points at 3,820 metres up, accessed by the fabulous ultra-modern Matterhorn Glacier Ride lifts.  From here it’s a glorious cruise, up to 11.5km down over the border to Cervinia, again covering a world-class vertical descent of 1,770 metres. As the bottom of the run is still at over 2,000 metres, it’s a trail that’s open from late autumn through to the spring. Indeed, it was considered as a possible location for an early Autumn cross-border World Cup Downhill racecourse at one time. 

It’s not just skiing from one country into another, though. There are all kinds of boundaries you can ski through.  

At more off-the-beaten-track ski destinations, you can ski through the old Iron Curtain between Slovenia (once Yugoslavia) and Italy between the ski areas of Kanin and Sella Nevea. You can ski from the European to the North American continental plate at Iceland’s largest ski area, Bláfjöll. 

One of the most remarkable barriers you can ski through is to be found in America, where you can ski through time! Well, kind of. Lookout Pass, based in Idaho, expanded its terrain into Montana for the winter of 2022/23, adding 14 runs and 500 acres of terrain. But what was unusual about the expansion was that it also crossed into a new time zone, with the resort now operating across America’s Pacific and Mountain Time zones.  

One of the new runs in particular, Eagle’s Flight, begins in Montana and crosses into Idaho and a different time zone an hour behind halfway down. It means you arrive at the bottom well before you set off at the top.  

Not so much “back to the future” (until you take the lift back up), more forward to the past! 

Call our experts on 020 3944 0364 to find your dream ski holiday.