Milan Cortina Olympic mountains are wintry white after 1st big snowstorm of the season

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CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The mountains that will host the upcoming Milan Cortina Winter Olympics have been hit with their first significant snowstorm of the season.

On the upper sections of the Olympia delle Tofane course in Cortina where women’s Alpine skiing will be contested for the Feb. 6-22 Games, up to 20 centimeters (nearly eight inches) of snow had fallen by Friday morning.

There was still some long grass popping out of the snow in places but the piste — and surrounding areas — are now wintry white.

“We have on top 20 centimeters of really fresh snow, light snow, and (at the finish) we have 15 (six inches),” said Matteo Gobbo, the local organizing committee’s venue sport manager for women’s skiing. “This should be a good base to improve the snow-making with the artificial snow.

“Our target is to have between 80 centimeters (more than 2 ½ feet) and one meter (three feet) of snow on the course,” Gobbo added in an interview with The Associated Press in the Tofane’s finish area.

That’s slightly more than the amount of snow that Gobbo and his team usually work with for the annual World Cup races in Cortina. But for the Olympics, more snow is required because there are more races, more competitors and generally a lot more people on the slope.

“And this consumes the snow and reduces the surface during the Olympics and then the Paralympics,” Gobbo said.

The minimal snow cover required for World Cup races is 35 centimeters (slightly more than a foot).

“We want to have not an easy course, but a good course for everyone, because at the Olympics, we expect the top athletes but also all the other athletes that can (qualify),” Gobbo said. “We want to avoid to have injuries, crashes and so on. We want to just have a really, really good show.”

Portable stands for spectators still neeed to be erected in the finish area, which is still halfway up the mountain.

The current plan is to have spectator capacity at 3,500 but Gobbo said organizers are considering adding another 1,000 people if they are able to erect a new, temporary gondola from the city center.

Construction for the new gondola to near the finish area has prompted environmental concerns after sink holes developed in the middle of recreational ski slopes.

“It’s an issue,” Gobbo said of how to get so many people up the mountain, with the main option a single, narrow, steep and windy road.

It also snowed in downtown Cortina and in Bormio, where men’s Alpine skiing at the Olympics will be held.

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Andrew Dampf is at https://x.com/AndrewDampf

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics