Where are the best places to ski in Europe? 13 wild destinations that aren’t the Alps

10.11.2023 - 00:45 / euronews.com

The Alps tend to tower to mind when you picture skiing in Europe, cutting across France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy.

But the continent has plenty of alternative destinations that offer unique landscapes and cultures - and some of the best powder in the world.

Some locations are lift accessible. For others, you may need to hike or take a snowcast to get you up the mountain.

For some of these remote places, you may even need to ski tour (where instead of using ski lifts, you go uphill using 'skins', a piece of fabric attached to the base of skis to prevent them from sliding back, before skiing downhill with skins removed).

First compiled in 2021, here is our pick of Europe’s most adventurous skiing locations.

Much like the Alps, skiing in the Balkan mountains has a long history and tradition. The lesser-known mountains of Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania and Northern Macedonia include some of the highest peaks south of the Alps and are one of the continent’s most unspoiled wilderness.

The best thing about skiing in the Balkans, says John Eames, from The Off-piste & Telemark Ski Company, which offers ski trips to the region, is "the fun and the adventure of it all."

You will find "small, very friendly and always interesting ski areas dotted about these culturally-rich mountains. For fresh tracks off-piste and off-the-beaten-track touring these areas are unsurpassed … and there is so much to go at!"

But be prepared, says Eames: "Expect and embrace the wacky! Chairlifts and ski tows do work - most of the time - local food and wine are different but excellent, accommodation is varied but of excellent value and with great hospitality and friendliness."

"Don’t expect the well-oiled ‘ski resort machine’ that you might be used to in the Alps; with a bit of patience and persistence, you will come back full of stories and memories of some great skiing."

Prokletije or the ‘Accursed Mountains,' a range on the western Balkan peninsula, are said to offer some of the best skiing in Europe. But with no lift access, Montenegro's mountainous border with northern Albania (also known as the Albanian alps or Montenegrin Alps) receives few visitors.

According to local folklore, Prokletije was created by the devil when he was unleashed from hell for a single day of mischief. Its steep rocky faces and huge glaciers are said to be reminiscent of the Italian Dolomites and virtually impenetrable during the summer with only a series of high passes linking a small number of farmsteads in the valleys. 

Here you feel far, far away from 21st-century Europe.

As the highest section of the entire Dinaric Alps, which zig-zag across the western Balkan peninsula, the ‘Accursed Mountains' offer steep skiing lines from peaks like Maja e Rosit or Maja