A ranking of Europe's most reliable ski resorts has been compiled: Italy's Pontedilegno-Tonale leads

An Italian region has topped the snow reliability ranking

Tour operator Inghams Ski analyzed more than 100 popular ski resorts and regions of the Northern Hemisphere and compiled the Reliable Ski Score ranking with ratings on a 100-point scale, reports euronews. First place went to Italy's Pontedilegno-Tonale with a score of 93.1, second to Austria's Obertauern (92.9), and third to France's Les Arcs (92.2). The entire top 10 consists of resorts in Italy, Austria and France.

How reliability was calculated

The methodology took five factors into account. The main ones are 'mountain performance' (35%): the average percentage of operating lifts and open slopes at the height of the season, and 'snow security' (25%): the share of days in the core season when at least 30 cm of snow lies at the base station. Additionally assessed were stability of indicators from season to season (20%), the difference between the average and the worst season (12%), and the average snow depth in the mountains (8%). Data was collected from January 5 to March 20 across seven winter seasons from 2017–2018 to 2025–2026, excluding seasons affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. No destination, the publication stresses, can guarantee perfect conditions.

The Top 10

The ranking positions are as follows: 1. Pontedilegno-Tonale, Italy — 93.1; 2. Obertauern, Austria — 92.9; 3. Les Arcs, France — 92.2; 4. Les 3 Vallées, France — 91.1; 5. Alpe d'Huez, France — 90.5; 6. Kitzsteinhorn, Austria — 89.6; 7. Filzmoos, Austria — 89.5; 8. Tignes-Val d'Isère, France — 89.4; 9. Espace San Bernardo (La Rosière/La Thuile), France — 89.2; 10. Damüls Mellau, Austria — 89.1.

The leaders in detail

Pontedilegno-Tonale lies between the Camonica Valley in Lombardy and Val di Sole in Trentino; the ski area has 46 slopes, its highest point is 3,016 meters, and at Passo del Tonale at the foot of the Presena glacier the slopes exceed 44 km. On certain days of the season, the 'Alba in Quota' ('sunrise at altitude') program operates there: lifts open earlier than the official start so that skiers can watch the sunrise on the slopes. Obertauern in the Salzburg region sits at an altitude of 1,752 meters, offers more than 100 km of slopes and a season from November to May; according to Inghams, all of the resort's hotels are ski-in/ski-out, and cross-country skiing trails from 6 to 23 km have been laid out, including the intermediate-difficulty Gnadenalm trail at an altitude of 1,350 meters. Les Arcs, with its highest point at 3,226 meters, has 200 km of slopes; the season there starts on December 12, 2026 and runs until April 24, 2027. The resort is part of Paradiski, one of the largest interconnected ski areas in the world, where between Les Arcs, Peisey-Vallandry and La Plagne there are 425 km of slopes and 258 groomed runs, and the resorts are linked by the Vanoise Express cable car.