The ‘Ribbon of Death’ Is the Most Petrifying Ski Course in Olympic History

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The ‘Ribbon of Death’ Is the Most Petrifying Ski Course in Olympic History

The Stelvio ski slope is where the world’s best men’s downhill skiers will vie for gold. They’ll also be trying just to make it off the mountain in one piece.

By Robert O’Connell, WSJ

Feb. 6, 2026

The Stelvio slope, site of the men’s downhill at the Milan Cortina Olympics, is considered one of the most treacherous in the world.

Organizers of the Milan Cortina Olympics like to call the Stelvio slope in Bormio, the site of the men’s downhill, a scenic reflection of the region’s sporting heritage and “a place where athletes and fans come together to celebrate.”

The skiers who are more intimately familiar with 3,442 meters of treacherous, steep and terrifyingly icy surfaces tend to use a more chilling description.

“It’s the gray ribbon of death,” former U.S. skier Steve Porino said.

On Saturday, the best skiers in the world will convene in Bormio for a signature event of the Olympic Games. They have spent their entire lives training for those 2 minutes when they will plummet down the slope at top speeds exceeding 90 miles an hour in the hopes of shaving split-seconds off their runs.

But these elite athletes will also have something else on their minds: making it off of one of the ski world’s most feared mountains in one piece.

“You’re in a fight all the way to the finish line,” said Daron Rahlves, an American skier who won two World Cup races on the Stelvio in the 2000s. “A fight to survive.”

Here’s what makes the Stelvio so treacherous:

The Stelvio ski track, shown over a 3D white mountain side, highlighted in orange. Along its course, skiiers navigate jumps, sharp slopes, and shady patches towards the town of Bormio in the valley floor.

Long before Friday’s Opening Ceremony or Saturday’s race, the Stelvio was already knocking out medal contenders.

Just 13 months ago, Cyprien Sarrazin, a French Olympic medal hopeful, lost his edge on an icy turn in a practice run on the slope. He flew in the sky, crashed into the hard snow and skidded down the mountain. The crash ended his 2026 Olympics a full year before they began. Sarrazin was airlifted from the mountain and rushed to surgery for a brain injury.

The accident left his peers wondering why the Milan Cortina Games had chosen such a hazardous venue.

“They don’t deserve to have the Olympic Games here,” said Nils Allègre, Sarrazin’s irate French teammate.

To some skiers, though, what makes the Stelvio so intimidating is actually what makes it such a fitting stage for the Olympic Games.

“The tracks that are more treacherous, that have higher consequences, that’s when you focus,” Rahlves said. “It’s the most alive I’ve ever felt.”

The Stelvio has been a staple of the World Cup circuit for decades, but this is the first time it’s hosting the Games. Never before have Olympic skiers been asked to face their deepest fears on this course as they push themselves to the limits of their technical abilities. Every second spent on the mountain is a second spent deciding whether to go for broke or pull back out of self-preservation.

“As a World Cup skier, everyone always asks if you get scared when you’re in the start,” said former American downhiller Marco Sullivan, who had a season cut short after he thwacked his head on the ice there. “The Stelvio is the only place that scared me.”

Taken individually, any one of the Stelvio’s attributes would be the stuff of nightmares. The track begins with “Turbo Road,” a nearly vertical drop out of the gate that sent Sullivan flying off of his feet in 2010. At the end, they are rewarded with a jump that catapults skiers 150 feet in the air. All they have to do in between is navigate a sheet of frozen water over every inch of the course.

“You could look down and do your hair in the mirror,” said Porino, now an analyst for NBC. “It’s an ice rink.”

But the signature of the Stelvio—the thing that makes it tougher than any other slope on the planet—is that it’s completely relentless. At no point can a skier duck into a crouch and let gravity carry him while he catches his breath. In this constant struggle for traction, each new turn pushes a skier’s legs toward their breaking point.

“We call it stumping out—it means that your legs just give out and you collapse,” Rahlves said. “You see it all the time on that course.”

This weekend’s race will largely be decided by which contender is fit enough to keep his form in the final seconds—and fearless enough to pursue speed at the expense of safety.

Those who have conquered Stelvio before say the crucial stretch of the downhill starts right around the 1:20 mark. At that point, the finish line still feels an hour away instead of seconds. But it’s what happens next that will determine who goes home with gold.

“You’ve got lactic acid up to your eyeballs,” Porino said. “If you want to win, you have to take the risk of still being all-in, to pretend your legs are not completely done. And that’s what puts you in peril.”