60,000 m³ of stored snow: Levi passes FIS snow control, slaloms 14–15 November
Levi's front slopes under lights in December 2007. Photo: Евгений Гранат via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The FIS passed Levi's snow control on Thursday 5 November 2026, so the first slaloms of the 2026/27 World Cup go ahead on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November. The race piste in Finnish Lapland is a white ribbon on a brown hill, built from 60,000 to 70,000 cubic metres of snow stored since last winter. Mikaela Shiffrin stays away for the first time in her career.
In short
- The FIS approved the Levi Black on 5 November after a remote check: a drone flew the course instead of a delegation.
- Race director Petri Tuomikoski counts 60,000–70,000 m³ of stored snow, spread on the piste since Sunday 1 November.
- Women race on Saturday 14 November, men on Sunday 15 November, first runs at 11:00 local time, second runs at 14:00.
- A plan B is open: the organisers decide in the week of 9 November whether cars replace the lift to bring the racers up.
- Shiffrin, winner of nine races in Levi, skips the event; Petra Vlhová is expected back after almost two years out.
A drone instead of a delegation
The snow control is the FIS check that a venue has enough snow to hold a race. In Levi's early World Cup years a FIS delegation came to look at the hill; this year the check happened from a distance. "A drone flew through the race slope, and after that we got the stamp of approval," race director Petri Tuomikoski told Lapin Kansa on Thursday 5 November.
The organisers had said a day earlier that the race was safe on stored snow, even after an autumn that the paper called exceptionally warm. "There are 60,000 to 70,000 cubic metres of snow stored for the race. At this stage that is enough to hold the competition," Tuomikoski said in the same newspaper on 4 November. Spreading of the stored snow on the Levi Black began on Sunday 1 November.
The organiser's own statement of 5 November says the warm autumn challenged the preparations, but long-term work and the experience of the team paid off. One question stays open as of 7 November: Lapin Kansa reports that the week of 9 November will show whether a plan B is needed, with cars instead of the lift to take the racers to the start.
The white ribbon that went round the world
A video that Levi Ski Resort posted on Instagram on 4 November shows why the check mattered. LAOLA1 describes it as "only a white ribbon that winds down the otherwise brown mountain", with the groomers still at work. 20 Minuten and oe24 ran the same pictures on 5 and 6 November. Levi is the second race weekend of the season, after the giant slaloms in Sölden on 24 and 25 October.
How a brown hill carries a World Cup is a 10-year story. Levi Ski Resort lost its races to a lack of snow three times, in 2007, 2011 and 2015. In spring 2016 the resort made its first storage piles on the Levi Black. The system, according to the resort's own description of October 2025:
| Element | Figure |
|---|---|
| First World Cup in Levi | 2004; this is the 22nd edition |
| Races cancelled for lack of snow | 2007, 2011, 2015 |
| First stored-snow piles on the Levi Black | spring 2016 |
| Insulation mats on the piles | about 400, 70 mm thick, 4 m × 18 m, under tarpaulins |
| Snow guns | more than 300 |
| Best production window | about −10 °C in January and February: 8 times the snow of a 0 °C day |
| "Levi Glacier" on the front slope | about 650 m long, 50 m wide, keeps its snow through the summer |
| Stored snow for the 2026 race | 60,000–70,000 m³ (Tuomikoski, 4 November) |
Skiinformatie.nl adds that the same stored snow let Levi open its regular ski season on 2 October 2026.
Race weekend programme
The organiser published the timetable with the snow-control news. All times are Finnish local time (CET + 1).
| Day | Time | Event |
|---|---|---|
| Friday 13 November | 13:45 | Kids' Race on the front slopes |
| Friday 13 November | 18:30 | Opening ceremony and women's bib draw at Zero Point |
| Saturday 14 November | 10:00 | Race area, Lapland Avenue and after-ski open |
| Saturday 14 November | 11:00 / 14:00 | Women's slalom, run 1 / run 2 |
| Sunday 15 November | 11:00 / 14:00 | Men's slalom, run 1 / run 2 |
Who starts and who does not
SnowBrains summed up the field on 6 November. Mikaela Shiffrin, who has won nine races in Levi, misses the event for the first time in her career. She calls 2026/27 a season of exploration with more giant slalom and super-G training, and her next planned races are in Killington on 28 and 29 November. Ski Racing quoted her plan in October: "I don't want people to hear that I'm done with slalom."
On the women's side Paula Moltzan arrives from Vermont after her first World Cup win, the Sölden giant slalom of 25 October, which we covered in our Sölden report. Emma Aicher, third in Sölden, combines super-G training with slalom preparation. Petra Vlhová, the 2022 Olympic slalom champion, is expected to start her first slalom since her injury in January 2024; in Sölden she finished 23rd.
On the men's side Atle Lie McGrath defends the slalom globe he won in 2025/26. Henrik Kristoffersen, with 26 World Cup slalom wins, and Loïc Meillard, the Olympic slalom champion, are expected as well. We looked at Kristoffersen's switch to Head skis in our brand-switch review.
What this means for your skis
Levi's white ribbon is machine-groomed stored snow, injected hard for racing. That is the home ground of a slalom ski: short, with a radius near 12 metres, that bites on a firm surface. Race-department models such as the Atomic Redster S9, the Head Worldcup Rebels e-SL, the Rossignol Hero Elite ST Ti, the Völkl Racetiger SL and the Van Deer SL follow this recipe: the makers list radii of 12.1 to 13 metres at 165 to 167 cm.
For most skiers on early-season groomers, a softer slalom-carver is the better buy. Our best carving skis list sorts the options by skill level, and the Pick-A-Ski tool matches length and stiffness to your weight and ability.
Sources
- Lapin Kansa, "FIS näytti vihreää valoa Leville", 5 November 2026, and "Levin maailmancup saadaan kisattua säilölumella", 4 November 2026
- World Cup Levi, "Vihreää valoa Leville – FIS lumikontrolli läpäisty", 5 November 2026
- LAOLA1, "Nur ein weißes Band: Aber Grünes Licht für Levi", 5 November 2026
- oe24, "Weißes Band: HIER finden nächste Woche Weltcuprennen statt", 5 November 2026
- 20 Minuten, ski ticker, 6 November 2026
- Skiinformatie.nl, "Groen landschap, maar World Cup gaat door", 5 November 2026
- SnowBrains, "Levi, Finland, Snow Control Positive — 1 Week Until Slalom World Cup", 6 November 2026
- Levi Ski Resort, "Levin 7 kuukauden lumivarmuus", 7 October 2025
- Ski Racing Media, "Mikaela Shiffrin Plans Fewer Slaloms to Chase GS and Super-G", October 2026
