The FIFA World Cup kicked off yesterday, and as mountain maniacs we can't help looking at the draw through ski goggles. So get ready to swap your Vuvuzelas for the Alpenhorn 😃
Five of the nations competing across the tournament held in the US, Canada, and Mexico this summer are nations featuring heavily in our card game. This summer the mountains are on the pitch!
🇫🇷 France - represented by Chamonix, Courchevel, Méribel, Les Arcs, Val Thorens, Alpe d'Huez, Avoriaz, La Plagne, Tignes, Val d'Isère, and Les Trois Vallées. Basically, half the Alps.
🇦🇹 Austria - St. Anton and Mayrhofen. St. Anton is the cradle of alpine skiing — Hannes Schneider invented modern ski technique here in the 1920s, and the resort has spent the century since becoming one of the most storied names in the sport. It sits at the heart of the Ski Arlberg, 300km of linked terrain that collects some of the heaviest snowfall in the entire Alps. Mayrhofen, tucked at the head of the Zillertal valley in Tyrol, counters with the Harakiri — Austria's steepest groomed piste at 78%, a run whose name tells you exactly what you're in for. In the game, the Mayrhofen card has no green runs and no blue. Just reds and blacks. Which about sums it up.
🇨🇭 Switzerland - Verbier. The hub of the vast 4 Vallées ski area, Switzerland's freeride capital, and the resort that hosts the Freeride World Tour at Bec des Rosses — a near-vertical cliff face that elite freeriders race down while the rest of us watch with our mouths open. In the game, Verbier is the only resort with nothing but black runs on its card. Zero green, zero blue, zero red. Just four blacks. That tells you everything.
🇨🇦 Canada — Whistler. The largest ski resort in North America, two mountains joined by the PEAK 2 PEAK gondola spanning three kilometres above a glacial valley floor, and the mountain that hosted the alpine events at the 2010 Winter Olympics. It sits two hours north of Vancouver in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia — and Vancouver, as it happens, is one of the host cities for this very World Cup. The ski resort and the fan zone are practically neighbours. In the game, the Whistler card is the all-rounder with green, blue, and red runs, something for everyone. The mountain equivalent of a squad with no weaknesses.
🏴 Scotland - Represented by The Cairngorms (or Aviemore in the game). Punching above their weight since forever — on the slopes, and now, finally after a long break, back at the World cup again. We love our tunes at Ready Steady Slope, (see our apres playlists) so already Scotland won with JJ Bell's song of the tournament!
That's every single one of our sixteen in-game resorts spread across five nations, all represented by squads now at the tournament. Whether or not you follow club football, this summer is going to mean something a little extra for anyone who loves the mountains. Read more on each resort in our resort guides.
The first clash arrives on 24 June when Switzerland and Canada meet in the Group B stage. That's effectively Verbier versus Whistler on a football pitch. Two of the most iconic resorts in the world, represented by the nations who built them, competing on the biggest stage in sport. ⚽️
We'll have more to say about that one. But for now, we're just enjoying the fact that Ready Steady Slope - a game born on the slopes - has such a big stake in the 2026 World Cup.
This is the one summer we'll be happy to swap our ski boots for football boots. Here's to a great World Cup! Thanks for reading, let us know which team you'll be supporting. - RSS