Everjean from Antwerp, Belgium on Wikimedia

Après-ski has a way of making one drink feel like two, even when you’re ordering what you always order. The setting is part of the magic, but so is the fact that your body has been working hard in conditions it doesn’t deal with every day. By the time you clink glasses, you’re already a little more vulnerable to alcohol’s effects than you’d be at home.

Altitude, exertion, dehydration, and temperature swings can team up in ways that make your usual tolerance feel strangely unreliable. So, before you start slamming them back at an après-ski, remember that the mountain has its own rules, and your body is following them, whether you want it to or not.

Altitude amplifies the way alcohol feels.

Higher elevation doesn't make your drinks stronger, but it means there's less oxygen in the air, and your body has to adapt to that change. Mild altitude effects can already make you feel kind of drunk, causing symptoms like headache, dizziness, fatigue, and nausea, without even having a single drop of alcohol. When you drink on top of that, everything feels amplified.

"The blood alcohol level’s the same for the same amount of alcohol," physician Peter Hackett told Denverite. "Alcohol makes you feel altitude more."

Alcohol also makes acclimatization harder, which is a fancy way of saying it can get in the way of your body’s adjustment process. 

"Alcohol interferes with acclimatization, dehydrates you, and suppresses breathing, which lowers oxygen levels even more,” physician Allie Buttarazzi told Food & Wine. "Even a couple of drinks can make symptoms like headache, nausea, and fatigue more intense.”

If you’ve just arrived from a lower elevation, those first apres drinks can land with extra punch because your system is still catching up.

It doesn’t help that altitude effects can creep in rather than announce themselves, so you might feel fine at lunch and weird by late afternoon. A ski trip also involves rapid changes in elevation across a day, and your body is constantly recalibrating. Add a drink on top of that, and the line between “relaxed” and “oddly woozy” can get thin faster than you’d expect.

You’re more dehydrated and depleted than you realize

Cold weather is sneaky because it dulls thirst, even while your body is losing fluid through breathing and exertion. You’re often bundled up, moving a lot, and taking fewer water breaks than you would on a warm day. By après time, you can be dehydrated without feeling it, and dehydration makes alcohol feel harsher and hangovers louder.

Food timing is another factor that gets overlooked when you’re on the slopes, telling yourself you’ll “grab something later.” If you’ve been running on a light breakfast, a quick snack, and adrenaline, alcohol is absorbed more quickly, so the buzz arrives before your brain has a chance to realize it. That’s why a single drink can feel unexpectedly strong when you’re essentially drinking on an empty tank. 

Fatigue might be the most underrated ingredient in the whole après situation. Skiing demands balance, focus, and constant tiny corrections, and your nervous system gets tired even if you’re having a great time. Alcohol is a depressant, so it pairs extremely well with exhaustion, which is not always a compliment. When you find yourself getting sleepy halfway through a lively bar scene, your body is basically asking for water, food, and a chair.

Hangovers can be worse at altitude, and sleep is part of the reason

Phil Hearing on Unsplash

Here’s the rude part: even if you didn’t drink “that much,” the morning can still feel extra punishing. Hangovers can definitely be worse at altitude, with dehydration being the obvious culprit because altitude dehydrates people, and low water levels contribute to hangover symptoms. In other words, you’re starting the night at a disadvantage, and alcohol doesn’t exactly bring backup.

There’s also a less obvious twist that explains why you can wake up feeling strangely awful. Alcohol can reduce your breathing, especially during sleep. Combine that with altitude’s lower oxygen environment, and you’ve got a recipe for waking up groggy, headachy, and generally unimpressed with your past self.

The warm bar effect and vacation pacing make it easier to overdo it

Walking in from the cold and heating up quickly changes how you feel in your body, and that can mess with your internal “how drunk am I?” meter. Alcohol can widen blood vessels and contribute to a flushed, cozy sensation, which can feel like instant relaxation even if you’ve only had a little. 

Après-ski drinks also tend to be deceptively easy to consume. Sweet cocktails, hot wine, creamy liqueurs, and celebratory shots can slide down faster than a slow beer would. If you’re drinking quickly in a loud, happy crowd, your body doesn’t get much time to signal “maybe slow down.”

A simple strategy is to treat après like a long conversation rather than a sprint. Start with water, order some food, and assume your tolerance is a bit lower than it is at sea level, at least for the first few days. Some bars in high-elevation places actively encourage guests to slow down and hydrate, and they’ll often point you toward lower-ABV or nonalcoholic options so you can stay social without spiraling. You still get the fun, but you’re less likely to wake up feeling whipped around by the mountain.