Piste them small and family-oriented, so comparisons between slope classifications in Japan and "equivalent" slopes in Europe or North America are minimal. Piste A piste () is a marked ski run or path down a mountain for snow skiing, snowboarding, or other mountain sports. This European term is French ("trail", "track") and synonymous with 'trail', 'slope', or 'groomed run' in North America. The word is pronounced using a long "e" sound (e.g. rhymes with "beast"). Increasingly, North Americans employ its common European antonym, 'off piste', to describe backcountry skiing, especially when referring to skiing outside officially approved areas of a ski
Monterosa Ski slopes (almost all equipped with snow-making), from the most simple to the more technical (19 blue runs, 41 red runs and 6 black runs, including, in Gressoney-Saint-Jean, the most difficult of the whole Aosta Valley), and 38 lifts that start at a minimum altitude of 1212 m above sea level Alagna Valsesia and reach up to 3275 m s.l.m. at Indren Peak. The overall uplift capacity of the lift system is about 50,000 people per hour. The Alagna Valsesia part of the district is world-famous for its many off-piste skiing and ski mountaineering like Balma and Malfatta. The ski area