Piste 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 resort. Pistes are usually maintained using tracked vehicles known as snowcats to compact or "groom" the snow to even out trail
Mount Baldy Ski Lifts El Niño years), several feet of snow can accumulate and provide for good daily operation of the ski area and widespread off-piste skiing. Chairs #1 and #3 were built in 1952 by Ringer Chairlifts and featured double swiveling chairs which allowed riders just to stand up when unloading. The chairs would automatically move out of the way. The design was not without its flaws and did not take in account people's instincts to move away from the unloading area as soon as possible. Ringer Chairlifts went out of business just two years later. In 1975 Swiss company GMD Mueller was