Piste

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Piste (disambiguation).
Groomed, un-skied piste in Seibelseckle, Germany

A piste[1] is a marked ski run or path down a mountain for snow skiing, snowboarding, or other mountain sports.

This European term is French[2] ("trail", "track") and synonymous with 'trail', 'slope', or 'groomed run' in North America. Pronunciation varies slightly in English, with British English using a long "e", (e.g. rhymes with "beast"),[3] and American pronunciation using a short "i" (e.g. rhymes with "list").[4]

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.

Individual trails on pistes are graded by difficulty using ski trail ratings.

Piste maintenance

Pistes are usually maintained using tracked vehicles known as snowcats to compact or 'groom' the snow to even out trail conditions, remove moguls, and redistribute snow to extend the ski season. Natural snow is often augmented with snow making machines early in the season or when the snowpack is low.

References

  1. ↑ Oxford Dictionaries definition of piste
  2. ↑ English language Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS) website
  3. ↑ McMillian Dictionary pronunciation of piste
  4. ↑ Merriam Webster Visual Dictionary Online's pronunciation of piste

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