Piste

A piste in Serfaus, Austria
Pistes on Bald Mountain, Idaho

A piste (/pst/)[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 'run' in North America. The word is pronounced using a long "e" sound so that it rhymes with "beast".[1]

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.[citation needed]

  1. ^ a b "piste noun". Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  2. ^ English language Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS) website Archived 2013-01-23 at archive.today