Off-Piste

Off-piste describes any snow outside the marked runs — the ground between and beyond the pistes. It is not groomed, not marked at the edges and not patrolled in the way a piste is, so the surface can be anything from deep untouched snow to ice, rocks or buried obstacles.

The term is descriptive rather than a grading: it says where you are, not how hard it is. Because the preparation and patrol that a marked run assumes are absent, off-piste riding is treated as a different activity with its own equipment, training and local knowledge requirements, and ski areas mark the boundary between the two clearly.