Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Outdoors

Understanding ski slope trail markers: What those colors actually mean

What do the different colors on a ski trail map really mean?

Tom Kilpatrick
By

Just like a map is essential on the trail in the summer, the winter trail map is your guide to not getting lost on the mountain this winter. The first thing most skiers and snowboarders do when they turn up to a new ski resort is to get hold of a trail map and earmark some runs they want to explore. If you’ve got a holiday booked and coming up soon, you might already be looking online to get your bearings on the ski area, but do you really know what you’re looking at?

Ski slopes are broken up into different difficulties and marked on the map using different colors. Experienced skiers may be able to glance at this map and know where they’re headed — they’re probably able to tackle most of the slopes, too — but skiing for beginners is hard enough without adding mapreading into the mix. And then what happens if you end up on the wrong slopes, clinging onto a ski run for dear life? Well, our ski slope difficulty rating guide is here to ensure you don’t get lost on the mountain and safely make it to aprés at the end of the day.

Related Videos
Looking down the ski slopes at Meribel in Les 3 Vallées, France.

Bunny Slope

The bunny slope: skiing and snowboarding for beginners. This is where you take your first turns, get used to clipping yourself into your ski or snowboard, and where you can fall over safely without having experienced riders ripping it past you. Let’s face it, when you’re learning, you need a safe space away from high-speed skiers and snowboarders. And as a beginner, you’re likely to make some, let’s call them erratic, turns that take you across the slope.

Related

The bunny slope is in itself a green run — see the next section — but we think it deserves its own section here. The bunny slope is a sanctuary, not a slope. It usually has either a magic carpet or a button lift up the side rather than a full chairlift, and that’s because they’re usually only a couple of hundred meters long. They’re a gentle gradient, with enough width and length for you to learn your turns without overcommitting to a long trail.

Keystone ski resort

Green Slopes

Once you’ve mastered your turns and are ready to spread your wings beyond the bounds of the bunny slopes, your next step would be the green slopes. These slopes are the same gradient as the bunny slope and are generally at less than 25% gradient, making them slow and gentle. Add to that the fact that they’re often wide — especially in any sections that push that gradient boundary — and you’ve got the ideal setting to take what you learned on the bunny slope and progress it.

But don’t think for a minute that green slopes aren’t a great way to explore the slopes. In fact, plenty of ski resorts understand that one of the first things you want to do is get some altitude and enjoy the view. Plenty of beginner-friendly ski resorts have green slopes that run all the way from the top to the bottom of the mountain. Because of their mellow nature, these runs have to weave and wind their way down the mountain, and many of them make you feel like you’ve been on a journey around the mountain.

Skiiers shred slopes

Blue Runs

The vast majority of skiers and snowboarders find that they’re at their happiest on a blue run. These slopes are somewhere between 25% – 40% in gradient, often made up of steeper and mellower sections. Some blue runs will feel like a green slope with a steep section, while others will feel like they’re touching on being allocated a black grading. For that reason, European and Japanese ski resorts also include a red grading, equal to a hard blue/easy black in the U.S.

When you’re a confident skier or snowboarder, blue runs are your cruising runs. They’re the groomers that can carry you around the entire mountain, connect together steeper runs — if that’s your thing — or be your entire ski day. Blue runs are often the last runs that are groomed in resorts, depending on the style of black runs.

Snowboarder catching some air at the Olympics.
Unsplash

Black Runs

Now we’re getting into the realms of steep and challenging terrain. Black runs will usually have a gradient greater than 40% and, depending on the resort, may consist of groomed and ungroomed sections. These runs are consistently steep, narrow, and challenging but represent a real risk if you crash on them. The nature of black runs differs between different ski resorts, but they’re always at the top end of the pile.

The mistake a lot of skiers and snowboarders make is thinking that because they’re confident cruising on a blue run, they can tackle a black run. Blue runs have a very different feel to black runs, and your best way to make the transition is to find a ski resort with either a consistently steep blue run — that verges on 40% the whole way — and make narrow turns, staying in control as you do.

Snow Dot Com/Facebook

Double Black Diamond

The Double Black Diamond ski run is the top end of ski difficulty in the U.S. It’s put on a pedestal by many skiers as the ultimate goal. Once they reach it, plenty of skiers and snowboarders will tell anyone who listens — or stands still for long enough — about how they absolutely nailed their first double black diamond. You may have met someone like this in the office or at the aprés bar, or they may have followed you across the parking lot if you were really unlucky.

The truth is, plenty of skiers will never ski at this level, and many don’t want to. Double black diamond runs are the mountain’s steepest, most demanding terrain. It’s nearly always ungroomed, with real-world features like cliff bands to negotiate. These trails aren’t for the faint-hearted, and plenty of them have to be ‘in condition’ to be worth skiing. But if they are in condition, and you’re up to the challenge, some of the best snow and most enjoyable terrain on the mountain can be found in places you can only reach by skiing a double black diamond run.

Snowboarder catching some air at the Olympics.
Unsplash

Orange

Orange ski slope markers are generally found above the terrain park. These markers warn you that you’re about to drop in on jumps and rails. If you want something a little different, then the terrain park is a great way to challenge your skills. The park’s jump lines and features are often marked in terms of difficulty using the same color scheme as ski trails. This doesn’t mean that if you can ski a blue run, you can hit a blue feature; it just means it’s a medium-difficulty feature within the terrain park.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Yes, there are real rules for skiing and snowboarding, and here they are
Prevent accidents and ski more with these safe skiing rules
Skiing Snowboarding Lake Louise Ski Resort Canada

It's generally acknowledged that skiing and snowboarding can be dangerous sports. Heck, any sport where you hurtle down the mountain propelled by gravity will have the potential for injury; that's why we always recommend wearing a helmet. We're not trying to put you off on your ski holiday here, but it's always good to be aware of the potential risk of the sport.

Crashes are an unavoidable reality of learning the sport, and even experienced skiers and snowboarders will fall over as they push their abilities on new slopes. What is avoidable, though, is crashing into other hill users or having them crash into you. The worst accidents I've seen on the slopes have been caused by someone riding completely out of control — usually because they've put themselves on a higher level of ski run than they were ready for. To try to keep everyone safe on the mountain, the FIS - Fédération Internationale de Ski — has put together a set of skiing instructions that every mountain user should follow.

Read more
The best snowshoes for winter trail exploration
Float above the snow and maintain your grip with these snowshoes
tips for snowshoeing low section of man walking on snow field

The first time I ever put on a pair of snowshoes it was to guide a tour group around a wooded area at the base of the ski resort I had moved to. I fumbled my way through putting my snowshoes on and traipsed over to the meeting point. But then the inevitable happened; I was presented with a group of adults holding a different pair of snowshoes, each hoping I would be the oracle that could demystify these clattering metal objects they had borrowed or rented for the evening.

I had no idea — naively, as it feels now — how many different styles and shapes of snowshoes were on the market. That evening, over a few celebratory beers, I did some research. I brushed up on snowshoe styles, closures, shapes, sizes, and everything snowshoe related so that I was more prepared the next time I went out. That knowledge stood me in good stead for a winter of snowshoe tours — we always ended with fondue in the woods, so it was worth it for more than just the extra spending money — but also means I feel qualified to put together this list of snowshoes you should consider this winter.

Read more
This is why snowboard boots have forward lean
Is it comfort, riding experience, or just habit that snowboard boots lean forward?
couple on snowboards

Every item in your snowboarding gear arsenal has a purpose. But more than that, every item has nuances, its style that suits it to a particular type of riding. While snowboard boots are notoriously more comfortable than ski boots, they're more than just a way of keeping your feet warm while you ride. Snowboard boots are your link between your body, board, and bindings.

Unless you're riding in an old, blown-out pair of snowboard boots, there's a good chance that yours have at least a little forward lean. Even the softest, most aprés party-ready pair of boots has a forward lean to them, and when you try on a new pair of boots, you can almost feel as though you're going to topple forwards. But why do snowboard boots have forward lean, and what effect does it have on you?

Read more