Frequently Asked Questions

Global Ski Atlas is your guide to ski resorts worldwide. It includes a coffee table book (paper atlas), an interactive online atlas map, a resort comparison tool, drive-time and trip-planning maps, open data downloads, a community wiki, and an AI assistant you can ask about skiing. We cover thousands of downhill ski areas with terrain, lifts, pistes, and key details derived from OpenStreetMap geometry so mountains can be compared on a shared methodology instead of mismatched resort brochures.

Go to the interactive map, pan and zoom to explore. Click a resort marker to see a popup with details (terrain, lifts, elevation, etc.). Use the search box to find a specific resort by name. The legend explains map colors and symbols. For written resort pages, browse the Online Atlas wiki. A short how-to also sits beneath the map for visitors who land directly on the tool.

On the Compare Resorts page you can select two or more ski areas and see them side by side—terrain size, lift count, vertical drop, pass info, and more—to help you decide where to ski. Read what ski resort stats actually mean before trusting brochure-style numbers that use different definitions.

The AI Assistant is a skiing-focused chatbot. You can ask about resorts, conditions, gear, technique, or trip planning. Try it from the home page or via AI Assistant. It uses our atlas data and general skiing knowledge to answer your questions. It is not a substitute for official resort notices, avalanche forecasts, or local guide advice.

We use authoritative open geographic and ski-area data centered on OpenStreetMap, processed into consistent resort statistics. You can download the underlying parquet datasets from Data downloads for your own use. Because coverage depends on volunteer mapping, some hills are incomplete until editors add boundaries, pistes, and lifts. Our OSM tagging guide explains how to help.

No. Global Ski Atlas is a research and planning aid. Trail and lift geometry can lag behind reality, difficulty colors vary by region, and snow conditions change daily. Always confirm opening status, closures, hazards, and avalanche information with the resort and local authorities before you ski. The experimental ski game is entertainment based on exported DEM and OSM scenes—not an official trail map.

Use the trip planner to string resorts into a driving route, and the drive-time map to see which mountains fall inside one- to four-hour rings from a starting point. The blog guide on multi-resort road trips covers pacing, overnight stops, and how to shortlist candidates with comparison tools.

The physical coffee table book is TBD—we’re building the pipeline first. Here’s how it’s designed to work:

1. Data — We start from the same ski-area datasets that power the Online Atlas (resorts, lifts, pistes, terrain, elevation, pass info, etc.).
2. Export a map + fun data — For each resort we export a print-ready map (e.g. extent, styling, labels) and a structured “fun data” set: key stats, highlights, and any extra metadata we want on the spread.
3. AI-generated copy — An AI step takes that map and data and generates a short, readable paragraph about the resort (atmosphere, terrain character, why it’s notable). The text is keyed to the actual details we export, so it’s accurate and consistent.
4. Layout output — The map, stats, and AI paragraph are then flowed into a layout template and output to Adobe InDesign or Scribus, so we can do final design, typography, and print prep in a proper DTP workflow.

Once this pipeline is solid, we’ll set a release timeline and share availability and ordering on the home page Coffee Table Book section.

Availability and ordering are still to be determined. We’re focused on finishing the production pipeline (data → map export + stats → AI resort copy → InDesign/Scribus). Updates will be posted on the home page Coffee Table Book section when we have a release date.

Prefer the dedicated contact page for general inquiries, feedback, or data errors. You can also use the form below. Include the resort name and what looks wrong so we can investigate.