Pistenpass

Pistenpass (Piste Passport in English) is a challenge to collect every ski area in Switzerland. Anyone who records their ski day with a sports watch gets a stamp in their digital passport for each area, automatically by GPS. Every area counts the same, from the village drag lift to Zermatt. And once an area is in the passport, it stays there, next winter too.

LaceUp runs Pistenpass as its own project, independent of the ski areas: none of them pays for it, none gets preferential treatment.

Who it is for

For everyone on the slopes in Switzerland, on skis, a snowboard or telemark: from the regular at their home mountain to anyone who wants to discover a new area every winter. The passport is free; lift tickets and season passes are bought as usual.

There is no app to install. A sports watch is enough, and anyone without one, or who forgets to record, stamps at the top station with their phone in the browser. The website is in German, in French as Carnet des pistes and in English.

The challenge

• 223 areas, one stamp per area: every area has one or more checkpoints, usually at the top stations of its lifts. One is enough. What counts is places, not kilometres, vertical metres or speed.
• Four levels in the piste colours: the White Badge from 2 areas, the Blue from 5, the Red from 10 and the Black from 25. From the Blue Badge on, a helmet sticker comes by post after the season, and the Black also earns a place on the Wall of Fame. The levels start afresh every winter.
• Badges for special places and days: for areas in all four language regions, for an area served only by drag lifts, for the holidays between 24 December and 6 January, and for spring after Easter.
• Three rankings: the season ranking by number of areas, a ranking by ski days, where the tenth day at the home mountain counts too, and an all-time ranking across every winter.
• One season: from 1 November 2026 to 30 April 2027. In May there are prizes for the top 3 of the season ranking.

What the format shows

• Trophy at scale: 223 areas in a single challenge, stamped without any infrastructure on the mountain.
• GPS in winter: the checkpoints sit at the top stations with a generous radius. Stamping in the browser works without signal too: the stamp waits on the phone until it is back online.
• Breadth over speed: collecting places instead of vertical metres leads people to the small areas next to the big names.
• A goal for the whole season: levels, badges and the ski-day ranking give every further day on the slopes a reason, not just the first.