Lifts & pistes

The eleven lift types, towers and clearance, piste difficulty, connection, grooming and snowmaking.

#Lifts

A lift has a bottom station and a top station. The game places towers along the line and checks that the cable is neither too steep nor too long for the chosen type.

• Fixed grip lifts (T-bar, older chairs) are cheap but slow to board. Detachable lifts slow down in the station, so they load faster and run faster on the line.
• Bubble chairs and cabins keep guests warm and happy, and close less often in the wind.
• Only some lifts carry bikes, which matters in summer.
• In Career mode the biggest lifts unlock with your resort level (see Career & scenarios).

#Clearance

Cables must stay clear of what's underneath: trees, roofs and other lifts. The cable needs free air under the carrier, and stations always clear the trees in the first few tiles of approach. Your options:

• Move the line.
• Let the game clear a forest lane (it charges you for the trees).
• Choose a taller lift type, or avoid flying over big buildings (a lodge or an apartment block is always too tall, a small shop is fine).

The error message tells you what the cable would hit, for example Cable would hit Base Lodge.

#Breakdowns and wind

Lifts wear out and eventually break down, and a stormy wind closes lifts that are not wind-tolerant. A Lift Maintenance Workshop keeps them in shape. Closed lifts show up in the news and in Ranger Rudi's advice.

#Pistes

Paint pistes by difficulty: green (easy), blue, red and black. The game colours the snow and checks:

• Connection: a piste only counts if it reaches a lift station, and runs that don't connect to anything are flagged. Guests need a way up and a way down.
• Steepness: a piste's real slope decides how hard it feels. A “green” painted on a cliff is still a cliff.
• Variety: a good resort offers all difficulties; a goal asks for runs of green, blue and red, and another for a black run.

#Slope profile and Suggest a run

While you drag a piste or place a lift a small profile card shows the ground as a side view: altitude over distance, coloured by difficulty tile by tile, with today's snowline as a dashed line, plus length, drop and the average and steepest gradient. It tells you before you pay whether a "green" run is really green and whether the bottom will be bare in warm weather.

Suggest a run (in the Pistes pane) highlights a line down the fall line that matches the difficulty chosen in the dock and keeps most of its length above the current snowline, with advice if the lower part may be bare. It only highlights: nothing is built or charged.

#Grooming and snow quality

Fresh snow turns bumpy and icy with traffic. Grooming restores it overnight. Build a Groomer Garage (and a Snowcat Outpost for far-off pistes) and the groomers work the slopes after dark. The inspector and the Operations drawer show how much of your piste network was groomed last night.

#Snowmaking

When natural snow is thin, build a Reservoir and Snowmaking Cannons (both under Buildings → Snow). Cannons only run when it is cold enough and the reservoir has water, and they add to your running costs. The snowmaking overlay (O cycles overlays) shows where they reach.