How to Use Glidr: Turn-by-Turn Ski & Snowboard Navigation, Step by Step

Download your resort map before you go

The first thing to do before you arrive at a resort is download its map. Open Glidr, go to the resort search, find your area, and tap Download. The download pulls the full routing graph, piste and lift data, and everything Glidr needs to give you directions. Once it is done, all routing and navigation runs entirely on your device — no mobile signal needed on the mountain.

This matters more than it might sound. Mobile coverage on most ski mountains is patchy. The areas where you most need directions — the complex junctions at the top of a sector, the unmarked traverse between two valleys — are exactly the areas where signal drops. Downloading the map before you leave your hotel or chalet means that when you hit a junction at 2,600 meters with no bars, Glidr still knows where to send you.

The download only needs to happen once per resort, and it updates automatically when you are on Wi-Fi if the resort data has changed. If you are visiting a large linked area — Les 3 Vallées, Paradiski, the Dolomiti Superski — Glidr covers the whole area as one download, so you do not need to re-download each time you cross into an adjacent valley.

Glidr supports any ski area with OpenStreetMap coverage, which means hundreds of resorts across Europe, North America, Japan, and beyond. Browse the resort list in the app or visit /resort/ to see what is available.

Pick a destination and start navigating

With the map downloaded, navigation starts from the search bar. You can search for a piste by name or number, a lift, a mountain restaurant, or any other point of interest. Glidr shows the matching results ranked by relevance and distance. Tap a result and Glidr draws a routed path from your current position to that destination.

The route is not a straight line on the map. It is an actual path through the resort — the sequence of pistes and lifts that gets you from where you are to where you want to go, respecting the direction of travel on each run and which lifts are in the right direction. On a complex linked area this is genuinely useful: finding the correct chain of lifts from one valley to a specific piste in an adjacent sector is not obvious from a paper map, especially on your first visit.

Routing preferences. Before you confirm a route, you can choose how Glidr prioritizes the path:

• Shortest Distance — gets you there by the fewest meters, regardless of difficulty or lift count.
• Easiest — routes through the lowest-difficulty pistes available even if the path is longer.
• Fastest — minimizes travel time by preferring faster lifts and efficient descent lines.
• Scenic — chooses more varied, interesting terrain even if the route is less direct.

For a first-timer at a resort, Easiest is a safe starting preference. It avoids accidentally routing you down a red or black connector when a blue alternative exists. Advanced riders who want to cover the mountain efficiently typically prefer Fastest, which minimizes time on slow lifts and long low-gradient traverses.

Live lift and piste status. Glidr shows the current open or closed status of each lift and piste, updated live when you have a connection. Closed infrastructure is excluded from routing — so if a key lift is shut for wind or maintenance, Glidr automatically routes around it rather than sending you to a queue that is not moving. On offline mode, routing uses the last known status until you get signal again.

Once you have a route, the step list shows each leg in order: piste name or number, lift name, and the direction to take at each junction. Tap Start Navigation to begin the guided experience.

Following voice and vibration on the slope

Navigating a ski resort while wearing ski gloves and moving at speed means you cannot be looking at your phone at every junction. Glidr is designed around this constraint: the primary navigation channel is audio and haptics, not the screen.

As you approach each junction or lift boarding point, Glidr speaks the name of the next piste or lift. The instruction fires close enough to the junction that it is immediately actionable — not far enough ahead that you might forget it before you arrive. On a busy slope with multiple run options visible, hearing "take the blue piste 14 to the left" at exactly the right moment is what makes the difference between a smooth junction and a hurried guess.

Audio ducking. If you are listening to music, a podcast, or an audiobook through your headphones, Glidr requests audio focus when it is about to speak. Your audio fades, the instruction plays, and then your audio comes back. You do not need to pause your playlist manually or worry about missing directions because the music was too loud. This works on both Android and iOS.

Haptic vibration. Alongside the voice instruction, Glidr triggers a haptic pattern on your phone. If your phone is in your jacket pocket or a chest harness, the vibration is a secondary signal that something is happening — even if you could not hear the voice instruction over wind noise or loud snow, the vibration tells you to look at the screen or pay attention to the junction you are approaching.

Flat-section warnings. This is particularly useful for snowboarders. Glidr analyses the gradient profile of your route and warns you before long flat sections — traverses or run-outs that lose gradient and require skating or a push. The warning fires before you enter the flat section, when you still have speed and can choose whether to carry momentum through or unclip if necessary. The flat-section warning threshold is designed to catch sections that a snowboarder would genuinely struggle to traverse without losing all speed.

The screen shows a live map centered on your position, with the route highlighted and the next instruction displayed at the top. When you complete a leg — board a lift, reach the top of a run — Glidr automatically advances to the next step. You do not need to tap through the steps manually.

Planning a full day with the Day Planner

The Day Planner is for skiers and snowboarders who want to cover the mountain properly rather than spending seven days on the same fifteen runs near their hotel. Instead of picking a single destination and navigating to it, the Day Planner builds an entire day's itinerary based on your goals, your ability, and how much time you have.

Opening the Day Planner starts a short setup: you choose your skill level, your start and end times, whether to bring your own lunch or let Glidr include a restaurant stop, and — the most important choice — your goal for the day:

• Maximize pistes — cover as many distinct runs as possible, prioritizing variety over repetition.
• Maximize vertical — accumulate as much descent as possible, using high-capacity lifts and long runs.
• Challenge — prioritize the most demanding terrain on the mountain, emphasizing red and black runs.
• Scenic — favor runs with the most varied terrain and views, even at the cost of efficiency.
• Easy cruise — keep to gentle gradients and comfortable pistes throughout the day, suitable for mixed groups or recovery days.

Glidr then generates the itinerary. The output is a sequenced list of runs and lifts, with estimated times for each leg, a lunch stop included at a sensible mid-day break point, and a return route to your starting base at the end of the day. The total plan is structured so that you do not run out of day while still on the far side of the resort.

Every leg in the itinerary is a navigable route. Tap any leg and Glidr starts turn-by-turn navigation for that section. When you complete it, you return to the itinerary view and move to the next leg. You can skip legs or reorder on the fly — the Day Planner is a suggestion, not a rigid schedule.

At the end of the day, Glidr shows a day recap: total distance, vertical descent, number of runs completed, and a breakdown of piste difficulties. This is useful both as a record of the day and as calibration for the next one — if you covered 40 km and 8,000 meters of vertical without feeling finished, you can push harder tomorrow.

Skiing with friends

Skiing in a group introduces a coordination problem that every group experiences: the group splits at a junction, one person takes the wrong lift, and reuniting takes fifteen minutes of phone calls and confusion at the bottom of the wrong piste. Glidr's Find Friends feature solves this with live location sharing within a session.

One person creates a session in Glidr and shares the session link with the group. Everyone who joins sees all group members' live positions on the same map — the same map they are using for navigation. If someone is separated, you can see exactly where they are and navigate to their position rather than guessing or calling.

The location sharing is session-scoped: it runs while the session is active and ends when the session closes. It is designed for a day on the mountain with people you are skiing with, not for permanent location sharing. There is no need to add friends to an account or manage a contact list.

For groups with mixed ability — some members on red and black pistes while others stick to blues — the map view lets you confirm where the stronger riders have ended up without requiring a phone call every time the group splits. Agree on a meeting point at a lift station, check the map to see when the faster riders are approaching it, and converge without confusion.

Using Glidr on your smartwatch

For riders who do not want to reach for their phone on the slope at all, Glidr has companion apps for Garmin (Connect IQ), Apple Watch, and Wear OS. All three serve the same purpose: display the current navigation state on your wrist so your phone can stay in your pocket.

The watch shows the current piste or lift name, the next turn coming up, and the difficulty color of the next piste — so you can glance at your wrist before a junction and know whether you are about to drop onto an easy blue or a steep red. The difficulty color uses the same European color system as the piste itself: blue, red, black.

More usefully, the watch vibrates before each turn. The vibration pattern on the watch fires alongside the phone's voice instruction, which means even with your phone pocketed and music playing through your headphones, your wrist gives you a tactile alert that a junction is approaching. This is particularly useful on fast descents where you need to be thinking about the junction before you arrive at it, not at the moment you reach it.

The Garmin app is available on the Garmin Connect IQ store. The Apple Watch and Wear OS apps are bundled with the iOS and Android Glidr apps respectively — they activate automatically when you start navigation.

Tips for the best experience

Before the day

• Download the resort map on hotel Wi-Fi the evening before. Takes two minutes, saves frustration.
• Check live lift and piste status in Glidr before you leave — if a key sector is closed for wind, adjust your plan before you are halfway up the mountain.
• If you are using the Day Planner, generate your itinerary the night before so you can review it and adjust the goal if needed.

On the slope

• Let the voice instruction finish before you commit to a direction at a junction. The instruction names the specific piste or lift, which is more precise than looking at a sign.
• Snowboarders: pay attention to flat-section warnings. They fire early enough that you can carry more speed into the flat section rather than losing momentum before the warning arrives.
• If you take a wrong turn, stay calm and stop safely. Glidr will recalculate your route from your current position — you do not need to backtrack to the last junction if there is a valid alternative path forward.
• Use the routing preferences to match the day: if it is an icy morning, switch to Easiest; once the snow softens in the afternoon, switch to Fastest or Scenic.

Battery management

• GPS navigation uses battery. On a full day, Glidr will draw noticeably on your battery, particularly in cold temperatures where battery capacity is reduced. A portable charger in your backpack is a useful backup.
• If battery is a concern, you can use Glidr for navigation at key decision points — sector crossings, complex junctions — rather than continuously throughout the day. The map and route remain active even when you switch to another app.

Pricing

Glidr is free to download on iOS and Android. Core features — map download, routing, voice directions, and live lift and piste status — are available on the free tier. The Day Planner and day recap require a pass: a Day Pass costs €1.49 and a Weekly Pass costs €4.99. There is no subscription. You pay for the days you ski, not for a year-round subscription to an app you use for two weeks.

Frequently asked questions

Does Glidr work without phone signal on the mountain?

Yes. Once you download the resort map over Wi-Fi before you leave, the routing, navigation, and voice directions all run entirely on your device. No mobile signal is needed on the mountain. Live features — lift status updates and Find Friends location sharing — do require a connection, but the core navigation is fully offline.

Does Glidr work for snowboarders as well as skiers?

Yes. Glidr is built for both skiers and snowboarders. It includes flat-section warnings that alert you before long flat traverses where a snowboarder would need to unclip and skate. The routing preferences also let you avoid routes with flat connector sections if that matters to you.

Which routing preference should I choose?

Glidr offers four preferences: Shortest Distance gets you there by the fewest meters; Easiest routes you through the lowest-difficulty pistes available; Fastest minimizes travel time by prioritizing efficient lifts and descent lines; Scenic prefers more varied, interesting terrain. For a first day at a new resort, Easiest is a safe default. Advanced riders wanting to cover the most terrain efficiently often prefer Fastest.

How does voice navigation work on the slope?

Glidr uses your phone's native text-to-speech to speak the name of the next piste or lift as you approach each junction. The instruction fires when you are close enough that it is immediately actionable. If you are listening to music or a podcast, Glidr automatically ducks the audio during the instruction and then restores it — you never need to pause your playlist manually.

What is the Day Planner and how does it work?

The Day Planner builds a full-day ski itinerary based on your goals, ability, and available time. You choose from goals like maximize pistes, maximize vertical, challenge, scenic, or easy cruise. The planner generates a sequence of runs and lifts that fills your day, includes a lunch stop, and turns every leg into a routed, navigable path. You can start navigation on any leg directly from the itinerary view.

Is Glidr free?

Glidr is free to download. Core navigation — map download, routing, voice directions, live lift status — is available on the free tier. The Day Planner and day recap require a pass: a Day Pass is €1.49 and a Weekly Pass is €4.99. There is no subscription — you pay for the days you ski.

Which smartwatches does Glidr support?

Glidr has companion apps for Garmin (Connect IQ), Apple Watch, and Wear OS. All three show your current piste, upcoming turn, and difficulty color, and vibrate before each junction so you do not need to check your phone. The Garmin app is available on the Garmin Connect IQ store. The Apple Watch and Wear OS apps install automatically with the iOS and Android Glidr apps.