Google Maps users want ski lifts, ski slopes, and cable cars restored

If you’re a ski enthusiast who relies on Google Maps to plan your mountain escapes, you might want to brace yourself for a slippery surprise. Recent reports reveal a peculiar glitch — or perhaps an intentional tweak — that has quietly removed ski slopes, trails, and lifts from Google Maps. The feature, which was introduced in 2013 to much fanfare, had become a handy tool for trip planning, lodging decisions, and even emergencies on the slopes. Now, it’s gone, and users are fuming.

Screenshots of Google Maps before and after the change tell a disheartening story. Once peppered with detailed ski runs and lift routes, the maps now show resorts as mere pins on the terrain. Click/tap on the image to view.

For years, ski resorts on Google Maps were more than a novelty. Travelers used them to scope out the proximity of hotels to lifts, plan routes, and even make safety decisions. Local businesses, especially those in alpine regions, relied on the feature to help tourists locate amenities. A Google Maps product manager recently explained that the feature’s removal stemmed from the belief that most users prefer resort-specific maps. It’s an answer that has sparked outrage rather than resolution.

The backlash has been swift and icy. Online forums are teeming with comments from disappointed users. A European skier lamented the inability to find lodging near slopes, while ski travel consultants have expressed concern over how the change impacts their daily workflow. Even those in the business of rescuing stranded skiers have chimed in, highlighting how the maps were critical for emergency responses.

While some users have turned to apps like OpenSnowMap and SkiMap.org, others argue that these are no match for Google’s integration of trails, lifts, and cable cars. Resort maps, while helpful on the mountain, don’t provide the broader logistical view needed for planning trips. For families, the inability to see how slopes connect to lodging or parking lots is a logistical nightmare.

To make matters worse, this isn’t just a Google problem. Ski features have reportedly disappeared from Apple Maps and Bing as well, sparking speculation about a larger issue, possibly linked to licensing agreements or data sources.

The disappointment has snowballed into action. A petition on Change.org urging Google to reinstate ski features on Maps has garnered over 200 signatures. You can aslo fill out this form to help save ski features. The pleas emphasize the importance of ski slopes, lifts and trails as not just leisure tools but vital transportation links in mountain economies. The petition also proposes a collaborative approach, allowing the user community and resorts to contribute data to keep the maps updated.

For skiers and snowboarders, the absence of trail maps isn’t just an inconvenience — it’s a disruption to a long-established way of navigating the world of winter sports. For now, users can only hope Google reconsiders and brings the ski slopes and ski lifts back to Maps.

The disappearance of ski trails is just the latest chapter in a growing saga of user complaints about Google Maps. iOS users recently reported missing layers in the app, while Android users have been grappling with the map’s failure to rotate to match their direction of travel. Even as Google adds new features like incident reporting for Apple CarPlay, these issues highlight a disconnect between flashy updates and core functionality. Additionally, Google’s recent rollout of AI features in Maps, while promising, has left some users questioning whether the focus on innovation is coming at the expense of reliability.