Glacierline is a string of stops on an imaginary Rocky Mountain gondola, and each stop holds a game we built ourselves. Putt round nine alpine holes, fill in picture grids square by square, chip a snowball through walls of ice, slide a scrambled photo back together, cut a jigsaw by the fire, or steer a growing trail along the lakeshore.
Switchback Putt is where most riders get off first. Pull back from the ball, watch the dotted guide stretch out, let go, and see whether the slope you misjudged carries you past the cup or straight into it.
Nine holes are laid out fresh from our own library of hole templates, so the course has a shape you can learn while still feeling like this mountain’s own. Some holes fence you in with timber walls, others throw bumpers in the way, tilt the green on a slope or leave a patch of sand to drag your roll to a crawl. Water sends the ball back, and moving gates open and close on their own clock. Each hole has a par, and the scorecard keeps the tally.
Two of these games want a steady hand, three want a patient head, and one sits right on the edge between the two. Each card shows a rough feel profile, so you can tell at a glance whether a game is a slow climb or a quick sprint before you step aboard.
First stop01Nine alpine holes seen from above, each with a par and a twin-peak flag. Drag back from the ball, read the dotted guide and let go. Timber walls, bumpers, slopes, sand, water and moving gates all take their turn, and a scorecard keeps every stroke.
Pure logic02Each puzzle hides one of our mountain icons, a gondola cabin, an eagle, a timber elk, a leaping trout. Read the numbers along each row and column, fill squares and cross out the empty ones, and the silhouette emerges. Solve it and the full-colour picture appears.
Twelve walls03Bounce a snowball off your paddle and break through twelve handmade walls, from First Chairs to The Icefield. Glacier ice blocks take two hits. Certain blocks always drop a Wide paddle, Twin snowballs or Slow pace, and your stars depend on how many of three lives you keep.
Small but stubborn04Pick one of eight pictures, from red cabins in the last light to a lodge fire at night, and watch it break into tiles with one gap. Slide them back in a 3x3, 4x4 or 5x5 grid. A move counter, a timer, a number overlay and Peek help along the way.
Blanket required05Eight pictures, from the summit lodge hearth to a fog-wrapped tea terrace, each cut into 12, 24, 48 or 96 real interlocking pieces. Drag a piece near its spot and it clicks in. Edges first, Peek and Shuffle keep a big puzzle friendly from the first piece to the last.
Quickest ride06Steer a trail around the lakeshore grid, picking up spruce cones, the occasional leaping trout and, now and then, a glowing lake compass. Every pickup makes you longer and a little quicker. Classic keeps the walls solid; Garden lets the edges wrap and drops chunks of glacier ice in your way.
Cairn has ridden every cabin on the line more times than anyone. Answer three quick questions and he will unfold his trail map and point at the stop that fits your mood right now.
Glacierline is the work of a very small team, and every game here is plain code we wrote and tuned by hand. Before any new stop joins the cable, it has to pass the same three tests, and they explain most of what you will notice while you play.
Strokes, moves, points and stars come from what you actually do. Randomness only lays out the board: where a trout appears on the lakeshore, how the slide tiles are scrambled, how jigsaw pieces scatter. It never decides a result on your behalf. When a hole goes badly, you can trace it back to a pull that was a touch too long.
Personal bests, unlocked walls and finished pictures are saved quietly in the browser you are using. There is no account, no password and nothing to sign up for. Come back next weekend on the same laptop or phone and the line remembers your best round of putting and every picture you rebuilt.
Every golf hole is built from a template we know can be holed. Slide puzzle shuffles are always solvable. Picture grids are checked so no row arrives hopelessly bare. We play each game on a phone and on a big monitor until it feels demanding in a fair way, then we stop fiddling and let it be.
Glacierline exists because a few of us love building small, tidy games and could not stop once the first one worked. The pages stay clean, the games load straight onto the stage, and nothing pops up between rounds to break your concentration. We would rather spend an evening tuning the bounce off a timber wall than dressing the site up, and we think you can feel that when you play.
Some trips up the mountain are about the view. Others are about getting your heart going. Here is how the line divides by temperament.
You like lining up a shot, guessing the bounce and adjusting next time. Switchback Putt gives you nine holes of timber walls, bumpers and sneaky slopes, with a par to beat on every green and a scorecard that never forgets a stroke.
Switchback Putt →decoderNumbers along the edges, an empty grid, and a picture waiting to be pulled out of it by logic alone. Trailmark Grids turns twelve of our mountain icons into puzzles at two sizes, then shows the full-colour picture when you crack one.
Trailmark Grids →sharpshooterA paddle, a snowball and twelve walls of ice blocks to break. Icefall Breaker rewards anyone who enjoys angles, quick wrists and the small thrill of a ball rattling round behind the last row.
Icefall Breaker →tinkererCable Car Slide scrambles one of eight pictures into a grid of tiles with a single gap. Push tiles round until the photo returns, on a friendly 3x3 or a stubborn 5x5, and chase a lower move count every time.
Cable Car Slide →firesideNo rush, no clock you have to care about. Fireside Jigsaw cuts eight pictures into anything from 12 to 96 real interlocking pieces, and each one settles home with a soft click.
Fireside Jigsaw →sprinterSteer a trail across the lakeshore, gather cones, trout and the odd glowing compass, and try not to tie yourself in a knot. Tarn Trail is fast, a little frantic and over before your coffee cools.
Tarn Trail →GuideSome games wind you up and some wind you down. Arrange them in the right order and a long winter night ends with a calm head and a finished picture.
GuideNone of these six games is decided by chance. The players who improve fastest share a handful of habits, and every one of them can be practised in a spare five minutes.
We did, a small studio that likes mountains a little too much. All six games are our own code, and the pictures, icons and characters were made for the line too. That is why the same faces keep turning up: a gondola cabin flagging a golf hole, a trout swimming along the lakeshore, a timber elk filling in a picture grid.
No. Each game opens inside its page in any up-to-date browser on a computer, tablet or phone. Press Play on the start screen and you are on your way. A fullscreen button and a restart button sit above every stage, so you can make the game bigger or start a round over whenever you like.
They are saved in your browser on the device you play on, along with unlocked levels and finished pictures. There is no account to create. Clearing your browser data or picking up a different device starts a fresh trip, so it helps to think of each device as its own lift pass with its own record.
Yes. A sound switch sits above every game. With it on, you hear short synthesized tones for a ball dropping in the cup, a block cracking or a tile sliding home. With it off, everything plays exactly the same in silence, which is how a lot of people play on a quiet commute.
Yes. The characters are friendly animals, the pictures are mountain lakes and snug lodges, and nothing on the line is scary. Younger players usually love the 12-piece jigsaw, the 3x3 slide puzzle and the first few golf holes. The bigger picture grids are better suited to patient older kids and grown-ups.
Every game fits a narrow screen. Tarn Trail works with swipes or the on-screen pad, Switchback Putt is a natural fit for a thumb dragging back, and Cable Car Slide is happy with taps or swipes. The 96-piece jigsaw and the 15x15 picture grids are kinder on a tablet or a laptop, where there is more room.
Eventually, but we are in no hurry. Right now we would rather polish these six until every bounce and click feels right. If you have an idea for a game that belongs on a mountain cable, or a picture you would love to see, the contact page goes straight to the people who build the line.
Six games, nothing to download, and your bests saved on your own device. Choose a stop, step aboard, and enjoy the view on the way up.