# About SkiBuds > Stephen Phillips built SkiBuds in a Whistler dorm in 2018/19 to find people to ride and carpool with. His story, and the rebuilt app coming soon. Source: https://skibudsapp.com/about Updated: 2026-10-29 SkiBuds is an app for finding people to ski and snowboard with. Stephen Phillips started building it in the 2018/19 season while living in a four-bed dorm room in Whistler and riding every day: 153 days that winter. The rebuilt app is coming soon to iOS and Android. Until it launches, this website covers the planning, with resort guides, snow forecasts, a free meetup planner and a carpool cost calculator. ## Where it started The first idea was a way to find people to share accommodation with. It became something simpler: finding people to ride with, partly for safety, and to carpool to the mountain, cutting traffic and emissions and sharing the cost of parking. Much of what he built came from ideas people gave him on chairlifts and while living in that dorm. Stephen built the original app in React Native with a Firebase backend so it would run on both Android and iOS, "to give everyone a chance to use the app." It was free, and he built it in his spare time while working full time as the sole web developer at a health care startup. Growth was grassroots: 130,000 stickers, flags, shirts and hats, and more time than he could describe talking to strangers and posting in online groups. For the 2019/20 season he moved to Colorado with one of his best friends, Michael, who helped run SkiBuds' social media while fishing off the coast of Alaska. ## What the first version did In the 2019/20 season the original SkiBuds reached 6,600 users, with more than 350 people using it every day before the season ended. Stephen rode 114 days that winter, and by the time he left Colorado in March 2020 he had met more than 60 people through the app. A year later the count was past 100, and he was still riding with many of them. That season Teton Gravity Research, KRDO, the Vail Daily, The Denver Post and Unofficial Networks covered the app; the articles are listed on the [press page](https://skibudsapp.com/press). Those meetups led to trips that wouldn't have happened otherwise. In March 2020 he met Aodhgan through the app at [Whistler](https://skibudsapp.com/resorts/whistler-blackcomb). After two days riding together, Stephen followed him to [Kicking Horse](https://skibudsapp.com/resorts/kicking-horse) for its last day of the season, then [Lake Louise](https://skibudsapp.com/resorts/lake-louise) for its last day, then a day of backcountry snowmobiling at Revelstoke. The SkiBuds Instagram account documented much of that era. We have collected it into stories about [meeting ski buddies in Colorado](https://skibudsapp.com/posts/finding-ski-buddies-in-colorado-vail-keystone-copper), [a week of meetups at Jackson Hole](https://skibudsapp.com/posts/jackson-hole-ski-buddies-skibuds-meetups), [the March 2020 road trip from Whistler to Kicking Horse](https://skibudsapp.com/posts/whistler-to-kicking-horse-end-of-season-ski-road-trip), [Mt. Baker powder days](https://skibudsapp.com/posts/mt-baker-powder-days-and-highway-542), [Park City meetups in 2020/21](https://skibudsapp.com/posts/park-city-powder-days-with-new-ski-buddies), [a winter around Lake Tahoe](https://skibudsapp.com/posts/lake-tahoe-ski-buddies-heavenly-kirkwood-2021), [the Utah backcountry](https://skibudsapp.com/posts/utah-backcountry-little-cottonwood-ski-partners) and [the Alaska roots of SkiBuds at Alyeska](https://skibudsapp.com/posts/skibuds-alaska-roots-alyeska-dutch-harbor). In the uncertain 2020/21 season, daily users fell to 100-150, and in March 2021 Stephen wrote that it was "almost impossible to try to launch a platform for skiing without money or with a very small team behind it." He also wrote that he "would have given up many times, but every time I met someone through the app it re-grounds me." The full account, setbacks included, is in [History, Vision, Future of SkiBuds (and why I need your help)](https://skibudsapp.com/posts/history-vision-future-of-skibuds-and-why-i-need-your-help). ## What the rebuilt app will do The rebuilt app will keep the original purpose, finding people who share your riding style, and bring more of the mountain day into one place: mountain weather and snow forecasts, rider discovery, maps, private and group messaging, and GPS run tracking with Day Recaps. The [features page](https://skibudsapp.com/features) describes where it is heading. Some ideas from the original app, such as lift-status notifications, are not part of the new plans. It will be for adults 18 and over, with content filtering, reporting, blocking and reports reviewed within 24 hours. The [safety page](https://skibudsapp.com/safety) explains how that works. ## What you can use today While the app is rebuilt, this website covers the planning that happens before the first chair: - A researched guide for each of the [116 supported mountains](https://skibudsapp.com/resorts), with terrain by ability, arrival advice, a snow forecast and links to official resort sources. - [Region guides](https://skibudsapp.com/mountains) for Colorado, Utah, California, Oregon, Vermont and British Columbia. - [Ski and snowboard guides](https://skibudsapp.com/guides) on finding riding partners, reading snow forecasts, carpooling and getting ready for the season. - A free [meetup planner](https://skibudsapp.com/guides/ski-buddy-meetup-checklist#meetup-planner) that turns your plan into a message you can send. - A free [carpool cost calculator](https://skibudsapp.com/guides/ski-carpool-planning#carpool-calculator) that splits fuel, parking and tolls and writes an agreement you can share. - A [glossary](https://skibudsapp.com/topics) of 32 ski and snowboard terms, from riding pace to snow water equivalent. Stories from riders, such as [teaching a 20-month-old to snowboard](https://skibudsapp.com/posts/teaching-a-20-month-old-how-to-snowboard) and [sending the Hatcher Pass canyon gap in Alaska](https://skibudsapp.com/posts/hatcher-pass-canyon-gap), are on the [blog](https://skibudsapp.com/blog). ## How we research our guides Our guides link to sources alongside the information they support. For resort access, passes, parking and mountain operations, follow the linked official resort or pass pages to confirm the rules for your trip date. Firsthand rider stories on the [blog](https://skibudsapp.com/blog) describe those riders' experiences at the time; they are separate from current resort information. Worked examples explain how to make a decision or use a planning tool. Hypothetical trips and invented figures are labeled as examples, and dated prices are identified so you can replace them with your own current quotes. A guide's Updated date reflects a substantive revision. It does not mean every linked price or policy was checked that day, and resort information can change between revisions. If you spot an error or an outdated source, [email SkiBuds](mailto:powWowLLC1@gmail.com) with the page link and the correction. ## Get involved "A lot of people think there is a big team behind SkiBuds," Stephen wrote in 2021, "but to me the team is all the users." Follow the [launch status](https://skibudsapp.com/#launch-status), the [latest launch update](https://skibudsapp.com/posts/skibuds-launch-updates-fall-2026) and [SkiBuds on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/skibudsapp/) for news. Clubs, resorts and publishers can [get in touch about partnering](https://skibudsapp.com/partners), and writers can find [press and community resources](https://skibudsapp.com/press).