Just Another Proposal--ski Resorts Or Clubs

[+Jake39]

There are many places to ski and a lot of them now allow snowboarding. May they be small city or resort hills or large mountain resorts with a number of ski clubs.

 

 

Amazing aerial view of the summit of Mont Tremblant Resort QUEBEC CANADA

[+Jeremy]

Good one (and good timing - just watched Warren Miller's latest movie last night, Higher Ground - It is awful).

[+StagsRoar]

Excellant - 2 thumbs up for this proposal!!!

[+Granite of StoneSoup]

Wow, I was just about to propose this category! Great minds think alike.

 

With the snow starting to fall, I have been thinking about how to create a Ski Resort category for the past couple of weeks. I think that I would like to create at least three categories under ski resorts:

 

Ski Resorts >> Ticket Booths (the official on-site location of the ski resort)

Ski Resorts >> Discount Lift Passes (places to purchase discount lift tickets in town)

Ski Resorts >> Places of Interest (remarkable locations on the mountain)

 

Ski Resorts >> Ticket Booths:

Most of the ski resorts that I have been to do not have street addresses that my GPS can locate. This category will have the locations of the place to purchase tickets at the ski resort. This serves as the “official” location of the ski resort and helps us to actually find the resort. Fields to include are: Location (Lat/Lon); Description; Photo (optional); Alpine skiing available (yes/no); Snowboarding available (yes/no); and Nordic skiing available (yes/no).

 

Ski Resorts >> Discount Lift Passes:

You can usually save some money on lift tickets if you happen to know where to go to buy them. Locals know where, but visitors have a hard time finding these places. Be it a supermarket, sporting goods store, or ski rental location, having the coordinates will help all of us save some money. Fields to include are: Location (Lat/Lon); Description; and List of resort names for which tickets are available with discount price of ticket and expiration date.

 

Ski Resorts >> Places of interest:

After you get to the mountain, you may very well want to share places of interest within the resort boundaries. Examples include that secret ski run, or ski lodge with an interesting piece of ski history, or a back-country ski access gate. Fields to include are: Location (Lat/Lon); Description; and Photo (optional).

 

What do you think?

[+yokes]

I think your last idea in the last (about back country run access and hidden runs) is incredibly dangerous and could easily lead to fatalities.

 

But other than that, sounds good.

[+Jake39]

DELETED !

Edited November 22, 2005 by Jake39

[+Jake39]

Ski Resorts >> Ticket Booths (the official on-site location of the ski resort)

Ski Resorts >> Discount Lift Passes (places to purchase discount lift tickets in town)

Ski Resorts >> Places of Interest (remarkable locations on the mountain)

 

Most of the ski resorts that I have been to do not have street addresses that my GPS can locate.

 

...Caches don't have street addresses either. If you were to add all those and my requirements to the category you'd have 2 pages of information/questions, which would be information overload.

...A website link or a long description should suffice.

[+Granite of StoneSoup]

..Caches don't have street addresses either. If you were to add all those and my requirements to the category you'd have 2 pages of information/questions, which would be information overload.

...A website link or a long description should suffice.

 

Jake,

 

Thanks for your reply. I evidently didn't express myself well. I wasn't suggesting that we put street addresses in the cache (waypoint) information. I was just trying to show why such waypoints would be usefull. If there are waypoints for ski resorts, then I can find the waypoint coordinates and put them in my GPS so I can then find the ski resort. Without waypoints for ski resorts, it is more difficult to find a resort that you have never visited before because many ski resorts don't have street addresses per se.

 

In short, I agree with you. Ski resort waypoints are important and street addresses are not necessary and shouldn't be included in the waypoint info.

[+Granite of StoneSoup]

I think your last idea in the last (about back country run access and hidden runs) is incredibly dangerous and could easily lead to fatalities.

 

I was mostly thinking of generic "cool places" that people would want to visit at a ski resort, but you bring up a good point. A unique feature of a ski resort is that visitors must have a certain level of expertice to go to certain parts of the resort. Thus there are "green circle" beginner runs, "blue square" intermediate runs, and "black diamond" expert runs.

 

Based on your feedback, I think it would be important to also include a field to record the difficulty of the waypoint in terms that a skiier would understand. If I am involved in creating this category, I'll be sure to add that field.

 

Good input!

[+Jake39]

Thanx for the feedback....

 

Keep your information coming for inclusion on the 'Waymark'

I will adjust the requirements as I/we go along, as well as adding suitable topics for the listing.

[+Granite of StoneSoup]

I attempted to log a Ski Resort Waymark and gave some feedback to Jake about the experience. For the benefit of others, I will append that feedback here (see the following posts). I think that it would be best to have this discussion in the forum rather than simply between Jake and I.

[+Granite of StoneSoup]

Currently, the following fields are presented when you attempt to log a Ski Resort waymark.

 

-----

Nickname

Coordinates

Country

State/Province

 

Short Description:

Long Description:

Skiing (yes/no)

Snowboarding (yes/no)

Snowmobiling (yes/no)

Cross-Country Skiing (yes/no)

Cost of lift ticket:

Access to area by ROAD (yes/no)

Access to area by TRAIN (yes/no)

Access to area by PLANE (yes/no)

Type of Facility: (selection)

Dates of Operation

Website URL

WEB-CAM URL

 

------

 

This is what I wrote to Jake:

----

 

Cost of Lift Ticket:

At most ski resorts, there are many different types of lift tickets (child, half-day, season, interconnect, nordic, etc.) - each with different prices. For example, see Alta's page:

 

http://www.alta.com/pages/tickets.php

 

You may just want to leave this field out for now. The info can be found on the resort web site.

 

Access to area:

Does this mean that access terminates at the resort? For example, most people fly into Salt Lake City and then take a car/bus/shuttle for 40 minutes to the ski resorts. Does "access by plane" mean that there is an airport on the resort property?

 

You may want to clarify what these fields mean.

 

Dates of Operation:

These dates fluctuate each year. Many Utah resorts were scheduled to open last week, but we are still waiting for the first big snow storm so many have delayed until next week or the following week. Last year, Snowbird was scheduled to close in May, but because there was so much snow, they actually closed after July 4th!!

 

You may just want to leave this field out for now. The info can be found on the resort web site.

[+Granite of StoneSoup]

Here is Jake's reply:

 

Hello,

Don't worry about the ticket prices. Describe some of the items you posted for me, under "Long Desription". Access to the resort, not particular to the entrance. In your case answer all as yes. (will clarify soon) Some qestions were not submitted by me, so I have no control over them. The only thing you need though is a picture of your GPS @ a sign showing the resort name.

[+Granite of StoneSoup]

Jake,

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

The only thing you need though is a picture of your GPS @ a sign showing the resort name.

 

I can see why a log entry would require a photo for verification that you actually visited the waymark. However, I really hope that a photo is not a requirement to create a waymark. I have collected coordinates of many resorts over the years, but I don't have photos of me at the resort. If we look at past history, a photo wasn't a requirement to create a virtual cache at geocaching.com. If I were to upload a photo, it would probably be a panoramic view of the resort rather than my ugly mug.

 

IMHO, photos should be encouraged, but not be a new requirement to create a waymark.

[+Jake39]

Cost of tickets:

At most ski resorts, there are many different types of tickets (child, half-day, season, interconnect, nordic,etc.) - each with different prices. For example, see Alta's page:

http://www.alta.com/pages/tickets.php

You may just want to leave this field out for now. The info can be found on the resort web site.

....beside the checkbox... Dates of Operation.. (NOTE: "no answer") if you would have checked this box you could have added all that information or link to it under description. (there are opt-outs)

 

As far as photos... You read a newspaper without pictures? The more pictures there are on 'YOUR' waymark page, the more the peruser will linger instead of jumping to the next log.

Any other 'personal' discussion in the future will not be followed up in this string, only by e-mail.

Enjoy