Colorado-based Vail Resorts has rolled out a mobile app that let skiers and snowboards hit the slopes - virtually. Called EpicMix, the service allows guests at the five resorts - Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly - to share what they are doing there via the radio frequency scanners that are being installed at each of its 89 lifts across all five mountain resorts.
Want to track - and then brag about - how many rides you took? An RF-enabled chip embedded in Vail Resorts' season passes and PEAKS lift tickets will automatically do that, along with calculating how many vertical feet skied and days spent on the mountain. It'll then recognize special achievements and accomplishments by granting guests commemorative, collectible digital pins.
The application lets guests to share their statistics and accomplishments through updates on Twitter and Facebook as well as create special EpicMix leader boards with their Facebook friends. It will also alert guests when any of their Facebook friends are skiing and where they are on the mountain - and then send messages to those friends.
Another app that skiers may find useful is an augmented reality app for the iPhone called REALSKI.
Developed by tech company Resort Technology Partners, the app offers a guide to more than 80 mountains in North America to skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts. After launching REALSKI, users turn on their iPhone's camera to scan their surroundings. Digital overlays change to match what the camera sees, allowing users to find such facilities and points of interest, as named runs, lift names, lodges, restrooms and restaurants and special areas such as terrain parks. The point of the app is simple, says Mark Sedgwick, director of information technology at ski resort Whistler Blackcomb: to find your way on the mountain.
"REALSKI is much easier to use because you don’t need zoom in and out like you do on other mobile ski maps," he says. "The fact that you are instantly oriented to the surrounding that you are looking at creates a more natural and easy way for skiers to navigate." Michael McDermott, senior vice president of sales, marketing and product management at RTP, says the company is pursuing expanding the app to include ski resorts in Europe.
