I'll take Woodbury's bizarre and mystical trail map any day over a VistaMaps trail map. At least Woodbury's trail map is eye catching, interesting and engaging because it's so weird! I'm rather disappointed that ski resorts have one by one been dropping the beautiful, vivid and detailed James Niehues trail maps in favor of bland, low detail, less geographically accurate VistaMaps trail maps. In my perfect world, if James Niehues is no longer making trail maps, I'd have either his protege Rad Smith making trail maps for ski resorts, or the madman behind the trail map for Woodbury.
On another note, I think removing paper trail maps in favor of digital trail maps might not be the best idea. Yes, I admit I do collect trail maps while wicket tickets pile up on my jacket zipper, but besides the sentimental and decorative value of a physical trail map, there is another reason why they are important: they aren't constrained by battery life.
This is especially noteworthy, because when you're skiing/snowboarding at a ski resort, you usually need snow. In fact, I'd make a wild guess that the vast majority of skiers and snowboarders ski on snow. And what do you need for snow to fall from the sky or be blown out of a snowgun? Cold temperatures. A battery's worst enemy. My previous smartphone, an incredibly common one, a Samsung Galaxy S7 would have its battery fall from a full charge all the way to 10% sometimes in just an hour when I'm out skiing in the cold temperatures. All smartphones I had before that, had the same issue. You could carry around a portable charge battery, but that's additional bulk in that pocket you're holding your smartphone in, and of course that charge battery and its wire are also prone to damage from either the temperatures or being flung around and smacking your smartphone in your coat pocket as you shred down the slopes.
I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be hard to make biodegradable trail maps, I'm sure that's already a thing. Trail maps are an incredibly small item in the realm of pollution and resource use, much like the cars, trucks and SUVs people use to commute to the ski resort, or to work or to the store - 15 cargo/tanker ships alone emit roughly the same amount of pollution as the nearly 1.5 billion active automobiles (including buses and semi trucks) in the world. Bet ya didn't know that! A car-free society is a ridiculous and stupid idea with bad consequences... Much like forcing clueless guests to rely on their phone charge to guide them through the vast, freezing cold wilderness of a ski resort in the winter when the days are shortest!
Not sure what happened in the droid world but my first one was dead at 11:30. Now I'm skiing bell-to-bell, with 35% remaining. I do use a separate camera, which mean my phone stays in my pocket more of the time.
All good points. I'll admit I started skiing with a portable charger a few years ago, and it changed my day. 100 percent charge all day long. I'm already wearing so much extra gear I don't even notice the weight. But... I do that because I like to use tracker apps and take a lot of pictures - trailmaps on a phone are terrible.
Yeah, I've had two phones, my previous one and my current one, get a cracked screen from being smacked against the portable charger in my ski jacket pocket while I ski... Just my luck I guess. And yes, I did have a phone case on both of them!
Another thing I thought of, is that you'd need to take off your ski gloves to access and move & zoom the trail map on your phone screen, compared to regular physical trail maps. Time to get frozen fingers and for the glove to lose its heat!
Perfect North would be an interesting one to have on the podcast. I worked as a ski instructor there for several years. I have never personally seen a busier ski area on the weekends, they have crowd management down to a science and there snowmaking capacity is one of the highest in the US. The owners dad was a brick layer and literally built the place with his bare hands.
It is definitely on my list. I'm hoping to float through there and ski first. Would like to hit Timberline as well. That is good background though - thank you.
"Is Black Mountain more than twice the size of Shawnee Peak? Not likely. "
Definitely not based on trails count & acreage alone, however, ten plus years of heavy cutting of the BMOM woods may convince the hardcore doubters to think otherwise on a pow day. There truly are developed glades just about everywhere you look. Not even including the off-property, developed side-country of Rumford Whitecap, which is easily accessible via the mountain's designated uphill trail. BTW, BMOM has offered private mountain rentals for the last 3 years, it just hasn't been heavily promoted, and the cost is a la carte.
It's a terrific ski area, and I love their focus on glades. I'll look forward to discussing all of that with them on the podcast next month. Thanks for the additional background on private rentals.
I'll take Woodbury's bizarre and mystical trail map any day over a VistaMaps trail map. At least Woodbury's trail map is eye catching, interesting and engaging because it's so weird! I'm rather disappointed that ski resorts have one by one been dropping the beautiful, vivid and detailed James Niehues trail maps in favor of bland, low detail, less geographically accurate VistaMaps trail maps. In my perfect world, if James Niehues is no longer making trail maps, I'd have either his protege Rad Smith making trail maps for ski resorts, or the madman behind the trail map for Woodbury.
On another note, I think removing paper trail maps in favor of digital trail maps might not be the best idea. Yes, I admit I do collect trail maps while wicket tickets pile up on my jacket zipper, but besides the sentimental and decorative value of a physical trail map, there is another reason why they are important: they aren't constrained by battery life.
This is especially noteworthy, because when you're skiing/snowboarding at a ski resort, you usually need snow. In fact, I'd make a wild guess that the vast majority of skiers and snowboarders ski on snow. And what do you need for snow to fall from the sky or be blown out of a snowgun? Cold temperatures. A battery's worst enemy. My previous smartphone, an incredibly common one, a Samsung Galaxy S7 would have its battery fall from a full charge all the way to 10% sometimes in just an hour when I'm out skiing in the cold temperatures. All smartphones I had before that, had the same issue. You could carry around a portable charge battery, but that's additional bulk in that pocket you're holding your smartphone in, and of course that charge battery and its wire are also prone to damage from either the temperatures or being flung around and smacking your smartphone in your coat pocket as you shred down the slopes.
I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be hard to make biodegradable trail maps, I'm sure that's already a thing. Trail maps are an incredibly small item in the realm of pollution and resource use, much like the cars, trucks and SUVs people use to commute to the ski resort, or to work or to the store - 15 cargo/tanker ships alone emit roughly the same amount of pollution as the nearly 1.5 billion active automobiles (including buses and semi trucks) in the world. Bet ya didn't know that! A car-free society is a ridiculous and stupid idea with bad consequences... Much like forcing clueless guests to rely on their phone charge to guide them through the vast, freezing cold wilderness of a ski resort in the winter when the days are shortest!
Not sure what happened in the droid world but my first one was dead at 11:30. Now I'm skiing bell-to-bell, with 35% remaining. I do use a separate camera, which mean my phone stays in my pocket more of the time.
I like vista maps. They're clear to me.
All good points. I'll admit I started skiing with a portable charger a few years ago, and it changed my day. 100 percent charge all day long. I'm already wearing so much extra gear I don't even notice the weight. But... I do that because I like to use tracker apps and take a lot of pictures - trailmaps on a phone are terrible.
Yeah, I've had two phones, my previous one and my current one, get a cracked screen from being smacked against the portable charger in my ski jacket pocket while I ski... Just my luck I guess. And yes, I did have a phone case on both of them!
Another thing I thought of, is that you'd need to take off your ski gloves to access and move & zoom the trail map on your phone screen, compared to regular physical trail maps. Time to get frozen fingers and for the glove to lose its heat!
Good read
Perfect North would be an interesting one to have on the podcast. I worked as a ski instructor there for several years. I have never personally seen a busier ski area on the weekends, they have crowd management down to a science and there snowmaking capacity is one of the highest in the US. The owners dad was a brick layer and literally built the place with his bare hands.
It is definitely on my list. I'm hoping to float through there and ski first. Would like to hit Timberline as well. That is good background though - thank you.
"Is Black Mountain more than twice the size of Shawnee Peak? Not likely. "
Definitely not based on trails count & acreage alone, however, ten plus years of heavy cutting of the BMOM woods may convince the hardcore doubters to think otherwise on a pow day. There truly are developed glades just about everywhere you look. Not even including the off-property, developed side-country of Rumford Whitecap, which is easily accessible via the mountain's designated uphill trail. BTW, BMOM has offered private mountain rentals for the last 3 years, it just hasn't been heavily promoted, and the cost is a la carte.
It's a terrific ski area, and I love their focus on glades. I'll look forward to discussing all of that with them on the podcast next month. Thanks for the additional background on private rentals.