 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all, it's been a while!
A nasty complication from a kidney-stone kept me away from work and (more annoyingly) the slopes for quite a while, but now I'm fully fit again and able to focus on a project that I first began some time ago: mapping the layouts of as many ski resorts as possible in order to create an Atlas of Ski Resort Villages, to show exactly where every chalet, hotel, bar, restaurant, ski hire shop, lift access points, etc., are all located in relation to the slopes; and to make it easy to see where their nearest equivalents are located too.
Here's my demo map for Val d'Isere: http://ski-ride.co.uk/map-demo/
I originally created similar maps specific to a handful of resorts that were the subject of a series of guidebooks that I authored for a well-known travel-guides publisher, but I could see that a comprehensive atlas of such maps would also be a useful resource in its own right.
I'm not a resort business owner, travel agent nor tour operator, I'm an author & artist; this atlas is a personal mission, intended to provide a free-to-use online resource.
I've bootstrapped the project myself, to date, although I'm also inviting appropriate commercial sponsorship; so far I'm simply offering for sale my original cartographic survey drawings to help fund further on-site surveys and production costs; a Kickstarter, Indiegogo or similar crowdfunding campaign might also be in the offing.
In the meantime, I welcome feedback from fellow snowHeads about the idea in general and re the design and functionality of the demo map specifically; feel free to float any suggestions or queries and, if you live in or near to any resorts that you think should be included in the atlas, do get in touch if you'd like to get involved with the survey process - It'll be a paid gig for those that have the right skills.
Many thanks.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Snow Beard, it's a great idea. From the first time I went to Tignes about 10 years and saw their paper version of the village map (with all bars, restaurants, hotels, chalets etc) I've always thought this would be of real use in website form, rolled out for many resorts. In my head of the ideal up and running system, the actual shops and restaurants etc would be linked from the map to create a real interactive community.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Cheers Dav, the plan is indeed to have links to everything, I'm just focused on compiling the actual maps artwork and precise locations geo-data first.
Until I started this I hadn't realised just how few tour operators and travel agents there are who actually appear to have a clue where any of their chalets are located, if their own online maps are anything to go by!
I've nearly completed Tignes too, just in the middle of doing Meribel right now - almost done.
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Snow Beard, this is excellent! While it's easy to find a resort's piste map, it's never so easy to find a decent resort map. And when I do, the chances are that I can't find the chalet I want to check out at on it! This looks really good - easy to use, very interactive and really clever use of the overlays. If\when this is complete I'd happily fork out a few pounds for the app.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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PS.. is that Soldeu on your home page?
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Snow Beard, good idea, La Tanis has had a map with chalets on it on the website for a while
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Snow Beard, good idea, La Tania has had a map with chalets on it on the website for a while
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Thanks Handy Turnip; planning to keep it free of charge, thx for the positive feedback and yes, good spot re Soldeu, that's just a screengrab from one of my prototypes, but my Andorra maps need a fresh update now since it's been a couple of years since I compiled those.
Cheers too chrisb, I've seen that La Tania map and yes it's very good - I've done La Tania as well, I'll make an effort to get it uploaded soon.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Snow Beard, how do you cope with
A) all the annual updates/changes when chalets move between tour operators, operators fold etc
B) where the 'chalet name' the tour op uses is not the same as the name the chalet is known within the village (not that uncommon)
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Hey bertie bassett, good to hear from you. I handle updates by making regular return visits, using on-site contacts and general feedback, as well as by simply keeping a close eye on developments - it's a faff, but I'm a resort geek and this truly is a vocation for me.
Re the chalet names, I decided on displaying the ones that the current operators use, since they're the names most people will be searching for, but occasionally I also give the actual local name too if that's particularly well known or an important point of interest.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Good idea, Snow Beard. It is a resource that I would use for resorts I visit.
I checked out the Val D'Isere one on your site and it all made sense and was easy to use. I was thrown to start with because your maps are a 180 degree around from the mental image I have of the resort layout (probably based on the orientation of the resort's piste map!).
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Thanks Mr Marmot, the same happens to me sometimes when I'm doing the on-site surveys, I'm constantly turning my aerial imagery upside-down to orientate it in relation to the slopes rather than north-at-top, but I reckon it's better to display all the maps with north-at-top for consistency and to fit with accepted norms; unless anyone can convince me otherwise of course?
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Snow Beard, Great work. Using smartphone I would wish the map part would be larger, and the menu could be opend and closed.
I look forward of using your work!!!!!
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You know it makes sense.
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Snow Beard, looks great and is definitely needed. i am new to skiing and looked around for something just like this when i was trying to book our first holiday. and even after booking i was trying to research what was around so good luck with the project.
I would pay a few quid for the app as well
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Happy to provide some locations/info for morzine if that's useful?
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Poster: A snowHead
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Like it. Would use it quite a lot I htink, I love clicking round maps.
Would be nice to be able to click on a building to see what it is, as well as clicking on the A-Z index to show the details
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Thanks for all the positive feedback so far everyone, much appreciated.
Hyst, good point re mobile, so far I've only got a basic proof-of-concept demo online but will indeed create mobile-optimised layouts too.
nbt, yes, I wanted to make entire buildings clickable too but that didn't work as well as I'd imagined, so I settled on using customised clickable markers instead - you just have to click the little matching-colour square markers on the buildings to reveal what they are, which is sort of the same thing. I've set all the markers to be visible by default when you first open the map, but you can then turn them off & on by category using the check-boxes displayed to the right of each A-Z category.
matteevan90 are you based in/near Morzine? It's on my to-do list, but not until Jan/Feb, so if you're going to be on-site before then that would be great - let me know, cheers.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Fantastic product Snow Beard, good luck with it 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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[quote="Snow Beard"
nbt, yes, I wanted to make entire buildings clickable too but that didn't work as well as I'd imagined, so I settled on using customised clickable markers instead - you just have to click the little matching-colour square markers on the buildings to reveal what they are, which is sort of the same thing. I've set all the markers to be visible by default when you first open the map, but you can then turn them off & on by category using the check-boxes displayed to the right of each A-Z category.
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ok, I see what you mean. DIdn't spot them previously, you may need to consider a border or 3d effect. ALso missing a few, e.g Ski World run the SKi Lodge which is shown in read and clickable, but the blue "bar" section isn't - or is that just because this is still only a demo and not all the data is there perhaps?
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Back on this again after the day-job took precedence for a couple of months.
Completed La Tania yesterday and have added that to the live map demos: ski-ride.co.uk/map-demo/la-tania
@nbt, good suggestion re border/3D effect to make the markers more visible - they did originally have a drop-shadow effect but that's now been turned off by Google Maps in keeping with their new standard 'flat' design. I did try borders, but the maps then looked very cluttered; I'll have a doodle around to see if something like a simple central white dot helps.
Cheers sHs for all the feedback, much appreciated.
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Looks great @Snow Beard - it is often really tricky to try and work out where the TO chalet is in relation to slopes and lists etc
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Mega!! Loverly!! And I particularly like the touch f showing the runs into the village. More power to your elbow Snow Beard. Best maps I've seen for years - and I love maps!
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@Snow Beard, great work. I like the links that show which chalet goes with which company. This is really handy for first time visitors in La Tania so they can get an idea where the chalet is with regards to the piste. This can be important as a chalet might describe itself as ski in ski out, but that might be the red run that may be too steep for some
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Chucks! Cheers for all the positive feedback so far . I'll crack on with a few more then - Courchevel's up next.
@capstone, wish I could, but I won't be back out to Les Menuires until late January I'm afraid; in the meantime though, if you want to know the whereabouts of something specific, I may already have the precise GPS location recorded for it, try me.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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fantastic idea, particularly for me, as I usually spend ages trying to track down where a chalet is in relation to the lifts, ski shops, etc. and more detail about runs back into the resort.
I think this has great commercial value and companies such as TO, ski shops, tripadvisor, etc might be interested in helping out, so maybe you should think of opening it up to them and getting financial help and staff to help you with it? Maybe use Kickstarter to generate the funds to complete it?
One thing that I would like to know, and apologies if its already on your website  , is the quickest route to the ski lifts from a hotel or chalet, so how long it will take walking or using the ski bus (normally if a hotel has a ski bus then I cross it off my list as I assume its too far from the lifts)
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You know it makes sense.
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ooohhh, just thought of another one, in this day and age with go-pro's etc, allow users to download videos of each pistes, or at least link them through youtube! just to give the users an idea of the flow / steepness etc
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Thanks for the further ideas @Sack the Juggler, I particularly like the suggestion re quickest-route to lifts/pistes info; I'll start compiling that info to add.
Austria's definitely on my list @joe1978, but no firm dates as yet; which resort(s) would you like to see done first?
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Poster: A snowHead
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This is an amazing project. I think it definitely has commercial value.
Ps: any plans to do Courchevel?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Snow Beard, thanks for the offer was mainly where a lot of the nice restaurants are in relation to where we are staying that was all. The Les Menuires website has restaurant names but no specific locations your map is ideal for planning so keep up the great work!!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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This is a really good idea, I found the interactive resort map of La Rosiere a real bonus when booking there a couple of year back and was very disappointed to find that most resorts do not offer such a map!
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Great idea - adding the Access Details to the lifts isa nice touch.
2 suggestions - Parking lots would be useful, ideally mentioning if they are paid or free. I don't know Val D'Isere well enough to tell if they're missing or just not in the centre of town.
Also, for the resorts you know well, any detail of where the lower slopes actually pass by would be very useful for anyone wanting ski-to-door. I usually try to use a combination of piste map and hybrid satellite view to try to work this out and it's not easy!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Thanks @calbris, I'm actually in the middle of doing Courchevel (1850) right now, I should have it finished within the next week or so.
Cheers @Gripper, I have already included parking lots, but not as interactive markers: if you zoom in you'll see the 'P' icons on the overlay; I like your suggestion about adding info re whether parking is free or charged though, I suppose I could simply add a symbol next to the 'P' icons to denote if it's pay to park - thanks.
Re the lower slopes detail, that's one of the prime reasons for the overlays, the arrows illustrate direction-of-flow and the routes I've drawn are the actual routes they take, so you can see where they pass close to chalets, etc., and even where any peel-off short-cuts can be taken (indicated by pointed spurs).
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final(ish) suggestion, get in touch with whoever is responsible for tourism at Val d'Isere, tell them you are thinking of doing this and are they interested in "leasing" it for their website. It doesn't matter even if they don't want to pay, but if you get it on their website, and it proves a success (don't forget your own advertising), then approach the other resorts with the working model and ask them if they would like the same for their resort and it only costs €xxk to build. Then take on a lot of programming staff to meet the demand, allow some kind of open source feedback, and spend the rest of your days travelling from resort to resort checking the accuracy of the information and assessing the slopes
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@Snow Beard, Seems like a great idea, would be really good to have a mobile version maybe with embeded gps so you could pinpoint your location and set a route to where you want to go within the resort?
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Cheers again for all the feedback and positive vibes so far.
Just a quick update to report that I've now finished surveying Courchevel (1850) + Meribel (Centre), I'll get the map of Courchevel uploaded this weekend.
In the meantime, as encouraged here, I have indeed reached out to a handful of prospective sponsors/partners; I'm testing links on the demo map of Val d'Isere right now - do please have a play to help test and see what you think:
Val d'Isere resort map
Naturally if/when I get a deal in place it'll then be a bit spammy for me to continue posting re this, but then I'll be v.happy & able to make a nice donation or pay for an ad @Admin
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Great idea. Just identified my chalet and distance form lifts for upcoming visit to Val D. Am I being think or have you not included ski hire shops on the map? That is one of those things I like to locate so I know which shop to choose.
I guess when you make this commercial you can imbed sponsored links to shops or make links pay you for referrals.
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Thanks @Mike-H, great to hear it helped you see exactly where you're going.
You're right about the ski hire shops: I've marked all the shops & business units on the map, and my own master-map details what each one is, but since this is still a non-commercial project for the moment I've not put them in the interactive listings just yet - let me know which shop you're looking for and I'll post the coordinates here for you if you wish.
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FAQ
