Polll, and Discussion, Webcams and the Sugarbush Website.

[Mike_451]

With most resorts having live Webcams, Including MRG for gods sake, often located throughout the mountain, It seems like Sugarbush is missing out on this. I Personaly often find myself checking wecams to see progress of snowmaking, what the conditions or crowds are like, and even what the snow cover, conditions, and weather are like.


In addition, I think it is pretty clear that Sugarbush needs more multimedia on their site.....

How about more photos for one, for informational purposes, as it seems that currently the interest in in really a few great professionaly taken photos only durring the best light conditions. If there were a few pictures, with text captions describing them posted throughout the day to show Snowmaking Progress, I for one would be checking the site more often.

In addition, how about Live webcams, for instance having a cam with views of popular trails, and cams located at the bases, mid mountain, and summits, would be pretty sick. This seems like a prety common thing right now with many resorts.

Live, Acurate Streaming Weather data would be awsome, and I think is a MUST as it seems most serious skiers are in tune with the weather, and would appreciate comprehensive and accurate data. In addition this would get out the facts of what the weather is really doing, and how cold things actualy are!, not what the General Recreational Forcast for the Champlain Valley Says things are, or what was accurate four hours ago says.

How about a daily, or even just weekly video podcast style snowreport, surly a resort the size of Sugarbush can manage to put one of these together.

How about a Daily audio Podcast featuring an extended Snowreport, highlights of what's going on, interviews with Mountain Ops Crews, Snowmakers, even Guests, and feature an Independent Music Track or something.

How about a live webcam on a Snowcat, I am sure this is possible, it would cost money, but it would be cool as all hell to see the groomers in action all night long, and would show people that there really are people up there working hard. This would be freaking amazing, and would be something unique to Sugarbush, and would let people see for themselves how much work these people do.

How about having staff blogs on the site, interviewing staff on what is going on, get a little bit more information up, in more detail, from the people who make it all happen, not just Marketing......

I think if Sugarbush has ambitions on beeing the #1 resort in New England, they are going to have to have the #1 website, with the most accurate, uptodate information, and the most innovative features, not just your typical generic Ski Resorts Website.

Surely, if SV can make claybrook happen, they can do a beter job with the Website.

All the web presence from Win is great, but I think Sugarbush could do allot beter with their Website, afterall it is 2006.....

[Plowboy]

Adding Upper looking Good and Looking Good to the Lift and Trail report would be a good start.

Web cams would be great. Before I head out to SLC every year I'm always checking the web cams @ the Bird. And the best shots are the ones when you can't see anything. Caption under the pic next to it says "This is what you would be seeing if it wasn't snowing".

Yea, update, update, update

[BushMogulMaster]

They're already doing the podcast thing for this season:

Podcasts at Sugarbush


Audio & Video Podcasts
In 2006, Sugarbush Resort will also begin implementing various also began implementing various Audio and Video Podcasting options for things like Snow Reporting, Weather updates, Cool Ski & Ride Videos and Event videos.

When you see an Audio and/or Video Podcast icon for Sugarbush Resort, you can get the free content on your iPod, iTunes or other portable audio/video device by clicking the icon. Alternatively, if you want link to the feed, simply right-click (or option-click) and get the Shortcut.

Current Podcasts

* SugarVideoCast (right-click for URL)

You can also click on any icon to launch the feed directly in iTunes.

For more information, contact us directly>

It's funny... of all the times I've looked at that Lift and Trail report, I never noticed the missing Looking Good and Upper Looking Good.

[Lostone]

Just a couple points:

1) definately is far different than defiantly. (If you only saw me laugh when I read that! )

B) In order to have a webcam on a groomer, it would have to be able to transmit to the base, once the wireless is in place. Ever try to get radio reception, wandering around the mountain?

III) A lot of what you are asking is giving people extra tasks. If they already have a full job, this might require extra people. And tho you say "not just marketing" why else would they pay for a website?

d) A last point as I'm out of bullet numbering styles. ( ) I've always been a fan of the webcam, when it was monitoring the base area at South. With the new base area, I think it would be an even better thing. And while you say "not just marketing", I say marketing, marketing, marketing!

[Tin Woodsman]

To me, this is a simple issue. It would be nice to have all those bells and whistles on the website, but I'll aim low and start with just requiring the basics.

1) Web cam - there's no excuse not to have one. None. Most of your competitors have one. You don't lose anything by not having it. My take away is that you have something to hide.

2) Updated lift/trail/snowfall status as up to the minute as possible. Say what you want about places like Jay, but when it's snowing, they've got their site update a good 3-4 times per day, with a time stamp so you know how fresh/stale the info is. How much has fallen? Where are you making snow, really? What lifts and trails are closed/inaccessible due to wind? This shouldn't be difficult to keep reasonably close to current.

3) Mtn Ops Blog - I've seen it with other hills and it's a great tool, IMHO, to enable casual visitors and diehards to understand what's going on up on the hill now and in the near future. I'm thinking of something like:

"As the report indicates, we got about 6-8" up top and 4-6" down low last night. Word on the street is that Spillsville is blown in real nice. Right now we're blasting Birch Run and Sunrise in the hopes of getting them open for the weekend. Once that's done, the plan is to move over to Steins and get it open ASAP thereafter. With any luck, we'll have about 90 runs open this weekend and a few more by the middle of next week. Those of you skiing on Sleeper Chute yesterday might have seen water pouring out of a broken snowmaking valve halfway up. Hats off to so and so and such and such from the snowmaking crew to get that repaired in record time. With more snow in the forecast tomorrow night, its looking like a great weekend to be skiing and riding at Sugarbush."

There - was that really so hard?

Honestly - with Win's participation here, SB is obviously a resort that is trying to reach out and communicate to customers in a different and more personal way. But not everyone is going to come to SKiMRV. This place will probably get no more than 10-20% of the traffic that the website will get, if that. How about reaching out to the great unwashed in a vaguely similar manner where they'll see it?

[freeheel_skier]

I like looking at ski area websites with cam's stationed at different elevations on the mtn. Usually they are placed outside a summit chair or midstation lodge or something. That would be cool.

I do like the old skool web cam...looking outside my kitchen window @ ME w/binos ....that will usually tell me if the NRE or Summit chairs are running when guest services are busy.

[Strat]

These webcam topics seem to come up every three weeks or so...

The high-elevation cam is really tough because it requires wiring internet up to high elevations, something that is costly and really not cost-effective for the Resort..

[Tin Woodsman]

These webcam topics seem to come up every three weeks or so...

The high-elevation cam is really tough because it requires wiring internet up to high elevations, something that is costly and really not cost-effective for the Resort..

Still no excuse for not having cams at the base pointing towards both the mountain and the new plaza at LP.

[ski_resort_observer]

These webcam topics seem to come up every three weeks or so...

The high-elevation cam is really tough because it requires wiring internet up to high elevations, something that is costly and really not cost-effective for the Resort..

Still no excuse for not having cams at the base pointing towards both the mountain and the new plaza at LP.

Curious...does your comfort level increase as the number of security camera's increase? I think a web cam would not be a good thing pointed at the plaza at LP. Here we really only have them at the banks. Luckily, my bank has a large sense of humor as they tell me it makes them laugh that evertime I pass one I always smile and wave. If it was NYC, I probably would have been arrested and locked up a loooong time ago.

[Tin Woodsman]

These webcam topics seem to come up every three weeks or so...

The high-elevation cam is really tough because it requires wiring internet up to high elevations, something that is costly and really not cost-effective for the Resort..

Still no excuse for not having cams at the base pointing towards both the mountain and the new plaza at LP.

Curious...does your comfort level increase as the number of security camera's increase? I think a web cam would not be a good thing pointed at the plaza at LP. Here we really only have them at the banks. Luckily, my bank has a large sense of humor as they tell me it makes them laugh that evertime I pass one I always smile and wave. If it was NYC, I probably would have been arrested and locked up a loooong time ago.

Not really. The civil liberties angle wasn't one I was really thinking about at all. More to the point, the plaza area is, from what I can tell, supposed to be the hub of the new base village emerging at LP. Why wouldn't you want to show what's going on there? I doubt the resolution of a webcam would be enough to really provide anything useful from a crime fighting perspective.

[Strat]

These webcam topics seem to come up every three weeks or so...

The high-elevation cam is really tough because it requires wiring internet up to high elevations, something that is costly and really not cost-effective for the Resort..

Still no excuse for not having cams at the base pointing towards both the mountain and the new plaza at LP.

Curious...does your comfort level increase as the number of security camera's increase? I think a web cam would not be a good thing pointed at the plaza at LP. Here we really only have them at the banks. Luckily, my bank has a large sense of humor as they tell me it makes them laugh that evertime I pass one I always smile and wave. If it was NYC, I probably would have been arrested and locked up a loooong time ago.

Not really. The civil liberties angle wasn't one I was really thinking about at all. More to the point, the plaza area is, from what I can tell, supposed to be the hub of the new base village emerging at LP. Why wouldn't you want to show what's going on there? I doubt the resolution of a webcam would be enough to really provide anything useful from a crime fighting perspective.

Are you sure he wasn't kidding??

By the way, not to be Mr. Correcto but every English teacher I know wishes that they could change the frequently incorrect usage of apostrophes by most Americans... just passing along the message...


's is for possesion (Sugarbush's trails, the trails' snow cover (goes after for plural or words that end in s)
no s for regular plurals (Cameras, trails, whatever)
It's for when you're really saying "It is."
Its for when you're talking about possesion, (I think that its biggest issue is...)

Thanks for reading

Of course, it's the internet, and it doesn't matter one bit...

[random_ski_guy]

By the way, not to be Mr. Correcto but every English teacher I know wishes that they could change the frequently incorrect usage of apostrophes by most Americans... just passing along the message...


's is for possesion (Sugarbush's trails, the trails' snow cover (goes after for plural or words that end in s)
no s for regular plurals (Cameras, trails, whatever)
It's for when you're really saying "It is."
Its for when you're talking about possesion, (I think that its biggest issue is...)

Thanks for reading


That was fun. I look forward to the next lesson, perhaps we should have one a week.

[random_ski_guy]

By the way, not to be Mr. Correcto but every English teacher I know wishes that they could change the frequently incorrect usage of apostrophes by most Americans... just passing along the message...


's is for possesion (Sugarbush's trails, the trails' snow cover (goes after for plural or words that end in s)
no s for regular plurals (Cameras, trails, whatever)
It's for when you're really saying "It is."
Its for when you're talking about possesion, (I think that its biggest issue is...)

Thanks for reading


That was fun. I look forward to the next lesson, perhaps we should have one a week.

[Strat]

By the way, not to be Mr. Correcto but every English teacher I know wishes that they could change the frequently incorrect usage of apostrophes by most Americans... just passing along the message...


's is for possesion (Sugarbush's trails, the trails' snow cover (goes after for plural or words that end in s)
no s for regular plurals (Cameras, trails, whatever)
It's for when you're really saying "It is."
Its for when you're talking about possesion, (I think that its biggest issue is...)

Thanks for reading


That was fun. I look forward to the next lesson, perhaps we should have one a week.

It's so tough on the internet to detect sarcasm or seriousness, especially without a smiley to clarify... care to elaborate?

[Lostone]

Pssst... That English teacher would go crazy looking at this site. And apostrophes... would be the least of his/her problems.