Ski Europe Now

Damn Technology.

Been putzing around with my confuser for the last day.  First the cable company changed our router  and the security type without saying anything so all my computers and devices couldn't hook up to the internet.  I got the confusers to connect but no can do on the Kindle Fire or my iPhone.  Christ.  Plus, I tried to update my internet browser and now it won't connect at all so luckily I had an older version still on my computer wihc seems to work.  Neverending.

Plus, the daily visits to the blog have all but dried up; I am not even hitting the daily average.  WTF?

Little Bit of Research.

With my membership to the website www.snow-forecast.com I have access to their historical snowfall records which is nice.  You can compare different resorts for the same year or different years, or compare one resort over different years.  Nice to be able to say if a certain area is getting above average snowfall and whether or not the conditions will suck when you decide you want to visit.  Getting this information does require buying a membership.  I buy one for three months starting in late December and that covers it.  If you want to save a few bucks, you can always use the website of the Swiss avalanche foundation at www.slf.ch and poke around there for the current snow depths as a percentage of a 10 year average.  This website covers only Switzerland.

New Info on www.snow-forecast.com.

I just joined www.snow-forecast.com for three months to get more information about current conditions in Europe.  The site has a lot (and I mean a lot) of information available for free but the best stuff is only available to subscribers, such as snow history and the ability to compare a resort over two different years or even two different resorts over two different years.  It only cost 7.75 english pounds (or about $12.00) for three months.  I figure to get it for Jan, Feb, and March and I can really gauge if the conditions will suck balls.  Check it out.

Technology Is Wonderful Part III.

After thrashing around yesterday and last night, I settled on using Microsoft's Image Composite Editor to make panoramic stitch photos with the ARW files.  I can save them in TIF or a wide variety of file types and I don't lose a lot of information in the photos (the stitch photo tends to be a pretty big file) versus Windows Live Photo Gallery which can stitch ARW files into TIF files but you end up with a file that is smaller than one original ARW file.  Expect more to be posted (I have to convert the TIF file to a PNG file).

Can't Post Some Photos.

My new Sony tx10 camera not only takes pretty nice panoramic photos, but it also takes 3d photos, both still and panoramic.  Wisely, Sony designed the software to take both a JPEG and a MPO (the 3d photo) file when taking a 3d photo so at least you can view the photo on a normal tv or computer.  Question is how the hell do you view a MPO file?  Anyway, I wanted to see if Typepad will allow me to upload both RAW and 3d images.  No go.  Damn.  Guess I will have to set up a special file folder in picturepush. 

Yikes.  Did a quick search on the Vizio website for 3d tvs:  cheapest one was 1400 bucks, and the sky's the limit after that.  May wait a good while before upgrading to see the 3d photos.

On a further note, I have been listening to a lot of folks complaining about gas prices here.  In Jackson, the average seems to be about $3.65 a gal for unleaded low grade; I guess in Washington, DC there is a station charging $5.00 a gallon (it is next to the Watergate Hotel so go figure).  I don't know what the big deal is.  When I was in Gressoney La Trinite, I noted that the gas price was 1.50 euro per liter so with a little bit of basic math and figuring out the exchange rate, those folks in GLT are paying a whopping $8.24 a gallon.  That's not even that bad:  in April 2008 the exchange rate was $1.65 per euro, and gas was selling for 1.75 euro per liter in St. Anton so that equals $10.32 per gallon.  We're getting off cheap. 

Ski Maps Online.

Have you ever tried to find nice, high-quality ski maps online of a ski area you want to visit?  More often than not I have a hard time finding nice ones that I can either print or have full screen on my computer that don't look like shit.  Usually the file is so small that when printed or enlarged on my computer screen the details are fuzzy, or the map itself is so basic that it doesn't tell you anything.  Well, I was poking around on the Monterosa ski resort website (one of the odd times I caught it working; Tony the IT guy must be asleep.) and I was able to download the ski run map as a PDF which has a fair amount of detail.  It actually looks like the real piste map that you get at the ticket window.  NIce.

I did a bit of poking around the net to see what was available out there for online sources of ski maps, and there are a couple sites available.  One of the sites I ran across is www.ski.com and they interactive 3D ski maps of 23 ski resorts.  Sadly, the detail is not fantastic, and only four of the resorts are in europe.  Nice try, but there are better sites available.

Another site is www.skimap.org which has an extensive map listing with over 240 for France alone.  The site has 4513 maps of 2379 different ski areas and offers a monthly updated download of all its maps.  Pretty amazing.  You can also download individual maps.  It is a free service and depends on folks donated maps via scanned maps sent in.  I will send in copies of what maps I have so this great site can continue.

Another site I ran across isn't a map providing site but has a service where you can buy and download topo maps of various ski resorts for your GPS units.  Smart idea.  Www.mountaindynamics.com offers a service called the Snowranger GPS piste maps and also offers a service called the Snow Days which takes your tracks and elevation changes and overlays them on detailed topo maps of various ski areas.  Snow Days also allows you to share this info online with other users.  I think I will be investing in this since I plan to buy a GPS for the bike tours this summer.  It gonna be fun.

Damn Technology.

Today's rant is about the Monterosa ski area website, www.monterosa-ski.com.  About 90% of the time I type in the address, I get the 404 error message saying I basically don't know how to type and such address doesn't exist.  WTF?  I have been on that particular site several times so I know it exists.  Time for Tony the IT guy to stop dropping his espresso on the server.

On an somewhat happier note, I put up a new webcam from the Monterosa ski area in the webcams! microblog to see if it would change daily.  Of course it doesn't but if you click on the website link below the photo, it takes you directly to that webcam site and shows you the refreshed view.  Sorta roundabout but it works.  Sort of like Italy will be I imagine.  All the other webcams continue to refresh as you look at them but for the last year or so nada.  Not sure why.

Emotioncam.com Update II.

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about this new sevice available where you can rent Contour HD helmet cams at various ski resorts via a kiosk or you can rent the helmet cam via mail from this website, www.emotioncam.com.  I got a comment from an employee and responded to it with another blog post where I asked when emotioncam.com would be getting the Contour HD GPS cam and whether or not they shipped to Europe.  Thomas responded with another comment that renting by mail to Europe makes sense if you are going for two weeks or more but he said they would consider it.  He also said emotioncam.com is expecting a few of the GPS units and they would see if they were suitable for the rental fleet.  He felt it was better to let Contour work out any issues or bugs with the new model of GPS helmetcam before his company committed to the model.  Makes perfect sense.

Me, I'll buy one and try it in Europe.  Should be interesting.

TheSnowNetwork.

Saw this brief blurb in SKI magazine about this website where you can download ski movies for a fee, just like Amazon.com.  Neat idea but not many movies I would like to watch; I still prefer the Warren Miller movies.  The others tend to be too much bro-brah huck yer meat into the gnar-gnar sick Alaskan ski runs.  They're like a broken records.  What I would really love is to find copies of all of Warren Miller's movies (I think he has made well over 50).  Another con for me is the formats for watching the movies are the apple iPad/iPod/iTunes; I prefer windows media player.  Check out www.thesnownetwork.com.

Emotioncam.com Update.

I received a nice comment from emotioncam.com and thought I should post an update.  Their website does work fine; I guess my earlier issues with it were due to browser and computer malfunction (as well as a heathly dose of operator error).  I guess there are folks who just don't want to own another gadget so the service does make sense for them.  Another reason why the service makes sense is you get the mounts for your helmet so your hands are free; using my new camera means I have to ski with it in my hands.  Not a huge deal but for some folks they may not feel comfortable doing this so the rental makes sense.  They also offer a rent-by-mail program that makes a lot of sense.  One thing to consider about the rent-by-mail program is I would arrange for the cam to be sent to my hotel the day I arrive so I could get the full use of the camera for a week at a flat fee.  The rent by mail option costs $120 for the 1080 model and is good for a week.  After a week, a per day charge is applicable.  This means the cost is around $17 a day, a far better deal than the $40 a day for the daily rental at a resort kiosk.  Given this option, the service is a relative bargain and I would recommend it to friends.  Two questions I have are when does emotioncam.com expect to have the 1080 GPS available for rent, and is the rent-by-mail program available for overseas shipments?  A comment back on these would be great Thomas.