Don't Get Lost

Garmin Fenix Ski Mode

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:38:38 -0700

Garmin have added an all new "ski" mode to their versatile Fenix watch. As always, DC Rainmaker can be relied upon for an early and in-depth review of the new feature, which is only considered a "beta" test version of the watch's firmware (built-in software).

The new mode allows the watch to break down your lift rides and runs into "laps," much like its auto-lap feature can do for running or cycling laps of a circuit.

Your ski data from the Fenix can of course be brought into Snow Days for keeping season-long track of your statistics on the slopes, such as vertical feet and days-skied.

Two SnowRanger Licensees honored by Mens Journal

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 08:52:57 -0700

The January 2013 edition of Men's Journal is out, and we're excited to see that two of our SnowRanger GPS digital ski map data partners were honored in their 2012 Gear of the Year.

Recon Instruments brilliant GPS heads-up display technology was highlighted in ski goggles from Oakley, Smith and Zeal.

In their Apps of the Year, the magazine honored SnowRanger licensee All Trails for their versatile and comprehensive map and trail apps.

Mountain High and SnowRanger 2012/13

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 15:48:31 -0700

California's Mountain High opened today, not only kicking-off Southern California's ski season but also giving us an ideal opportunity to welcome it the list of resorts in our SnowRanger North America 2012/13 GPS ski resort map sets.

Going in to the new season we've added the following to our USA and Canada coverage:
- Angelfire, NM
- Camelback, PA
- Mountain High, CA
- Mountain Creek, NJ
- Mont-Sainte-Anne, QC
- Mont-Ste-Marie, QC
- Stoneham, QC
- Grouse Mountain, BC
- Kimberley, BC

This follows close on the heels on the release of SnowRanger Europe 2012/13.

More information on SnowRanger GPS maps

2012/13 Colorado ski season opens

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 06:16:05 -0700

Arapahoe Basin opens today, kicking off the Colorado ski season with 1 lift and a couple of trails.

Over in the northeast, Killington was open last weekend, although only for season pass holders.

2012/13 Season Open on French and Austrian Glaciers

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 17:30:06 -0700

Thanks to high altitude glaciers, several resorts in Austria and France are now open for the 2012/13 ski season.

In France, J2ski reports that Tignes reopened on Sept 29, while in Austria, glacier skiing is available at the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier, Solden, Stubai, Kaunertal, Hintertux, Molltal and Pitztal.

Get your SnowRanger Europe maps now!

Snowmaking has begun in Colorado

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 16:31:34 -0700

Image courtesy of Colorado Ski Country
As well as some sprinkles of natural snow, Colorado has seen cold enough temperatures this week for snowmaking to begin at Loveland and Copper Mountain. More info at Colorado Ski Country, who also report that Sun Valley has been firing up its snow guns too. Winter's coming!

SnowRanger Europe 2012/13

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 20:52:25 -0700

We are proud to announce the immediate availability of 2012/13 SnowRanger Europe ski resort maps for Garmin GPS.

We've been hard at work through the summer redeveloping the maps from entirely new data, with improved accuracy and a thorough review of lifts and pistes to make sure we are up to date with all recent changes.

Map sets start at just US$29.99 and can be bought in resort sets such as the Trois Vallees and the Dolomiti Superski, in national sets of Austria/Germany, France/Andorra, Italy and Switzerland, or a single set of all the maps.

As before, map sets may be purchased on SD/microSD memory card, Garmin MapSource CD-ROM, or as an instant download.

Don't miss your chance to pick up a GPS on Black Friday

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 07:05:26 -0700

Our friend Rich Owings over at GPS TrackLog has just posted a fantastic Black Friday 2011 GPS deal roundup.

There really is no better day that Black Friday to pick up a GPS on sale, especially on the newest models. Although we do offer a selection of GPSes here at Mountain Dynamics we really are in the business of making, selling and supporting our SnowRanger Garmin GPS ski resort trail maps, and are happy to see you getting the best price you can on the GPS unit itself.

For the GPS units on sale this Friday, virtually all of them support SnowRanger (see our Compatibility List). Of particular interest:
- All the nuvi models are compatible.
- Garmin Legend HCx for $129 at Amazon is a great deal on an entry-level rugged outdoors model.
- Garmin eTrex 20 for $151.99 at EMS is a new rugged model with a small but very good screen.
- Garmin Montana 600 for $399.96 at EMS is a new rugged model with a very large screen and the ability to add streets maps and a car cradle to turn it into a vehicle navigator too.

Click here to see all the deals.

SnowRanger North America 2011/12 Launches with 8 New Resorts

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:32:34 -0700

We are proud to announce the launch of SnowRanger North America 2011/12 today, with comprehensive seasonal updates to our existing maps and the addition of 8 new resorts, bringing our current USA and Canada total to 128 resorts. The new resorts have been added to of the following regional sets, or, of course, can be bought in our best-value North America set.

California/Nevada
- Dodge Ridge, CA

Northeast
- Elk Mountain, PA
- Le Massif, QC

Northwest/Montana
- Mission Ridge, WA
- White Pass, WA

Utah/Wyoming
- Brian Head, UT

Western Canada
- Castle Mountain, AB
- Whitewater, BC

With numerous resorts in Canada and the Eastern and [link "Western" "buzz.snow.com/channels/epic_mix/b/weblog/archive/2011/11/04/keystone-epicmix-open-for-the-2011-2012-season.aspx"] US opening this weekend, it's a perfect time to get SnowRanger maps onto your Garmin GPS, and to start a epic season-long record of your GPS ski stats using our Snow Days service.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

SKI Magazine Top Ten East Coast Resorts 2011/12

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:35:18 -0700

Following on from last weeks release of their overall top rated resorts, SKI Magazine this week announced their Top Ten East Coast Resorts.

Tremblant once again topped the rankings, this year followed by Stowe and Smugglers Notch.

SnowRanger again covers all of their Top 10 East Coast resorts.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

SKI Magazine Top Resorts 2011-12

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:37:29 -0700

Ski Magazine has released the results of its annual readers survey for the upcoming season.

No change to the top-three from last year, with Deer Valley, edging out Vail and Whistler Blackcomb. SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps are of course available for all their Top 20 resorts.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Wolf Creek to open on Saturday!

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 06:39:54 -0700

Real Vail and other news sites are reporting that Wolf Creek in southern Colorado will open tomorrow, the first resort to open in the state.

Time to load SnowRanger onto your GPS and hit the slopes!

Austrian Glaciers Open for 2011/12 Season

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:38:14 -0700

SKIINFO reports that several high altitude resorts in Austria are already open for the season. The Hintertux, Stubai, Molltal, and Pitztal glaciers are all open. In North America, warm temperatures have delayed the start of snowmaking at Arapahoe Basin, Loveland and other high elevation resorts. Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

SnowRanger supports new Garmin Montana, eTrex and Rino GPS models

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:43:16 -0700

Garmin recently added three new exciting new series of outdoors GPS units. SnowRanger ski resort maps are fully compatible with all but one of the new models.

The Garmin Montana series builds on their popular Oregon and Dakota models, with a 4" touchscreen, optional digital camera with automatic geotagging of pictures, and spoken turn-by-turn directions (with optional SnowRanger ski or Garmin street maps).

The new Garmin eTrex 10, 20 and 30 update their long running eTrex series of budget navigators, with larger screens and long battery lives. SnowRanger is supported on all but the entry-level eTrex 10.

Last, but not least, the Garmin Rino 610, 650 and 655t are new additions to their Rino walkie-talkie/GPS combo units, offering larger screens and an optional digital camera. SnowRanger is compatible with all three models, although the 610 does not have a microSD card slot, so should be used with our download or CD versions.

New resorts added to SnowRanger North America

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 18:21:05 -0700

We've added seven new ski resorts to our series of SnowRanger North America
ski resort GPS maps today:
Northeast
- Holimont, NY
- Seven Springs, PA
- Snowshoe, WV
- Whitetail, PA
Northwest/Montana
- Bridger Bowl, MT
Western Canada
- Mt Seymour, BC
- Revelstoke, BC

This bring our current USA and Canada resort count to 116!

Garmin GPS and Calorie Measurement

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 08:23:55 -0700

If you've ever wondered how accurate the "calories burned" numbers are on Garmin fitness GPSes, such as the Forerunner and Edge models, the always informative DC Rainmaker blog has an in-depth article today, "How calorie measurement works on Garmin fitness devices".

What really caught my interest is how sophisticated the calculation can be, even on older models like the (still excellent) Forerunner 305. Although the Garmin GPS watches and cyclometers fall-back to using a simple and relatively inaccurate speed/distance method, when you have the heart monitor (HRM) strap on, they use a sophisticated algorithm from Firstbeat Technologies that takes account of a variety of data to produce a number that is accurate to within around 10%.

Furthermore, for even more accurate measurement (that goes beyond just precise calorie numbers) you can go a performance testing center run by New Leaf for a running or cycling-specific VO2max-style test, and then download that result data to the GPS, which combines it with the speed, distance, and HRM data to calculate very precise performance numbers.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Plethora of Resorts Opening this Weekend

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:38:32 -0700

SKI Magazine details a number of larger resorts opening this weekend, including Vail, Squaw Valley, Heavenly, Alta, and Whistler Blackcomb.

Colorado resorts such as Breckenridge and Arapahoe Basin have been getting feet of snow this week, and Breckenridge opened its upper mountain T-Bar on the earliest date in 49 years!

In the Northwest, mountains like Mt Baker are hoping for as much as two feet of snow this week, and a possible weekend opening.

We've already had dozens of skier tracks uploaded into Snow Days by our SnowRanger GPS ski resort map users.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Snow Days 2010/11 in full swing

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 15:06:14 -0700

As we reported way back in September, eager skiers and snowboarders are already starting to log and share the GPS tracks from their adventures on the mountains.

So far we're received submissions for:
- Arapahoe Basin
- Copper Mountain
- Hintertux
- Keystone
- Kitzsteinhorn
- Loveland
- Stubai

Last year's Snow Days Leader Board winner uster1 has already established a clear lead on this year's Leader Board.

Snow Days is very easy to use, works with most popular GPS models, and, best of all, is free!

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Garmin Snow Club Test Centres

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 07:05:41 -0700

Garmin UK has followed the recent release of the UK/Europe ski editions of its Oregon and Dakota GPS units (which include our SnowRanger digital ski resort piste maps) with the announcement this week of 10 Garmin Snow Club Test Centres and its Garmin Snow Club website.

The Test Centres will be located in:
- Chamonix
- Courchevel
- Les Deux Alpes
- Meribel
- Morzine
- Tignes
- Val d'Isere

Each will provide guests with the opportunity to test-drive Mountain Dynamics SnowRanger on the Garmin Oregon and Garmin Dakota navigators, and upload their GPS track data each evening to the Garmin Connect statistics service.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

SnowRanger North America 2010/11 Launches with 22 New Resorts

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:53:38 -0700

We are proud to announce the launch of SnowRanger North America 2010/11 today, with the addition of a bumper crop of new resorts, 22 in all, bringing our current USA and Canada total to 108 resorts. The new resorts have been added to of the following regional sets, or, of course, can be bought in our best-value North America set.

Colorado/New Mexico/Arizona
- Eldora
- Sunlight Mountain

Northeast
- Belleayre
- Blue Mountain
- Boyne Highlands
- Boyne Mountain
- Cannon Mountain
- Gore Mountain
- Holiday Valley
- Hunter Mountain
- Mount Sunapee
- Searchmont
- Ski Sundown
- Waterville Valley
- Windham

Northwest/Montana
- Schweitzer

Western Canada
- Big White
- Fernie
- Marmot Basin
- Panorama
- Silver Star
- Sun Peaks

If you are a current customer looking to update your maps, look for an email in around two weeks time with details on how to do this.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Sunday River is Open!

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 16:56:20 -0700

Although all the attention was on perennial early openers Arapahoe Basin and Loveland, it was Sunday River over in Maine that claimed the prize!

Loveland is opening tomorrow (Sunday Oct 24th) and A-Basin on Monday.

Let's see some US tracks in Snow Days 2010/11!

The Race to Open

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 09:41:07 -0700

Colorado Ski Country USA is keeping close tabs on Arapahoe Basin and Loveland, Colorado, as they engage in their annual rivalry to be first to open in the USA.

Last year Loveland won the friendly competition with its earliest opening in 40 years, on Oct 7th, with A-Basin following a few days later. Boreal near Lake Tahoe also opened that same weekend.

As of this morning, both A-Basin and Loveland are reporting good snow-making conditions but no projected opening dates.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Garmin chirp Geocaching Beacon

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 09:35:52 -0700

Garmin have just announced a rather unusual wireless beacon called the chirp. Designed for geocaching, the chirp can send coordinate and other information to nearby compatible GPS units, such as the Dakota, Oregon or GPSMAP 62. The idea is you put the chirp inside a hidden geocache, then as geocachers get near they can receive either hints as to the cache's exact hiding place, or the latitude/longitude of the next cache in a multistage hunt.

Battery life is around a year, and it'll be interesting to see if gadget lovers come up with other innovative uses for the device. You could carry a chirp in your pocket for example, so that geocachers in the vicinity could detect you coming and get your introduction before you come into sight!

It's priced at just $22.99 and is available now.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Austria and Switzerland Open for the 2010/11 Season

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 11:28:48 -0700

OnTheSnow reports that several resorts in Austria and Switzerland are open for the season.

In Austria, the Hintertux, Stubai, Solden, Kaurnertal, Molltal, Pitztal, and Kitzsteinhorn glaciers are all open.

In Switzerland, the Diavolezza glacier near Engadin St Moritz is opening on October 16th.

We're even had some fresh tracks already uploaded to our Snow Days GPS ski stats service!

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

SKI Magazine Top Resorts 2010-11

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 17:12:16 -0700

Ski Magazine has released the results of its annual readers survey.

Once again Ski's Resort Guide gave top marks to Deer Valley, with this year Whistler Blackcomb dropping back to third place behind Vail. SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps are of course available for all their Top 10 resorts.

Tremblant again topped their ranking of Eastern resorts, this year followed by Lake Placid's Whiteface and Stowe. SnowRanger again covers all of their Top 10 East Coast resorts.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Snow Days begins the 2010/11 season

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 07:08:59 -0700

Our popular (and free) Snow Days GPS ski resort stats
Snow Days Facebook App is already showing vertical feet for some lucky skier with access to high altitude glacier skiing at Saas Fee in Switzerland.

With snow at Marmot Basin, Alberta and snowmaking due to start at Arapahoe Basin and Loveland, Colorado any day now, we'll soon be seeing a flood of GPS tracks as skiers and snowboarders tracks their stats and share them through our Snow Days Facebook App.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

It's Snowing at Marmot Basin, Alberta

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:11:14 -0700

Skiinfo reports today that Marmot Basin, Alberta received over 4" of snow overnight, and the resort is confident that, like last year, it will be able to open on November 11th. Marmot Basin is being added to our SnowRanger series of GPS ski resort maps for 2010/11 and will be available by that November date!

Meanwhile in Colorado, Loveland and Arapahoe Basin are vying as usual to be first to open for the season. Loveland reports that it's waiting for cooler weather before it can start snowmaking, while A-Basin is eager to showcase its new Black Mountain Express detachable quad chairlift.

Winter's coming!

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Vail Resorts EpicMix

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:05:02 -0700

Vail Resorts has announced an exciting new statistics service for its season pass holders: EpicMix. Available at its five resorts, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Vail in Colorado, and Heavenly in California, EpicMix uses the RFID chip in the season pass to log each time the skier passes through a lift.

Since it does not use GPS to actually track the skier, the stats available are nowhere near as detailed as with our Snow Days service, nor can it report on which runs the skier actually did (only the lifts). It's also only available at the five Vail resorts, rather than working across any resort the way that Snow Days does, but it's great to see a major player like Vail Resorts endorsing the concept of ski stats tracking and skier location.

ATV GPS trail maps available now!

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:15:15 -0700

Getting out on the ATVs now the snow has melted? Following on from our popular SledGPS snowmobile maps, we have released the first two regions (Great Lakes and Southwest) of a new series of ATV trail maps for Garmin GPS, called ATVGPS.

Available now from ATVGPS.net, at a summer special price of $39.99/set.

SnowRanger MapSource CD-ROM and Apple Mac

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:33:06 -0700

Most people buy SnowRanger on memory card, and the kind of computer they use is not a factor. If, however, you would like to be able to view the maps on your Apple Mac, or if you own a GPS that does not have a memory card slot and you want to download SnowRanger to the GPS from your Mac, there is now a way.

Although Garmin MapSource (as supplied on our CD-ROM version) is not compatible with a Mac, Garmin do have a free software package, BaseCamp, that allows you to view MapSource compatible maps, like SnowRanger, on a Mac, and download them to your GPS.

Garmin has documented the necessary steps in the following PDF file: Migrating Garmin Map Products from a Windows Computer to a Mac Computer. Note that you will need access to a Windows PC to start this process.

More...

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Dakota 20 Lives up to Expectations

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:48:43 -0700

I was able to take our new Garmin Dakota 20 GPS out on the slopes of Breckenridge this weekend, and found it entirely lived up to our hopes.

The screen was very readable, even wearing goggles in bright sunlight. The size and shape are perfect for slipping in and out of a jacket pocket, and the rubberized finish was easy to grip when handling the GPS with ski gloves.

The screen is smaller than the Garmin Oregon that I've been using recently, but our SnowRanger GPS ski resort trail maps were very clear and easy to follow. Turn-by-turn directions were shown clearly on the screen (and accompanied by a loud beep when new turn information was shown).

One consequence of the smaller screen is that on-screen buttons are smaller than on the Oregon, which makes them a bit more difficult to push with a gloved finger tip. As a result, we still consider the Oregon series to be the top pick for skiers and snowboarders.

The HotFix technology meant the unit was able to regain a satellite fix almost immediately after coming out of the lunch after turning it off for a lunch break (much faster than any other GPS we've used in the past). Battery life was good: I think we can expect two full days of skiing out of a freshly charged pair of NiMh AA batteries.

The GPS track record was smooth and complete, and produced excellent uploads into our Snow Days stats and tracks service.

All in all, very impressive!

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

SnowRanger Featured on Garmin UK Website

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:15:57 -0700

The UK office of Garmin seems to be staffed entirely with skiers and snowboarders, and it was their efforts that enabled us to become members of Garmin's Third-Party MapSource Developers Program earlier this year.

They have recently updated their European mapping products page, and SnowRanger has been given a large space beneath the listings.

SnowRanger Europe and SnowRanger North America 2009/10 are available for immediate delivery, on memory card and MapSource CD-ROM, from our UK and US fulfillment centers.

Thanks Garmin!

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

SnowRanger Now Offers "Turn by Turn" Directions

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:46:45 -0700

As well as a broad range of map updates, the 2009/10 versions of SnowRanger North America and SnowRanger Europe offer turn-by-turn directions on the mountain, just like your car's navigation system! SnowRanger will now guide you along the lifts and runs (pistes) that get you to your chosen destination.

Most Garmin GPSes support this routing feature, even the "outdoors" models like the eTrex series. On vehicle type units such as the nuvi, the directions will be spoken, and you can be skiing along listening to directions in an earpiece if you connect one to the GPS! For outdoors units the directions are shown on-screen, and the unit will usually "beep" to announce that the directions displayed have changed.

SnowRanger North America and SnowRanger Europe 2009/10 are available for immediate delivery, on memory card and MapSource CD-ROM, from our US and UK fulfillment centers.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Garmin Dakota 10 Now in Stock

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:50:34 -0700

As we recently blogged the new Garmin Dakota 10 and 20 handheld GPS units are perfect for skiing and snowboarding with our SnowRanger ski resort maps. We now have the Dakota 10 in stock for $299.99 including your choice of one SnowRanger North America on MapSource CD-ROM.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Garmin Dakota: the new Ultimate Ski GPS

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:59:46 -0700

Packing nearly all the features of the brilliant Garmin Oregon into a smaller, more pocketable package with a longer battery life, the brand new Garmin Dakota GPS series has looked like a winner since we first heard about it. Now the user reviews are starting to come in, and it's clear that this is the GPS to buy this ski season.

Maps and GPS expert Rich Owings over at GPSTracklog.com really knows what he is saying when he says in his review that "The Dakota is a great choice for hikers, bikers, geocachers and just about any other category of handheld users."

We don't have it in our GPS store yet, but Amazon.com has the Dakota 10 and Dakota 20 available now.

You can put our SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps on memory card into the Dakota 20 today. The Dakota 10 does not have a memory card slot, but has ample memory to download maps from our soon-to-be-released MapSource CD-ROM version of SnowRanger. Both models will get a couple of days of typical use before recharging/replacing the batteries, and can be easily connected to your PC to upload your GPS tracks to our Snow Days stats and tracks service.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

SKI and SKIING Magazine Top Resorts

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:27:08 -0700

On newsstands now are the October editions of Ski and Skiing magazines, with their annual resort surveys.

Once again Ski's Reader Resort Survey gave top marks to Deer Valley, with this year Whistler Blackcomb overtaking Vail for second place. SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps are available for all 30 of their highest rated resorts.

Tremblant topped their ranking of Eastern resorts, followed by Smugglers' Notch and Stowe. SnowRanger covers 9 of the top 10 resorts in the Northeast.

Over at Skiing their Best Overall Resorts were once again Whistler Blackcomb, followed by Jackson Hole and Vail.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

SnowRanger North America 2009/10 Adds Ten New Resorts

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:45:15 -0700

We are excited to announce the release of a wide range of new and updated SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps for 2009/10.

The new North America maps are:
- Red Mountain, BC
- Mt Hood Skibowl and Timberline Lodge, OR
- Ski Santa Fe, NM
- Sugarbush and Mt Snow, VT
- Arizona Snowbowl and Sunrise Park, AZ
- Boreal, CA
- Stevens Pass, WA

All these new maps are included in our complete North America set, a killer value at just $79.99, or in their respective regional set for $39.99.

We have also applied a broad range of seasonal changes to our existing maps. These updates are available immediately for Garmin GPS models, and will follow for Magellan GPSes.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

GPS Skiers/Snowboarders already uploading Snow Days

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:24:30 -0700

With skiing already underway at Arapahoe Basin, Loveland and Mammoth we're starting to see GPS data coming into Snow Days.

Snow Days lets you upload the "breadcrumbs" tracks from your GPS (whether you are using our SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps or not) and view them on an online SnowRanger trail map, with speed and elevation profiles, detailed statistics, and a season-long log. You also can automatically share your stats on Facebook with our Snow Days Facebook App.

So far we have logs for Mammoth, where member "skilogs" lapped a remarkable 36 runs on Saturday, and Arapahoe Basin, where "bigsbiker" logged tracks both this weekend and the one before.

Whether you're using SnowRanger or not, don't go skiing without your GPS to preserve a perfect record of the day--and of your whole season!

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Boreal breaks record for early opening

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:44:51 -0700

Joining Arapahoe Basin and Loveland opening this weekend was Boreal. According to the LA Times this was the earliest opening ever for the resort, shaving two days off the prior record.

Boreal is being added to our SnowRanger GPS ski resort trail maps for 2009/10 and will be available October 30 in our California/Nevada and North America sets, for Garmin and Magellan GPSes.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics
Team Leader

Loveland is open: earliest opening in 40 years!

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:41:51 -0700

The US ski season has kicked off early with Loveland opening on the earliest date in 40 years.

Colorado rival Arapahoe Basin expects to follow on Friday.

SnowRanger GPS ski resort trail maps of the two resorts are available as part of our Colorado/New Mexico and North America sets, for Garmin and Magellan GPSes. The A-Basin map of course includes the new Montezuma Bowl added last year.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Snow Days GPS ski tracking enhancements

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:25:44 -0700

As reported in our February newsletter, we've made a couple of useful enhancements to our free Snow Days GPS stats, tracks, and ski log service.

� You can now set in your account profile whether you want statistics on our website to be shown in statute or metric units.
� You can now edit the title and description of each of your tracks.

Snow Days lets you upload the �breadcrumbs� tracks from your GPS and view them on a SnowRanger map, with speed and elevation profiles, detailed statistics, and a season-long log.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Garmin adds Mountain Dynamics to Third-Party MapSource Developers Program

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 09:19:31 -0700

We received confirmation last week that we have been accepted into Garmin's Third-Party MapSource Developers Program. A very select program, with only a handful of other members, none of them in the USA, this gives us access to Garmin's full array of development tools.

Of particular note is that starting in the fall (2009) we will be offering new CD-ROM based versions of all our recreational map series (SnowRanger GPS ski resort trail/piste maps for North America and Europe, and SledGPS GPS snowmobile trail maps for 27 US states) that include a full licensed copy of Garmin's MapSource. As well as fully integrating with any other Garmin MapSource maps that a customer may have, this will let the skier or snowmobiling enthusiast plan their adventures more easily on their computer ahead of time, and manage their GPS track logs afterwards.

As we approach the end of our fourth season of SnowRanger, and our first with SledGPS (an instant hit--snowmobilers seem to be spending their way out of the recession!), we are very excited about the future opportunities that this partnership brings.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Put SnowRanger on your GPS phone

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:47:40 -0700

SnowRanger GPS ski resort trail maps can now be loaded onto GPS-enabled smartphones from Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, Palm, HTC and a host of others that run the Windows Mobile, Palm or Symbian operating systems.

The piece of software that enables this is Garmin Mobile XT which effectively turns your phone into a full featured Garmin nüvi style navigator, and includes full street maps and features such as real-time traffic avoidance and current gas prices.

SnowRanger installs into Mobile XT in much the same way as it does on dedicated Garmin GPSes, and we've prepared detailed instructions on how to do it.

Garmin Mobile XT is not available for the Apple iPhone at this time, and SnowRanger has not been confirmed yet to be compatible with the Blackberry version of Mobile XT.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

CES Notes

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 08:32:20 -0700

I spent the day yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. This year there's not a lot to report in the outdoors GPS field.

Garmin announced the zūmo 660 motorcycle GPS. This brings many of Garmin's latest technologies from their nüvi to the zumo line, including 3-D building view and lane assist, and a rich set of integration features for a Bluetooth helmet or headset. It even includes a vehicle mount to it can work on bike or car.

This also will be excellent unit to use on snowmobile with our SledGPS snowmobile trail maps.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Snow Days GPS Ski Tracking a Hit!

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 07:26:01 -0700

We're delighted with how popular our Snow Days service has become this ski season. After a major overhaul during the off-season and integration with Facebook, this ski/snowboard GPS tracks stats and sharing system is getting 20-30 new tracks a DAY!

Snow Days is a free service which lets you upload the "breadcrumbs" track from your GPS after your day on the mountain (either each evening, or at the end of the trip), view your path on our SnowRanger maps of over 500 ski resorts, look at graphs of your elevation and speed during the day, and count the number of runs and vertical feet covered. You can upload your stats season-long to keep track of your totals, where you've skied, how many days you've got out, etc.

Our Facebook application lets you (optionally) share your stats with all your Facebook friends. Once you've linked your Snow Days and Facebook accounts the rest is automatic--each time you upload a new day it is posted automatically to your Facebook profile.

Snow Days works with almost all GPSes. Garmin owners can upload data directly from their GPS to our site using our Garmin GPS Track Upload tool, while Magellan, deLorme, Lowrance, and more or less any other GPS owner can upload standard GPX files from their GPS's software using our SnowRanger Uplink page. (Note that some Garmin nuvi models do not record tracks.)

You don't need to have SnowRanger maps on your GPS to use Snow Days, indeed you don't even need a map-capable GPS model. Snow Days works great with Garmin's Forerunner 305 and 405 GPS sports watches for example.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

SnowRanger on The Gadget Show

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:46:20 -0700

Channel Five TV's The Gadget Show (UK) gave SnowRanger Europe GPS piste maps a good workout in its December 22nd winter sports show.

The team put SnowRanger, running on a standard Garmin Oregon GPS, up against the Satski dedicated ski GPS unit in a test of navigating up and down the Tiefenbach Glacier at Soelden (Sölden), Austria.

The Satski completed the test slightly quicker, but the testers were eager to point out that the Satski system is considerably more expensive than SnowRanger, and is a fixed purpose unit, while SnowRanger runs on almost all Garmin and Magellan GPSes, including the hugely popular Garmin nüvi series. Many skiers already own a GPS, and if they don't then they want to buy a general purpose outdoors GPS or car sat-nav for year-round activities.

They didn't mention some key features of SnowRanger, such as it being able to give you a plethora of speed, distance, and elevation stats as you ski, and being able to upload all your data at the end of the day to the Snow Days GPS stats and tracks service, to view, and share your adventures season-long.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

The Gadget Show on cycling accessories

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:01:17 -0700

Our friends in the UK at Channel Five TV's The Gadget Show had a fun recent roundup of cycling gadgets.

Between the Garmin Edge 705 GPS, a turn signal indicator system, and handlebar-mounted wireless speakers, the Edge was the clear favorite.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Soelden's Eight Seater Chairlift

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:10:58 -0700

Although high speed, detachable, four and six seat chairlifts are now a common sight in both Europe and North America, Soelden (Sölden) in Austria has recently installed an eight seat chairlift!

The Giggijoch lift replaced an older triple in an congested area of the resort, and was built by Doppelmayr.

It turns out that although there are none in North America, 8-seat detachables from Doppelmayr and Leitner-Poma are not uncommon in Europe.

The SnowRanger Europe GPS ski resort piste map of Soelden is available in our Austria/Germany and Europe sets.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Ski, Skiing, and Outside Magazine Best Resorts

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:29:37 -0700

October brought Ski and Skiing's annual resort surveys.

With its focus on amenities and service, Ski's 2009 Reader Resort Survey again gave top marks to Deer Valley, followed once again by Vail and Whistler Blackcomb. SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps are available for all 30 of their highest rated resorts.

SnowRanger newcomer Tremblant topped their Top 20 Eastern Resorts, followed by Stowe and Sugarbush.

Over at Skiing their Best Overall Resorts were Whistler Blackcomb, followed by Jackson Hole and Vail. SnowRanger maps are available for all their top resorts, including newcomers Jay Peak (their top pick for the East) and Powder Mountain.

Outside Magazine also rated resorts this year, giving tops marks to Alta/Snowbird, followed by Whistler Blackcomb and Vail.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

New 2008/09 SnowRanger Maps

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:12:17 -0700

We are excited to announce the release of a wide range of new and updated SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps for 2008/09.

The new North America maps are:
- Monarch, Powderhorn (bringing our Colorado/New Mexico set up to 20 resorts)
- Jay Peak, Tremblant (both these Northeast resorts getting pounded with snow this morning)
- Kicking Horse, Lake Louise, Mt Washington, Mt Norquay, Sunshine Village (a large Canadian expansion to the Northwest/Montana set)
- Powder Mountain, Sundance (in our Utah/Wyoming set)

All these new maps are included in our complete North America set, a killer value at just $74.95.

We have also applied a broad range of seasonal changes to our existing maps, including the brilliant Peak 2 Peak Gondola opening at Whistler Blackcomb in December.

These updates are available immediately for Garmin GPS models, and will follow for Magellan GPSes.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

The 2008/09 Ski Season has Begun!

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:45:29 -0700

It's here! The US 2008/09 ski season kicked off this morning with both Arapahoe Basin and Loveland, Colorado, opening for business. Both resorts work hard on their snowmaking as soon as the nights get cold enough in the fall, and vie each year for being the first to open.

A-Basin reports 18" on two trails, while Loveland has 18" on one run.

SnowRanger GPS ski resort trail maps of the two resorts are available as part of our Colorado/New Mexico and North America sets, on memory card or download, for Garmin and Magellan GPSes. The A-Basin map of course includes the new Montezuma Bowl added last year.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Garmin nuvi 500 In Stock

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:07:58 -0700

We�ve finally got our hands on stock for the long awaited Garmin nuvi 500. This is the first rugged, waterproof nuvi, and hence is an ideal unit to take out on the mountain with our SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps.

The large color screen shows our full color 2008/09 SnowRanger maps off beautifully, and built-in world wide elevation basemap will let it show relief shading just like on this Garmin Colorado screen capture.

The key advantage that the nuvi 500 brings is that it also has complete, detailed street maps of the lower 48 states plus Hawaii and Puerto Rico, with turn-by-turn directions and voice prompts, so it's just as capable in your car as it is in your ski jacket pocket!

The Garmin nuvi 500 is available now with free SnowRanger maps from our online store.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Full Color SnowRanger maps for Garmin color GPS models

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:55:11 -0700

The 2008/09 editions of our SnowRanger GPS ski resort trail maps for Garmin went online this morning. The headline feature update is comprehensive use of color on the gorgeous screens on Garmin's recent GPS models, such as n�vi�, Oregon, and Colorado. They also takes advantage of the relief shading that is built into the Oregon and Colorado series.

Actual Colorado screen captures, showing how effectively the new look works with the relief shading:

nuvi:

eTrex:

Upgrades will be available to owners of previous years' sets for $10.00 (plus media and shipping charges if applicable).

Get geared-up for the snow!

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Loveland is making snow!

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 06:58:16 -0700

Loveland was able to fire up the snowmaking guns on Tuesday night and are aiming to have 18" of snow in place top to bottom on at least one run (Catwalk, Mambo and Homerun trails) by an as-yet unannounced opening day. Last year Loveland was able to open on Oct 16th, so we could be less than a month away from hitting the slopes again.

Although often the first to open, Loveland was edged-out last year by neighbor Arapahoe Basin which opened Oct 13th.

SnowRanger GPS ski resort trail maps are available of both resorts, including A-Basin's new Montezuma Bowl.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

SnowRanger Uplink and Snow Days

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:08:11 -0700

For the 2008/09 ski season we are introducing a major overhaul of our Snow Days and SnowRanger Uplink features.

Snow Days lets you share the GPS tracks at the end of each day on the mountain, and view and share your activities. Snow Days shows you your statistics, such as runs and vertical feet, graphs of your speed and elevation, and an interactive map of your runs through the day. Your data goes into our leader boards, so you can see how you compare with other skiers/riders at each resort, and for the season overall.

SnowRanger Uplink is an easy to use tool that helps you transfer your data from your GPS into our Snow Days database. If you have a Garmin GPS then you can just plug your GPS into your PC and the Uplink tool does the rest. For Magellan and other GPSes (or if you have saved tracks in the popular GPX file format) you can upload the files from your GPS with the Uplink and the help of your GPS's PC software.

It's easy--and sharing your days is the best way to relive them!

Both features work with nearly all handheld GPS receivers, whether they support SnowRanger ski resort trail maps or not. Amongst the non-SnowRanger-compatible models, they work great with Garmin's Forerunner series of GPS sports watches. With those watches you can even track your heart rate and calories burned while you ski!

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Waterproof nuvi 500 series coming in third quarter

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:40:16 -0700

There are going to be not one but two contenders this fall for the title of Best Skiing GPS to use with our SnowRanger GPS trail maps. As we recently announced there's a new touchscreen outdoors series called the Oregon coming, and now we can reveal that there is a new, more rugged nuvi series, the 500, on the way.

As announced today on GPS Tracklog and GPS Review the nuvi 500 and nuvi 550 will be the first waterproof (IPX7, so technically water resistant, like most Garmin outdoors models) nuvis.

The 500 will coming preloaded with topo maps while the 550 will come with street maps. Each has a microSD card, so if you buy the 500 you can add street maps, and vice versa, and both should be a fantastic GPS for SnowRanger ski maps. Battery life is expected to be 8 hours, and although the Li-ion battery is proprietary it is removable. Both support turn-by-turn directions and can support real time traffic data with optional receivers.

Accessories include a "Scooter Mount" suggesting that this is being positioned as a sort of chic urban "zumo for Vespas!"

We'll be attending the London Motor Show later this week and hopefully we'll get some hands-on time with a real unit at the Garmin booth. Both models should be available in the fall, and both are currently showing the same $499.99 retail price.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

Garmin Oregon coming in Third Quarter

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:08:39 -0700

Garmin announced a new outdoors GPS today that will be an ideal skiing GPS for SnowRanger GPS trail maps come the winter.

The Garmin Oregon series consists of 5 models:
- Oregon 200
- Oregon 300
- Oregon 400c
- Oregon 400i
- Oregon 400t

All the Garmin Oregon GPS models features a large 3" color touchscreen, a high sensitivity GPS chip with HotFix technology to drastically reduce satellite acquisition time on start-up, and turn-by-turn directions when loaded with optional street maps.

The Oregon 300 adds the wireless capability featured on other Garmin models, allowing for GPS-GPS data transfers and, more excitingly, connectivity to Garmin's heart rate monitor and bicycle speed/cadence sensor to turn it into a fitness GPS.

The Oregon 400 models add preinstalled maps: BlueChart g2 coastal charts for the 400c, U.S. Inland Lakes for the 400i, and U.S. topographic maps (with shaded relief) for the 400t.

You might consider it a ruggedized, waterproof nuvi, though it's probably more realistic to consider it a "touchscreen Colorado". SnowRanger maps can be either downloaded to it or you can buy them on microSD memory card and slot them right in. The inexpensive 200 and topo-map loaded 400t will be the models we'll be playing closest attention to. All models should be available in the fall.

Garmin have launched a minisite for the Oregon.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

SeaWorld Orlando's Shamu's SmartGuide GPS

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:31:19 -0700

As well as our enormously successful SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps and innovative GPS web stores such as GPS for Cyclists, Mountain Dynamics also develops custom GPS maps for partners such as FUNfinder.

FUNfinder's newest location is SeaWorld Orlando where their specially designed GPS units combined with a Mountain Dynamics custom park map are being offered as Shamu's SmartGuide.

The full park map is available on each unit together with turn-by-turn routing, and the GPS units are also loaded with shows and attractions information, videos, and include a money-saving coupon system that more than pays for its $18 rental fee.

"A Handful of adventure awaits..."

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

GPS for Hikers: You know hiking - we know GPS

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:15:06 -0700

Hot on the heels of our launch of GPSforCyclists, today we added sister site: GPSforHikers.com.

As with GPS for Cyclists, our vision with GPS for Hikers is to demystify the process of buying a GPS for the hiker or backpacker. We've boiled-down the choice to the three models that we feel he or she should focus on, and added a handful of truly useful optional accessories. We're able to offer these GPSes and accessories at the best possible prices and with free shipping due our buying power and fulfillment contracts.

Our selections for the launch are:
- "The Works": Garmin Colorado 400t
- "The Sweet Spot": Garmin eTrex Vista HCx
- "The Budget Choice": Garmin eTrex Legend

If you're a skier or snowboarder getting kitted-out for some hiking this summer, stop by and take a look! All three of these models will work great with SnowRanger when the winter comes.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader

GPS for Cyclists: You know cycling - we know GPS

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:56:55 -0700

Mountain Dynamics is proud to announce today the launch of a new sister site: GPSforCyclists.com.

Our vision with GPS for Cyclists is to demystify the process of buying a GPS for the cyclist. Garmin alone makes over a hundred different GPS models, and choosing the best for one's needs and price range can be daunting. We've boiled-down the choice to the three models that we feel a cyclist should focus on, and added a handful of optional accessories that we believe to be truly useful. We're able to offer these GPSes and accessories at the best possible prices and with free shipping due our buying power and fulfillment contracts.

Our selections for the launch are:
- "The Works": Garmin Edge 705 with Street Maps and Cadence
- "The Multi-Sport Champion": Garmin Forerunner 305 Multi-Sport
- "The Budget Choice": Garmin Edge 205

If you're a skier or snowboarder getting kitted-out for the spring and summer's riding, stop by and take a look!

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader
sales@mountaindynamics.com

Garmin using more MediaTek and STM GPS chips

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:30:36 -0700

Garmin seems to be moving away from SiRF on a growing number of models. At least some of the H models (eg Legend HCx) use MediaTek chips, and the new 200-series nuvis use an STMicroElectronics chip set according to GPSReview.

Although SiRF has the best technical reputation amongst the GPS chipset vendors, and cost may be a factor, clearly Garmin would not make these sourcing selections unless they felt they could meet their requirements and support Garmin's reputation for quality and performance.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader
sales@mountaindynamics.com

Heavy snow good for skiers, bad for bark beetles

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:45:32 -0700

Heavy snows this winter across much of the West have not just been a bonanza for skiers/riders and resort operators.

The Associated Press reports that the US Forest Service is expecting much lower activity from the damaging bark beetle this year due to the extra moisture creating much more pitch in trees.

But there's plenty for us skiers/riders too, with Heavenly and other resorts pushing closing dates out later in April and even into May.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader
sales@mountaindynamics.com

Magellan Triton 400 On-Mountain

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 08:10:52 -0700

We had a chance to take our new Magellan Triton 400 out at Mt Bachelor this week, and were impressed.

The unit is a little bulky, but we found it slipped in and out of a ski jacket pocket ok, and has a convenient lanyard attachment point (essential in our experience handling expensive electronics on chairlifts!). GPS signal acquisition was fast, and held a signal better within lodges than other units we had with us.

We inserted the SnowRanger Northwest/Montana maps on SD card, and they were immediately recognized and displayed, and looked very good on the bright screen.

Battery life was good, indeed we got two days use out of a set of freshly charged 2200mAH NiMh batteries. Those weren't "first chair to last chair" days due to the weather, but we did seem to exceed the 10 hours stated battery life.

The only real problem we found in this test was the buttons and control pad are a little small and hard to operate with thicker ski gloves on, but they are well spaced, which helps

Montjoux

SnowRanger in the News

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 09:45:08 -0700

Fred Zahradnik wrote up a review of SnowRanger for About.com.

This follows our good press this season in the New York Times, Popular Science, travelbite.co.uk, Men's Journal, and 9News TV Denver.

Mountain Dynamics Media Center

Montjoux

Magellan Triton 400 to be tested

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:20:42 -0700

We recently received a Magellan Triton 400 to test. This is in the middle of the Triton range, with an SD card slot, but no electronic compass or barometric altimeter (two features that we don't consider necessary for a ski unit) or the touchscreen that adorns the top end models.

Initial reaction is positive--it's not a small unit, but it's solidly build with a good, if slightly small screen. We'll be taking it with us to Oregon this week to put it through its skiing paces with SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps loaded.

Montjoux

Garmin + Phone = nuvifone

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:46:43 -0700

Hot off the net at Engadget Garmin have just announced the nüvifone! Imagine a typical nüvi, but with a microphone and speaker and requisite circuitry and UI. It also apparently includes a camera with (of course) automatic geotagging of pictures.

It reportedly uses HSDPA for 3G data, and hence is likely going be GSM-based, which means wide AT&T and T-Mobile network support here in the US, and ubiquitous worldwide service. But no word on whether it will be sold primarily as an unlocked (and unsubsidized) phone, or sold locked, iPhone style, by specific network partners.

Garmin seem be covering the software and communications bases well with Google local search support for weather, traffic, gas prices, etc, although I was surprised to not see anything related to buddy tracking.

Garmin's press release
More pictures.

Montjoux

New Garmin Communicator Track Upload Page

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:27:46 -0700

We've created a new track upload tool for Garmin GPSes that uses the Garmin Communicator browser plug-in. This lets you upload tracks from your GPS directly onto our website, without having to go via GPX.

It's live and linked from our other web pages, or may be reached directly at:
http://www.mountaindynamics.com/en/upload.php?gc=1

It works with all Garmin GPS models that can record track logs, and not just mapping GPSes but also fitness models like the popular Forerunner 205 and 305 watches. Although these smaller units cannot display our SnowRanger GPS ski resort trail maps they are good for recording tracks and for recording vertical feet skied, and are featured in the February 2008 edition of Ski Magazine.

The first time you use this page it will say "Garmin Communicator plug-in NOT detected" and provide you with a link to "Download and install it now". This link will show you the supported systems and browsers, and you should follow the simple installation instructions. Then come back to this page to upload your tracks.

We've also tweaked the processing to merge and split tracks sections more intelligently and made the overlays a little more attractive (although we know we can go a lot further on that one).

Montjoux

SnowRanger and Garmin Colorado

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 08:52:52 -0700

As we recently noted, Garmin's new Colorado is out in the wild.

We've had at least two customers install SnowRanger maps on their Colorados (both 400t models), with great success. Our standard install program does not work with the Colorado, but the install goes just as it would on a Garmin nuvi per our support note: you can manually copy the map file to the unit, buy an SD card from us, or use MapSource if you have it.

The SnowRanger maps reportedly overlay the built-in relief shading for a very effective visual display.

Montjoux

Garmin Colorado GPS reaching stores

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:31:47 -0700

Garmin's next generation Colorado outdoors GPS receivers have started to hit the stores.

GPS Tracklog reports that the entry level 300 is available from GPSNow, while REI is (exclusively through Feb 11) offering the 400t.

Although the 300 is the most basic model in the series, it is by no means a less a capable unit. The hardware is exactly the same as the 400, it just differs in terms of the amount of memory it has, and it does not come preloaded with MapSource topo maps (which the 400t has), BlueChart coastal maps (on the 400c) or inland lakes (400i).

Indeed the Colorado 300 is the one we expect to be shortly adding to our GPS store with free SnowRanger included.

Montjoux

Ion Mask water repellent surface treatment

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 08:59:58 -0700

cnet.com reports on a new surface treatment called Ion Mask developed in the UK to boost the water repellency of both the outside and the inside of electronic devices. It�s a plasma surface treatment being marketed by Porton Plasma Innovations, and it's the inside part that I find intriguing.

They claim that they can treat the insides of say an MP3 player without affecting its electrical properties, so even if you dunked it in water the moisture would be repelled from all the components. Presumably this would work against condensation forming inside gadgets like GPSes in cold weather also.

They also have licensed the technology for "The World's First Antibacterial and Hydrophobic Urine Director" to Whizaway.com!

Montjoux

More Faux-GPS: Kindle and iPhone

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 07:47:53 -0700

Along the lines of my recent post on Google Maps Mobile's ability to estimate your position without using GPS, Gizmodo has two recent stories about what it calls "Faux GPS".

Firstly, the Amazon Kindle e-book reader has a variety of interesting features available if you hack into the underlying operating system. These include being able to pull up Google Maps and get a fairly good position estimate using the Kindle's built in CDMA cellular modem.

Secondly, they are carrying a rumor that an upcoming firmware update for the iPhone will allow its Google Maps app to triangulate an estimated position from nearby cellular towers.

Montjoux

Google Maps Mobile My Location

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 08:21:38 -0700

Google Maps Mobile for cell phones can now show you where you are on the displayed map. Nothing earth-shattering there, since comparable programs such as Microsoft's Live Search Mobile have been able to tap into a built-in or Bluetooth GPS for a while. But what Google bring to the table is being able to fall back to using cell tower triangulation if a GPS receiver is not available.

They only claim 1km accuracy at this point, but that at least will put in the right part of town, and they helpfully show a light blue accuracy circle to give you a feel for the margin of error.

Montjoux

The perfect ski glove (for the gadget lover)

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 09:00:57 -0700

Ski gloves and small electronics do not go, ahem, hand in hand. The gloves need to be sufficiently thick to insulate in a wide range of conditions, and normally need to be slightly bigger than ones hands so that they are not too tight when one flexes one's fingers. This makes it hard to push small buttons, especially without also pushing adjacent buttons, and normal construction methods also put bulky seams into the mix.

Since I need to be able to manipulate various devices on-mountain, operating them and getting them in and out of pockets without dropping them, and since I also tend to suffer from cold hands, finding a good gloveshas become a personal quest, nearly an obsession. Last year I was fairly happy with a Seirus glove, on the thin side but just about warm enough and not too bad on dexterity.

This year, two gloves, or rather one glove and one concept, came to my attention.

The concept is the Gore 2 in 1 concept, which divides the inside of the glove into two compartments or layers, letting you put your fingers inside or outside an insulating layer to trade between warmth and dexterity. Gloves available using this include the Scott Softshell 2-in-1 and the Marmot Twofer, and I look forward to trying these on at some point.

The glove I have bought this year though is the Komperdell Alpine. The standout features of these are that they are both seamless and stretchy. This lets you buy a relatively small size, and get a close fit without any extra folds of fabric or the bulky seams. They are also waterproof/breathable, and a decent midweight thickness.

So far, so good. Dexterity is great with GPSes, though not quite there for pressing the tiny keypad buttons on my Samsung Blackjack. Warmth is decent, and I was able to slide in heatpacks for a cold day in Colorado last week. The only real problem is that they have become somewhat damp by the afternoon. I am not sure if this is snowmelt getting in from the outside or sweat building up on the inside, but it does affect their ability to keep my hands warm. The outside fabric is showing some pilling too, so I am not sure how durable they will be.

Regardless though, these are overall the best glove yet for my testing and survey work on the mountains.

Don't look out of your window - read the snow report!

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:15:01 -0700

ScienceDaily reports that researchers at the University of New Hampshire have identified a "backyard effect" in ski resort attendance. Lift ticket sales are more strongly correlated with snowfall in nearby urban areas that they are at resorts themselves.

In a paper published in the December issue of the International Journal of Climatology, an inch of snowfall in Boston led to 63% more ticket sales at Cannon and Gunstock resorts that an inch at the resorts.

Certainly looking out of your window and seeing fresh snow is likely to prompt thoughts of skiing, and the paper also points out that lesser amounts of snow on the ground may encourage other, more local, active pursuits.

Clearly with the Internet, snow reports are very easy to review, and, as the researchers say, "If this backyard effect reflects ignorance, then education is the cure -- skiers could be persuaded that great skiing exists in the mountains, even when their backyard is bare."

Montjoux

Magellan Triton 300 Retail Sighting

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:09:55 -0700

Topo!Hacker reports that Magellan Triton 300 GPSes are now being shipped to retailers. If so, these will be first of this much anticipated series to hit the streets. As a color unit with a SiRF SiRFstarIII chipset, and map and National Geographic Topo! download capability this unit should be tremendous value.

SnowRanger North America and the upcoming Europe GPS ski resort trail maps can be purchased from Magellan and downloaded to the Triton 300 via its USB cable.

Montjoux

Amazon Kindle e-book reader

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:34:26 -0700

To me the ability to read books and newspapers on an electronic device with the comfort and convenience of old fashioned, indeed ancient, paper is one of technology's Holy Grail. Producing something that would make curling up with it in front of a roaring fire seem like a cozy comfort rather than an extension of the home office is extremely difficult.

The latest player is Amazon, with their own-branded Kindle. Besides the usual e-book reader features, such as a clear eye-comfortable screen, the Kindle's standout technical feature is a built-in wireless connection that uses cellular CDMA/EVDO, not WiFi. This allows for a controlled infrastructure for shopping for and buying books and newspapers for it, and early reviewers have praised this architecture, while being somewhat lukewarm about the overall user experience.

Montjoux

$636 for a sled

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:22:01 -0700

Ever hot on the trail for the best in toys, Gizmodo reports today on the $636 Alu sled.

Fast, shock-adsorbent, folding, aluminum--what more do you need in a sled for family fun this winter?!

Montjoux

Magellan Triton availability

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 07:20:37 -0700

GPSTrackLog reports that Magellan's Triton GPS series will be available before Christmas.

There's no specific date mentioned, but it references an authoritative source correcting an early blog report that there may be further delays in the release. These units have a number of exciting features, most notably the ability to download and display actual National Geographic Topo! maps.

Here at Mountain Dynamics of course we're also looking forward to seeing our existing North American and upcoming European SnowRanger GPS ski resort trails maps on the Triton.

Montjoux

What's New in GPS this Winter

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:27:05 -0700

The upcoming CES show in January is the venue where most of the major manufacturers will introduce their newest product, but in the meantime we are heading into the winter snow sports season with several new device series and trends already in place.

Garmin have been heavily investing in their hit n�vi series of "personal navigation devices" (PNDs) and have not brought out anything revolutionary on the traditional "outdoors" handheld front. Most of their eTrex units like the Legend, Summit, Venture, and Vista have been updated to "H" models with more sensitive GPS reception, as have their Rino FRS/GMRS "walkie-talkie" GPS combos.

They also have added map-capable models in the cycling-oriented Edge series, the 605 and 705, both of which have a slim design that can be easily pocketed and taken skiing and snowboarding with our SnowRanger maps on them.

SnowRanger maps also work great on all of the n�vi units, and look fantastic on those bigger screens. The entry level 200 series n�vis are dropping in price very quickly, and even though these don't play MP3s and have some other limitations they do have integrated (not flip-up) antennae that make them very pocketable. SnowRanger also works with their new Mobile XT software for SmartPhones.

Over at Magellan the big news is the Triton series which are just about to hit stores. These are an all-new series that run from a notably inexpensive color model to a top of line unit with a digital camera. Many of the models can have actual National Geographic Topo! Maps downloaded to them for tremendous "off road" capability, and most of them can of course run SnowRanger for Magellan trail maps.

Montjoux

SnowRanger Premium Points of Interest

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:25:55 -0700

SnowRanger GPS ski resort trail maps focus on the mountain--the lifts, trails, lodges, tree coverage, etc, that you need to get the most out of your day's skiing or snowboarding.

As we move into our third season we're starting to move "off mountain" and into the wonderful villages and towns at their bases. Starting with Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Vail, SnowRanger is being extended to include the streets and businesses (particularly restaurants, bars, and hotels) in the towns.

Whether you're using a large screen n�vi, or a rugged outdoors handheld, you can now search for the nearest coffee, apr�s ski joint, or where your hotel is, right on the GPS screen.

If you have a Bluetooth-enabled n�vi you can even dial the bistro (or the spa!) and make your reservation from the chairlift without even taking your phone out of your pocket!

Finally the detailed street network of the town is shown, including shuttle bus stops, so you can get to and from the slopes with ease and with no time wasted.

The Premium POIs for these four resorts are a standard part of the 2007/08 Colorado/New Mexico and North America sets for Garmin, and will shortly be added to the Magellan versions.

Premium POIs for more resort towns will be added to SnowRanger over the next few months, and since your Garmin download purchase includes free updates through the end of the season, there's no way you'll be missing out!

Montjoux

SnowRanger now available as one set

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:26:42 -0700

SnowRanger GPS ski resort trail maps are now available as a single North America set, giving you 64 ski resorts from Alaska to Maine, including such greats as Whistler-Blackcomb, Vail, Alta/Snowbird, and Killington, for just $74.95!

SnowRanger maps continue to be also available in five regional sets for $29.95 each: California/Nevada, Colorado/New Mexico, Northeast, Northwest/Montana, and Utah/Wyoming.

With skiing and riding already underway at Arapahoe Basin and Loveland (opening today), you need to get your GPS loaded with ski maps now!

Montjoux

The Ski Season has Begun!

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:40:13 -0700

Arapahoe Basin has opened today! They are reporting 18", with 1 chair and trail open. This will be a big year for A-Basin, with the addition of Montezuma Bowl nearly doubling its size.

No word yet from rival early opener Loveland on their season kickoff day.

Montjoux

Ski and Skiing Magazine Top Resorts

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:12:19 -0700

October brings the annual ski resort surveys from [link "Ski" ""] and [link "Skiing" ""] magazines.

Ski, with its focus on service and amenities, gives top marks to:
1. Deer Valley
2. Vail (last year's winner)
3. Whistler Blackcomb
4. Aspen
5. Snowmass
6. Park City
7. Breckenridge
8. Beaver Creek
9. Steamboat
10. Sun Valley

This was actually a reshuffle of last year's survey, with the same resorts comprising the top ten. Their East category was topped by:
1. Tremblant
2. Smugglers' Notch
3. Whiteface
4. Stowe
5. Holiday Valley

Over at Skiing, with more of an emphasis on terrain, the top five were:
1. Whistler Blackcomb (a repeat winner)
2. Jackson Hole
3. Alta/Snowbird
4. Vail
5. Aspen/Aspen Highlands

This was slightly different group than last year, with Aspen/Aspen Highlands edging Squaw Valley out.

We have SnowRanger GPS trail maps of all of Skiing's top 10 (actually all 12, since Alta/Snowbird and Aspen/Aspen Highlands break out to two separate resorts each), 29 of Ski's top 30, and 7 of Ski' top 10 eastern resorts (in our new Northeast set).

Montjoux

2007/08 SnowRanger Maps are Ready!

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:07:58 -0700

We have just posted updated versions of our SnowRanger ski resort trail maps. The California/Nevada, Colorado/New Mexico, Northwest/Montana, and Utah/Wyoming map sets are now updated with the latest 2007/08 resort changes with just a handful of resorts still pending. Free updates are available for the season, so you can buy secure in the knowledge that you'll have these remaining updates in hand when the season kicks off. All maps have also been upgraded with smoother trail lines, more detailed contours, and other improvements.

These four sets are now joined by an all-new set, Northeast, with 11 of the top resorts from "back East":
Bretton Woods
Killington
Loon Mountain�
Mad River Glen
Okemo
Smugglers' Notch
Stowe
Stratton
Sugarloaf/USA
Sunday River
Whiteface

With Arapahoe Basin and Loveland already making snow the season is coming up fast!

We'll also be making a very exciting announcement about additional maps within the next few weeks...

Montjoux

Loveland and A-Basin Making Snow

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 06:12:41 -0700

Colorado Ski Country reports that Loveland and Arapahoe Basin have started to make snow, and are aiming for "mid to late October" opening days. Copper Mountain is also making snow, with a November 2nd opening target.

Montjoux

Six Days until Loveland Snowmaking

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:28:52 -0700

Loveland's countdown clock to snowmaking is already down to just 6 days! Let's pray for some cold nights and early snowfall in the mountains.

No news yet over at early opening rival Arapahoe Basin, which is almost doubling in size this season with its new Montezuma Bowl, on their readiness.

Montjoux

Garmin nuvi 700 series

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:21:01 -0700

Garmin have announce a new high end 700 series of their hit n�vi personal navigation devices (PNDs). These are broadly similar to the 600 series, but with a 200-series-style embedded antenna rather than the 300- and 600-series-style flip-up, and 1/10" shaved off the height and thickness for a very slim package. Pricing looks similar to the 600 series.

As with most of the n�vi series, there is a base 750 model with US maps and no Bluetooth, a 760 that adds Bluetooth cell phone dialing and speakerphone, and a 770 with Bluetooth and US/Europe maps.

One nice new feature is that the n�vi will automatically set a waypoint when you remove it from the car cradle, eliminating the "dude, where's my car?" problem.

Navteq are supplying the maps as usual for Garmin, and although they are using other chip suppliers for some of their lower end units, these premium units of course use the unmatched SiRF SiRFstarIII GPS chipset.

As with all the n�vis these new units will work great with our SnowRanger ski resort trail maps, just by inserting an SD card with the maps. The usual caveat applies of keeping the n�vi dry and in a jacket pocket that will keep it from getting too cold.

Montjoux

GPS theft from cars

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 13:22:40 -0700

cnet cites a report today in the Baltimore Sun that thefts of portable GPS navigation units are on the rise.

Of note is the fact that thieves apparently will note the presence of a dash or window mount, even if the GPS is stowed in the glovebox, and break-in to look for it.

Protect your valuables!

Montjoux

TomTom to buy Tele Atlas

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 09:34:41 -0700

As you�ve no doubt seen in the news this week, vehicle navigation kings TomTom have bought street map duopolist Tele Atlas. TomTom rule the car and Personal Navigation Device (PND) market in Europe and are giving market leaders Garmin a run for their money in the US.

This will leave Navteq as the only independent supplier of worldwide street maps, although TomTom have said that Tele Atlas will be operated as an independent subsidiary and continue to supply other hardware vendors such as Magellan and Mio with map data.

Montjoux

Helio Buddy Beacon

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 07:24:55 -0700

Helio is an innovative youth-oriented cellular phone service recently launched by a partnership of Earthlink and South Korea's SK Telecom. It runs as a "mobile virtual network operator" (MVNO) on Sprint's US network, and offers GPS on all its phones. As well as using these capability with Google Maps it also offers a very popular buddy-tracking service called Buddy Beacon.

MVNO has not proven to be a very successful business model thus far, but because of the GPS capability, and the services that can be layered on top it, we're rooting for Helio.

Montjoux

Oops I'm Late!

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 12:05:59 -0700

The wave of applications for GPS-enabled cell phones is only just starting. The number of cell phones in the US that support GPS is larger than many people think, since most recent phones from Verizon and Sprint include GPS capability in their CDMA chip sets. Software to take advantage of this platform--and its unique combination of location awareness and communication--is really in its infancy, and ripe for innovation.

One example of this is Oops I'm Late!, which uses information from the address book and calendar on your phone, together with a knowledge of your current position and the time, to automatically send a "sorry, I am running late, will be there at such-and-such a time" sort of message to the people you are supposed to be meeting with.

I don't think this particular application will necessarily be a hit, but it shows what sort of things can be done.

Montjoux

FUNfinderGPS live at the Grand Canyon

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 08:05:45 -0700

FUNfinderGPS have launched their innovative GPS rental service at the Grand Canyon. Mountain Dynamics developed some of the maps being used on the unit (a large screen Magellan CrossoverGPS), which combines a variety of sources of visitor information into an easy to use, location-aware, virtual tour guide.

The FUNfinder units are available at the IMAX Visitor Center near the south entrance to the National Park and at other locations inside the park. Look for FUNfinder GPS service in Washington DC in the fall and at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, and Keystone this coming ski season.

Montjoux

Does the iPhone have a GPS chip?

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:13:07 -0700

Ever since the world saw Steve Jobs prank-call the "nearest" Starbucks from the stage of the iPhone announcement event I've been wondering if the iPhone really has a GPS chip in it. Turns out that it does not seem to have. gpsreview.net has published a detailed review of the question, and suggests that the iPhone might not be even able to use a Bluetooth GPS.

Montjoux

Bushnell Onix (not Onyx) 400

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 08:00:41 -0700

Although not on the market yet Men's Journal this month has an intriguing blurb on the Bushnell Onix 400 (which they misname "Onyx") GPS. Not only will you be able to load it up with raster USGS topographic maps and aerial imagery before you hit the trail but you'll be able to overlay real time weather maps and forecasts (from XM satellite radio data) when you're out in the field. It's a large but tough looking GPS receiver with a 3.5" color screen and XM audio and MP3 music player.

The current Onix 200 units do not review well on Amazon although there are only two reviews and hopefully Bushnell will get it right with this all new model.

Montjoux

Skiocaching Wrap-Up

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 17:01:48 -0700

Thanks to all the people who took part in the 2006/07 season of Skiocaching�. We drew the winner--a Kirkwood participant from Folsom, CA--on March 6th, and shipped the grand prize, a Magellan 500 LE preloaded with SnowRanger maps of California/Nevada.

Skiocaching is a GPS treasure hunt where you find a series of locations on the mountain using your wits and, of course, your skis or snowboard.

Check back at www.skiocaching.com in November for news on Skiocaching for 2007/08!

Montjoux

Skiocaching at Kirkwood This Saturday (March 3rd)

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:35:50 -0700

If you're free on Saturday March 3rd 2007 and in the general vicinity of Lake Tahoe, come and join us for a day of GPS challenge and fun at Kirkwood Mountain Resort.

Skiocaching� is a GPS treasure hunt where you find a series of locations on the mountain using your wits and, of course, your skis or snowboard.

We'll be in (or, weather permitting, outside) Expedition Kirkwood in the village plaza between 8am and 11am, so stop by and pick up the list of latitude/longitude coordinates for the locations. Then use your GPS--and your SnowRanger map if you have one--to figure out how to get to each location, and visit it, and answer a question based on information there.

You can also download a GPX file of the event's 8 waypoints ahead of time from the above page so you can preload your GPS before you arrive.

At the end of the day, turn in your cards and enter into a drawing for a Magellan eXplorist 500LE color GPS, and SnowRanger map sets!

More...

Montjoux

Garmin notes on Microsoft Vista Compatibility

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 08:07:12 -0700

Garmin have posted some notes on their official blog regarding a slight incompatibility between Garmin MapSource and Microsoft's new Vista operating system.

This should not affect the third-party GPS map loader that we ship with SnowRanger, but might be useful information for those of you that use MapSource. There is a mention of a rare USB driver problem though, which might affect any application that needs to interface with a USB-attached GPS.

Montjoux

Magellan-Certified SnowRanger for eXplorist and CrossoverGPS now available

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 09:55:38 -0700

It's taken a little longer that expected, but the Magellan version of SnowRanger is now formally available! By bringing this version to market, we are one of the few vendors of digital maps of any kind to be available for both Garmin and Magellan GPSes.

Press Releases went out today from both Magellan and Mountain Dynamics.

The Magellan-Certified version is purchased and downloaded from Magellan's MapSend website:
- California/Nevada
- Colorado/New Mexico
- Northwest/Montana
- Utah/Wyoming

Support questions relating to the purchase, download, or installation of the maps should be directed to Magellan, while questions about the maps themselves should be sent to us.

Our GPS track upload and Snow Days features have been updated to allow Magellan's LOG format for tracks to the uploaded directly.

The Garmin version of SnowRanger continues to be published and supported directly from our website. The SnowRanger Uplink continue to support track upload directly from Garmin GPSes, while the above track upload page allows for both LOG and GPX format track files to be uploaded.

Montjoux

Town-wide WiFi in Vail

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 12:40:30 -0700

Vail, Colorado, now has WiFi access throughout the town, courtesy of CenturyTel. It's free for the first hour, then with a variety of daily through annual plans available. There are no detailed coverage map available, but their FAQ says it's available within the town limits.

Montjoux

Skiocaching at Kirkwood This Weekend (Jan 20th)

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 11:26:05 -0700

If you're free on Saturday January 20th 2007 and in the general vicinity of Lake Tahoe, come and join us for a day of GPS challenge and fun at Kirkwood Mountain Resort.

Skiocaching� is a GPS treasure hunt where you find a series of locations on the mountain using your wits and, of course, your skis or snowboard.

We'll be in (or, weather permitting, outside) Expedition Kirkwood in the village plaza between 8am and 11am, so stop by and pick up the list of latitude/longitude coordinates for the locations. Then use your GPS--and your SnowRanger map if you have one--to figure out how to get to each location, and visit it, and answer a question based on information there.

At the end of the day, turn in your cards and enter into a drawing for a Magellan eXplorist 500LE color GPS, and SnowRanger map sets!

More...

Montjoux

Mac software for Garmin and Magellan?

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 10:01:44 -0700

As we anticipated last week, Garmin made an announcement this week at MacWorld on their ongoing efforts to improve Mac support.

Unfortunately the announcement only covered their Training Center software, which works with their running/biking oriented Edge and Forerunner models to manage the owners' training and racing data. We'd been hoping for news on a Mac version of MapSource to allow Mac owners to download SnowRanger and Garmin maps to their GPSes.

I spoke with a Garmin rep at CES this week, and he confirmed that there was no Mac version of MapSource imminent.

Over on the Magellan side, I put the same question to them at CES, and they too do not have announced plans for a Mac version of their MapSend software.

Note that the Garmin version of SnowRanger is now available on memory cards that insert right into Garmin n�vi and "x" series GPSes which have microSD or SD card slots. If you own one of these models you no longer even need to use a PC of any kind to load your SnowRanger maps! The cards are available to SnowRanger owners for a just a $10 fee to cover the cost of media and shipping.

Montjoux

Brief Notes from CES

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 22:23:36 -0700

I spent a day at the massive Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week. Although I was mainly there for a series of meeting with partners I was able to walk the show floor for part of the day.

All the usual GPS players--Garmin, Magellan, Navteq, TeleAtlas, etc--had great booths loaded with the latest products, and GPS was a recurring theme in booths from a variety of computer and electronics majors such as HP, Qualcomm, Mio, and Delphi.

Garmin update on Mac software next week

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 14:19:11 -0700

Looks like we'll be getting a status update on Garmin's Mac support plans next week at MacWorld.

As we reported a year ago, we'll be able to add some level of Mac support for installing SnowRanger maps onto Garmin GPSes using a Mac if Garmin release a Mac version of MapSource.

Right now, if you have a Mac and a Garmin "x" series GPS with a microSD card slot you can use the card slot to put maps onto the GPS without having to use a computer. We now have SnowRanger microSD cards in stock and will formerly announce them later this once we have added the option to buy them to our web store.

Montjoux

Come Skiocaching at Northstar-at-Tahoe - Friday Jan 5th

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 13:28:32 -0700

If you're free on Friday January 5th and in the general vicinity of Lake Tahoe, come and join us for a day of GPS challenge and fun at Northstar-at-Tahoe.

Northstar is hosting our inaugural Skiocaching� event as part of the Grand Opening of its new Tahoe Zephyr Express lift and terrain.
Skiocaching is a GPS treasure hunt where you find a series of locations on the mountain using your wits and, of course, your skis or snowboard.

Stop by The North Face store in Northstar Village between 8am and noon and pick up the list of latitude/longitude coordinates for the locations.
The using your GPS--and your SnowRanger map if you have one--figure out how to get to each location, and visit it.

At the end of the day, turn in your cards and enter into a drawing for a Magellan eXplorist 500LE color GPS, and SnowRanger map sets!

If you cannot make it on Friday, there are events coming up at Kirkwood, on January 20th and March 3rd.

More...

Montjoux

Tiny Holux GPSslim240 Bluetooth GPS

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 19:44:09 -0700

Today I took delivery of a small Bluetooth GPS, the Holux GPSslim240. I chose it because of its size and weight, yet even reading the specs didn't prepare me for how small this thing is! Think pack of gum rather than a candy bar.

Despite its size the Holux packs a 20-channel SiRF SiRFstarIII chipset and 8hr rechargeable battery, and should be perfect for using with my Samsung Blackjack smartphone and SportsDo software for running, biking, and skiing, and with street navigation software such as Windows Live Search.

Montjoux

BlackJack Rules!

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 17:31:06 -0700

As previously reported I recently picked up a Samsung Blackjack smartphone, and am extremely impressed with it.

It does just about everything I need in a phone, PDA, MP3 player, digital camera, and (with a Bluetooth GPS) online navigator. When paired with a wired stereo headset I was able to listen to music all day while I skied at Keystone, while receiving calls and checking my email and text messages in the lodge.

Garmin drops all but one PDA

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 16:54:50 -0700

WindowsMobileToday and other news sites are reporting that Garmin is dropping all of its Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) based GPS-enabled PDAs, leaving the Palm-based iQue 3600 as the only model. As the article points out, HP and other PDA and smartphone manufacturers now make GPS-enabled devices, so the market will continue to be well served. Plus a Bluetooth GPS can be easily used with nearly all Bluetooth-enabled phones, smartphones, and PDAs.

The iQue was Garmin's cheapest PDA, and also supports microSD cards like most of their recently introduced dedicated GPS units, which might be why it was the one spared. I would imagine too that the popular nuvi series has been cannibalizing Garmin's own PDA sales.

Montjoux

Backseat Playground

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 13:17:35 -0700

Engadget reports on a novel childrens activity from a group of Swedish programmers. The system puts a virtual overlay on top of a real area of a city, tied together with GPS, thus creating a sort of cross between a role playing VR game and the real world.

Samsung Blackjack Smartphone

Sat, 25 Nov 2006 11:00:58 -0700

I've been wanting to upgrade to a smartphone (from one of the original Cingular Motorola RAZR V3s) for a while now, especially since the SportsDo deal was announced, but I've been holding off waiting for a better balance of features, size, price, etc. When Cingular announced the Samsung Blackjack recently though, I decided it was time to act.

Unlikely some phones the Blackjack does not have built-in GPS nor WiFi but it does have a gorgeous 320x240 screen, a QWERTY thumbboard, and HSDPA (3G) data service. It's thin and small (smaller than the hit Motorola Q). It runs the SmartPhone edition of Windows Mobile with no touchscreen, which for me makes it more an easy to use phone (which is my biggest requirement) even if it removes a little flexibility.

I will use it with a Bluetooth GPS, specifically a Delorme Bluelogger that I also will be using for survey data acquisition this season, and try it out with SportsDo and some other applications that I am evaluating. Plus I'll also get one of the street map software packages for using it the car, and a 2GB microSD card so I can load it up with songs (it supports PlaysForSure subscription music from Yahoo! Music, Napster ToGo, etc, which is a concept I love) and podcasts for travel. The microSD card slot is external (not buried in the battery compartment as it is on many smartphones) so I can swap maps and AV files easily between the Blackjack, my PC, and microSD-equipped Garmin "X" models.

I'll report back on how the phone is working for me, but in the meantime here's what cnet and PC Magazine are saying about it.

Montjoux

SportsDo Location Packs Released

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 10:01:20 -0700

As we recently announced, Mountain Dynamics has licensed its SnowRanger ski resort trail map data to SportsDo for its GPS cell phone sports tracking system.

SportsDo has now released the ski resort Location Packs using this data, and they are available for immediate download from SportsDo for �3 (currently approximately $5.70 US) for each resort.

Their software will run on a wide variety of phones, both with a built-in GPSes and with inexpensive separate Bluetooth GPS receivers.

Montjoux

SportsDo Bring SnowRanger to Cell Phones

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 11:38:05 -0700

Mountain Dynamics has been working over the past few months on its first licensing deal for its SnowRanger ski resort trail map data. SportsDo unveiled the Ski Resort Location Packs for its SportsDo V2.1 software at the London Metro Ski Show on Oct 18th 2006.

Each Location Pack puts a comprehensive set of resort-specific "points of interest" onto the skier or snowboarder's cell phone. Using the capabilities of the mobile phone, the SportsDo software can transmit the skier's location in real time, allowing his/her friends to either find him/her at the mountain, or follow his/her progress around the resort. With the mapping data in the Location Packs this location information can be labeled with whatever lift, trail, or other locations they are near to.

During the day SportsDo displays the skier's speed, distance, vertical feet, and other statistics, and at the end of the day the GPS data can be uploaded to the SportsDo website, where the user can view, analyze, and share the record of their day.

The software will run on a wide variety of phones, both with a built-in GPSes and with inexpensive separate Bluetooth GPS receivers.

A licensing agreement such as this allows us to focus on mapping and publishing trail maps for Magellan� and Garmin� GPSes, while SportsDo push our technology and data into the burgeoning cellular phone market.

Montjoux

New and Updated SnowRanger Maps Released

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:22:22 -0700

We have just posted updated versions of our
SnowRanger ski resort trail maps. The California/Nevada, Colorado/New Mexico, Northwest/Montana, and Utah/Wyoming map sets are now updated with the latest 2006/06 resort changes with just two resorts still pending. For Breckenridge we are waiting for status information about their new BreckConnect gondola which will link the main parking areas in the town to Peaks 7 and 8, while for Vail we are looking out for information on changes to their terrain parks.

The new Northwest/Montana set now includes Big Mountain and Moonlight Basin, in addition to Whistler Blackcomb which was added last month.

With Arapahoe Basin, Loveland, and Wolf Creek already open the season is heating up! Or would that be cooling down?

Montjoux

Skiing Magazine's Top 25 Resorts

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 11:54:19 -0700

Following-on from last month's publishing of Ski Magazine's Top 10 Resorts on SKINET, their sister title Skiing has published its Top 25. This also appears in their November print edition.

Top is Whistler Blackcomb, followed by Alta/Snowbird, Jackson Hole, Vail (Ski's winner), and Squaw Valley.

The Skiing rankings differ markedly from Ski's, reflecting their different audiences. Skiing focuses heavily on the snow and the challenge of the resorts, while Ski looks at the resorts' amenities and broad appeal.

We have SnowRanger GPS trail maps of 24 of the Skiing top 25 resorts (which actually come to 28 if you separate out Alta/Snowbird, Big Sky/Moonlight Basin, and Aspen/Aspen Highlands, which they combine). We have 28 of the Top 30 western resorts in Ski's poll.

Montjoux

Plasma TV Problems at Altitude

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 13:04:26 -0700

I was reading an article in the new (Nov 2006) edition of Ski magazine this morning about Snowbird's changes for this coming ski season, and came across a comment that its flagship slope-side hotel, the Cliff Lodge, went with LCD rather than plasma TVs for its room upgrades because of problems with plasma TVs at higher elevations (the Cliff Lodge is at 8160').

I had never heard of such a thing, but a little Googling confirmed it. The Plasma TV Buying Guide has an altitude FAQ that says that the gas envelopes are calibrated for up to around the height of Denver (6500') and that operating them higher than this approximate height may cause problems with excess heat, noisy cooling fans, and reduced lifetime.

Ironically I see that Pioneer plasma TVs are a banner ad sponsor of the SkiNet (which is Ski + Skiing + Warren Miller) website.

Montjoux

Verizon G'zOne Waterproof Phone

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 08:44:23 -0700

PC Magazine has published a review of the ruggedized Verizon G'zOne phone. They were impressed by it, though marked it down for no Bluetooth (which I'd concur is a major downside) or analog roaming (almost a non-issue these days, although possibly in the backcountry). It does support Verizon's fastest EV-DO data service though.

It is fully waterproof (rated for 30 minutes immersion) and the reviewer took pictures and video in a swimming pool, and made calls from the shower! It's also well protected against impact.

The reviewer compared it primarily with the equally rugged (though not immersion-rated) Nextel i580, which he came away with a preference for. He didn't try driving a Saturn Sky over the G'zOne like he did the i580!

The review made no comment one way or the other about whether the G'zOne supports Verizon's Navigator A-GPS service. Like many Nextel phones, the i580 has true GPS capabilities.

Montjoux

Tiny Navicore Bluetooth GPS

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:07:09 -0700

Gizmodo reports that a company called Navicore has released a SiRF SiRFstarIII-based Bluetooth GPS called the Personal 2007 that is just 64 x 22 x 15mm (2.5 x 0.9 x 0.6") and 30g (1.07oz).

With the SiRF chipset GPS performance ought to be good, but battery life might be lower than slightly larger units from companies like Pharos and Holux. It can be conveniently recharged via a standard USB connection. According to Navicore's web site it's geared towards use with cell phones, and they supply accompanying software for Symbian-based phones. It does not say one way or the other whether it will work as a standard Bluetooth/serial/NMEA GPS with other devices.

Montjoux

Smart Device Central smartphone overview

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 08:51:09 -0700

Smart Device Central has published an interesting overview of the smartphone world. They report that although smartphones accounted for less than 5% of US sales of cell phones in the first quarter of 2006, sales of Treos and Windows Mobile licenses grew 85% and 90% respectively over the past year. The Motorola Q has been a huge success for Verizon, and could be a breakthrough product in leading smartphones into the mainstream.

They follow the statistics with a round up of current top smartphones, although I was disappointed to see no mention of GPS capability, presumably because it is still lacking in most of the leading models. Financial columnist Jim Jubak predicted earlier this year that "mapping everywhere" was one of the "7 next big things in tech" and cited a study from IDC that said that the number of GPS-enabled cell phones (which would be both smartphones and regular phones) will grow six-fold from 2004 to 2008, so I think it was remiss of Smart Device Central not to at least touch on that.

Of course any smartphone with Bluetooth can use an inexpensive separate Bluetooth GPS receiver from Holux, Pharos, etc.

Montjoux

New Microsoft Streets and Trips with SiRF GPS

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 11:53:23 -0700

Gizmodo reports that Microsoft have announced a new 2007 version of their inexpensive Microsoft Streets and Trips PC street map software.

Besides some tweaks to the software and updates to the map data, the big improvement for this version is the option of a USB SiRF SiRFstarIII based GPS receiver, supplied by Pharos. The SiRF chipset is superior to anything else on the market in terms of sensitivity and speed, and even the big guys like Garmin and Magellan have been adopting it for their latest units.

Unfortunately the Pocket Streets version for Pocket PCs and smartphones is still at the "2005" level.

Montjoux

Arapahoe Basin is OPEN!

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 12:49:22 -0700

Arapahoe Basin has opened today! They are reporting 18", with just 2 trails and 18 acres.

Rival early openers Loveland are just a day behind, opening tomorrow.

Montjoux

Snowmaking in New England

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 07:39:09 -0700

About.com reports that Sunday River, ME started making snow last weekend, the first in the northeastern US. As of now their weather forecast looks a little warm and dry, but I am sure it won't be long before they get some serious snow fall. A little further west, Buffalo NY and the great lakes area just got a two foot fall.

Montjoux

Ski Resort Photos from Flickr

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 08:46:21 -0700

We've just added a second mash-up to our site (see our Google Maps announcement). Now you can find geo-tagged images from Flickr that were taken at SnowRanger ski resorts (list).

Flickr, a popular photo sharing site, recently added this geo-tagging feature. Geo-tagged pictures include the latitude and longitude where they were taken, allowing fascinating map-based browsing of all of Flickr�s members� publicly-shared pictures. Some examples:
- Jackson Hole
- Whistler Blackcomb

Montjoux

SnowRanger on Google Maps

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 13:47:00 -0700

We just added a "mash-up" between our SnowRanger GPS ski resort map data and Google Maps. Such mashups--which Google, Flickr, Yahoo!, and other so-called Web 2.0 sites actively encourage--allow web site developers to combine two sets of web information into one web page.

We've used it to show all of our GPS ski resort map locations on one interactive map, together with one for each set (California/Nevada, Colorado/New Mexico, Northwest/Montana, and Utah/Wyoming). Click on each resort's marker for more information.

We've also used it to give you driving directions from anywhere in the country to each resort's main village. You can get directions by clicking on a resort's marker in the above maps, or from each resort's SnowRanger page (choose from this list).

Some examples: Reno airport to Heavenly, Denver airport to Vail, and Miami to Alyeska (pack a lunch!).

Montjoux

PC Magazine's Smart Device Central

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 14:43:52 -0700

Ziff Davis's PC Magazine has launched a new site Smart Device Central, devoted to phones, PDAs, and related gadgets and software. Recent stories include a review of the new GPS-centric HP iPaq rx5915 PDA, an update on Cingular's network development, and killer smartphone apps.

Montjoux

O'Reilly Radar on GPS-enabled hardware

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 13:57:01 -0700

O'Reilly, beloved by geeks for their revered reference books on all aspects of software and hardware (each named for an animal), are also big promoters of Location Based Services (LBS). In particular they host the annual Where 2.0 conference on LBS and related themes. Their O'Reilly Radar staff blogs are an informative and entertaining read.

They posted an article yesterday that was a good overview of recent GPS-enabled devices and gadgets.

Montjoux

Garmin Mobile 20 Bluetooth cradle/software

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 18:10:46 -0700

Garmin have put together a rather nice combination of Bluetooth GPS receiver (with an unspecified SiRF chipset), Bluetooth speakerphone, automotive phone cradle/charger, and software, called the Garmin Mobile 20. It's due in November for $299, and supports a variety of Palm, Windows, and Symbian-based smartphones. I was most intrigued by its free access to real time traffic data (from Traffic.com and gas station pricing (from OPIS, accessed via your phone's wireless data connection.

Montjoux

The Tram is dead. Long live the Tram!

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 08:51:13 -0700

After a year of speculation as to what (if anything) was going to replace Jackson Hole's iconic Tram after it closes this year, the resort has announced that it will replace it with a new tram. The new tram will have roughly twice the uphill capacity of the old, and is slated to begin service in December 2008. The tram rises directly from the base of the resort to the summit, a single 4,139' vertical trip, the longest of any lift in North America, and has a special place in the hearts of local skiers/snowboarders.

In the meantime (the next two seasons) they will be running a double chair called the East Ridge Chair to the summit. Our SnowRanger GPS map has been updated with the change.

Montjoux

iPod vs. Zune vs. Rhapsody, Part 2

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 09:11:43 -0700

As I opined in Part 1, I am a fan of the subscription music concept, even though the market-dominating iPod/iTunes system eschews it. Although Rhapsody, Yahoo! Music, and other subscription services have been slowly growing, the popularity of the iPod suggested a general lack of consumer interest in "renting" music.

Microsoft's upcoming Zune might change that. Although it's late to the party with a generally "just ok" player to be built by Toshiba, the Zune has one key feature that the iPod does not: the ability to share and exchange music wirelessly with other Zunes. I think this could be a big deal, a step way beyond instant sharing by two people splitting a set of earbuds.

In order to work within the music publishers' need for copyright protection DRM Microsoft is also going to be launching a subscription music store of its own. A subscriber would then be able to zap songs wirelessly to other Zune-owning subscribers without the publishers losing out.

There are two drawbacks. One is that the new Microsoft service will reportedly not be compatible with the existing PlaysForSure standard used by Rhapsody et al, an ironic and annoying move since PlaysForSure is Microsoft's own "standard".

The other is that this wireless feature sinks or swims according to the network effect. The most oft-quoted example of this is fax machines. These were more or less useless extravagances until a tipping point was reached where enough other people had them to make them convenient, then essential. The Zune wireless sharing feature is more or less useless until a number of your friends also have Zunes. This can cut both ways, as it did with the fax machines. Once a beachhead is established it can encourage people in your circle to get Zunes to take part in the fun. But you might end up being the dork with the Zune while all your friends have the latest iPods, which in the world of geek/youth fashion, is death for the new product.

Where does this leave Rhapsody and co? They might be able to put enough pressure on Microsoft to merge the new Zune service with PlaysForSure so that everyone can participate. This would be good for Zune in making it an obvious MP3 player choice for all the existing customers of the services, but runs against the idea that Microsoft want to have a tightly integrated offering like iPod/iTunes to make things as simple and reliable for the consumer as possible.

Rhapsody is fighting back with some strong partnerships of its own. It's working with high-end home digital music adapter maker Sonos to simplify delivering music to the home, and with SanDisk (who have quietly grown their MP3 player sales to become number two after Apple) on a co-branded Sansa Rhapsody.

Montjoux

Loveland is making snow

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 14:59:46 -0700

About.com, citing the Colorado Springs Gazette, reports that Loveland has started to make snow, helped by several inches of the natural stuff. Loveland has a nice montage of photos.

Fellow early-opener Arapahoe Basin is also making snow, while the Vail area got about a 2' dump recently. Southwestern Colorado, which had a meagre season last year, has already had quite a bit too, with Durango showing some pictures.

This early in the year it's too warm for much of a base to form, but it whets the appetite for the upcoming season.

Montjoux

Ski Magazine Top 10 Resorts

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 08:18:20 -0700

SKINET has posted Ski Magazine's readers' Top 10 US Ski Resorts survey results. The top three this year are Vail, Deer Valley (last year's winner), and Aspen Snowmass, followed by Whistler Blackcomb, Park City, Breckenridge, Aspen Mountain, Beaver Creek, Steamboat, and Sun Valley.

The October 2006 print edition of Ski is just hitting the news stands and features the Top 30 resorts in the west and the Top 20 in the east.

With our upcoming release of Whistler Blackcomb we'll have SnowRanger GPS maps of all ten resorts (and 27 of the Top 30 in the west) when the season kicks off in November.

Montjoux

iPod vs. Zune vs. Rhapsody, Part 1

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 08:15:56 -0700

I've always considered that the iPod was a beautiful thing, yet one that I would never buy. The reason is its lack of support for subscription music. I don't want to own music any more than I want to own DVDs. I want to rent it, and I have been a long time customer for subscription music providers, first Rhapsody, then Yahoo! Music. For $10/month (give or take) I can listen to an enormous library of music, far bigger than I could take the time, trouble, and dollars to build up CD-by-CD or song-by-song myself. Fancy listening to a little 1970s Pink Floyd? Queue it up. How about some Flaming Lips? If I liked that would I like this?

I started with Rhapsody because as well as computer play-back it also was supported by my (now discontinued) Prismiq digital media adapter (DMA - a device that connects to your stereo or TV and plays-back digital music or video pulled from a PC or network). I switched to Yahoo when I got an MP3 player (a small SanDisk Sansa M230) that supports Microsoft's PlaysForSure portable Janus DRM system, allowing me to load subscription music onto it, because Yahoo's Janus option was $5/month cheaper than Rhapsody.

I still remain a big fan of the subscription model, yet it does not seem to have broad appeal. All those iPod sales indicate that people either don't like the idea of leasing music, or they don't know about it. Or perhaps the iPod is just so cool that the question of how they are going to fill it with content doesn't really factor into the buying decision.

There's a shake-up coming in this status quo though, a consequence of the upcoming Microsoft Zune player that is being somewhat lost in the general for-and-against buzz about the product.

Continue to Part 2

Montjoux

First snowfall in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and BC

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 16:13:21 -0700

This weekend saw the first snowfall of the winter, with 6-12" accumulating at least briefly in many parts of the western ski country. Here's a selection of reports and pictures:
- SKINET (the new site combining Ski Magazine, Skiing Magazine, and Warren Miller Entertainment)
- Park City Mountain Resort's blog and webcam
- Alta's webcams

Montjoux

HP iPaq hw6915 GPS-enabled smartphone In Depth

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 07:47:05 -0700

PDAgold has posted a very in-depth review of the new HP iPaq hw6915 GPS-enabled smartphone.

This is a phone that I personally have been waiting for with anticipation, since besides the built-in GPS capability this phone pretty much has "everything": Windows Mobile 5.0, EDGE, Bluetooth, WiFi, 1.3MP camera, thumb-board, miniSD slot, etc. The reviewer praises the CPU (powerful enough to do Skype over WiFi) and liked the unit overall, but was not impressed by the camera. The camera does at least use the GPS to automatically geotag the photos (attach their location to them).

The unit does not support the 3G HDSPA high speed data service that Cingular is rolling out in the US but does have EDGE. The screen is the same 240x240 square as the Treo 700w, which used to be a problem for some applications (used to 320x240 QVGA screens) but most have been updated to accommodate it. Size-wise, it's not tiny, but not a monster either.

The GPS chip is from Global Locate and takes advantage of A-GPS when in the phone network. It's not clear though whether the GPS capability will work properly outside of cellular coverage or whether it relies on A-GPS, which for me would be a deal breaker, and is something I intend to look into further.

Update: PocketPC Thoughts have also posted a detailed review and report it is available from HP who are calling it the hw6945 (hw6940 sans camera) for $599. Their spec sheet says the US model will have Microsoft Pocket Streets as its navigation software.

Montjoux

A-GPS and Verizon VZ Navigator

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 06:21:27 -0700

Verizon Wireless has been helping spread the GPS-is-hot message with its generally well regarded VZ Navigator service. One major downside to this though is that it is spreading confusion in consumers minds as to the GPS capabilities of the current generation of cell phones. "Oh I have GPS on my new phone" is something I often hear from friends and customers. What they don't realize is that although these phone do have a GPS chip in them, they rely on being within the cell phone network, because it is their network provider's processing servers that do the actual location calculation.

It's called Assisted GPS, or A-GPS. The phone receives signals from the GPS satellites just like a true GPS receiver, but the phone forwards them to an "assistance server" on the network to perform the triangulation calculation based on the timing information in the signals. If you are out in the boonies, skiing or hiking or whatever, the GPS capability of the phone will not function.

On the plus side, when you are in civilization the cell towers in the network themselves help pinpoint your position, which compensates for you being in an "urban canyon" with reduced satellite visibility, resulting sometimes in a faster and more accurate position than a true GPS might be able to manage.

See Wikipedia for a more detailed explanation.

Sprint has a number of phones with true GPS capabilities in its Nextel and Boost brands, and you can also use separate Bluetooth GPS receivers with Windows and Palm-based smartphones and on some phones with Java.

Montjoux

8 Days to Loveland Snowmaking?

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 07:42:19 -0700

Loveland Ski Area, perched on the Continental Divide in Colorado, has put a Flash countdown clock on its home page showing how many days until it starts snowmaking--and it's already down to just eight days! The countdown is actually based on the day it was able to start last year, but Loveland and Arapahoe Basin have a friendly rivalry each year to be the first US resort to open, and usually manage to hit it in mid to late October.

Montjoux

Skiing, etc on YouTube

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 17:47:02 -0700

Internet video sharing phenomenon YouTube isn't just for stupid pet tricks and experiments with Diet Coke and Mentos. There's a wealth of interesting skiing, snowboarding, geocaching, and other GPS-related fun.

Montjoux

NSAA Resort Statistics

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 10:00:26 -0700

The National Ski Areas Association recently released their annual National Demographic Study on trends and statistics in resort skiing/snowboarding last season. The highlights:
- significantly more children (under 18) were on the slopes, which also dropped the average age overall
- snowboarding continued to grow, both because the its popularity amongst those under-18s and because of it being adopted by more older people.
- helmet use continues to rise, especially for under-15s and over-55s.

A second report cites an all time record for skier-visits for the season, with all US regions showing strength.

Montjoux

Ferrari and Porsche Branded GPSes

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 08:26:34 -0700

Not only are the consumer electronics giants getting in on the GPS receiver game, but some top auto brands are lending their name to some offerings.

Engadget reports that Porsche Design is bringing out a unit in Europe with Navigon software, and although it�s a hefty $960 it does boast very strong specs: traffic radio receiver, Bluetooth hands-free, MP3, and SD/MMC slot.

Meanwhile Aving has spotted a Ferrari-branded version of a Becker Traffic Assist GPS. This one's a little cheaper than the Porsche, and also destined for Europe for now. Personally I think this one looks garish compared to the stylish Porsche.

What next? I could see Hummer extending their laptop brand licensing to a rugged GPS, and how about a "Lincoln Navigator"? ;-)

Montjoux

Mountain Dynamics SnowRanger Store Reopens

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 16:09:33 -0700

The online purchase function on our Mountain Dynamics website for our SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps was closed during the summer while we were between seasons. We reopened it today (9/4/06) and our California/Nevada, Colorado/New Mexico, Northwest/Montana, and Utah/Wyoming map sets are available for purchase.

These are "2006/07" sets in the sense that customers will be able to download updates for them throughout the coming season, although not all the maps have yet been updated with resort changes since the previous season. All updates (and five additional resort maps) will be completed by Nov 1, and hence anyone buying between now and Nov 1 will be able to start the season with the latest and greatest maps.

Owners of 2005/06 maps will be able to download copies of their maps from their My Page indefinitely, and we'll be posting information on inexpensive upgrade options to the new 2006/07 maps soon.

Montjoux

Consumer Electronics Brands entering GPS Market

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 06:58:26 -0700

Until recently the handheld and auto GPS market has been the exclusive province of specialty brands, primarily Garmin, Thales Navigation (Magellan), Lowrance, Trimble, and, more recently, TomTom. The growing strength of independent component suppliers such as SiRF (GPS chips) and Navteq and Teleatlas (digital maps) has however allowed more mainstream consumer electronics brands to bring strong products to the market.

Pioneer have their AVIC-S1 which is a small automobile oriented tablet in the style of the Garmin nuvi and TomTom One.

Acer have recently unveiled a small handheld called the e310 which Gizmodo describes as only being 4" tall. Imagine something the size of a Garmin Geko but with a large color screen, an MP3 player and an SD expansion slot! No news on whether this is coming to the US.

Sony also is joining the mini-tablet automobile market with the NV-U70. CNET was not impressed with it however. Sony also have released the rather unique GPS-CS1. This unit rides along with you for the day while you're taking digital pictures, then at the end the day bundled software compares your GPS track with the timestamps to geotag them for use on service such as Flickr. It�s a neat concept, but something you can do quite easily with any GPS using software such as OziPhotoTool or Robogeo.

Look also for a resurgence of Thales Navigation, now known as Magellan Navigation Inc. after its acquisition from Thales by private equity firm Shah Capital.

Montjoux

GPS Module for Sony PSP

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 15:05:10 -0700

QJ.net have some pictures and details of the new GPS add-on for the Sony PSP handheld gaming console. They also say that Sony will be releasing some GPS-enabled games, prompting some amusing speculation by Gizmodo on possible game titles.

Gizmodo had previously reported that navigation software will be available for the PSP/GPS combo.

Montjoux

Flickr Geotagging

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 10:00:52 -0700

Yahoo! subsidiary Flickr has added support for geotagging, that is, adding latitude/longitude coordinates to a photo to show where it was taken. Flickr visitors can now browse maps to see what photos have been taken in particular areas.

As well as offering its members a new tool to add the geotags after a photo has been updated it also recognizes existing geotags in the EXIF information that can be associated with an image. This can be added either at the time the picture is taken by the small number of cameras (eg the Canon PowerShot SD430) that have an embedded GPS, or by a tool that takes a GPX track from a GPS and cross-references it with time-stamp information from a set of photos to infer where each photo was taken.

Other ways to capture geotagged pictures are Navman's series of GPSes with a digital camera feature such as the iCN750, and GPS-enabled smartphones such as the HP iPaq hw6915.

Montjoux

Garmin Legend Cx $179 at REI

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 19:30:26 -0700

The Legend C and Cx are my favorite Garmin models--a near perfect trade-off between size/weight verses features, including an excellent color screen. The Cx has the very sensitive SIRF SiRFstarIII chip set, and a micro-SD card slot. August 25th - Sept 4th REI has these on sale for $229.99, and Garmin are offering a $50 rebate off that for an effective price of just $179.99.

Get one now for fall geocaching and winter skiing and snowboarding!

Montjoux

Casio GPS Watch

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:59:23 -0700

Mobilewhack reports that Casio is bringing out a GPS watch, the GPR-100, in Japan at least. It looks smaller than the Suunto GPS watch, and seems to be oriented towards running and other motion sports, a la the Timex Datalink and Garmin's Forerunner. Gizmodo has a link to Google's translation of the Japanese spec sheet, which seems to suggest that link the Datalink (and unlike the Suunto and Forerunner) this unit will NOT tell you your location, just your speed, distance, etc.

Montjoux

GPS with audio prompts

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 21:02:57 -0700

The ADEO from Motion Lingo is a workout-oriented GPS receiver with a twist: a audio feed of your workout progress. You plug your MP3 player and headphones into the ADEO, and it puts voice-overs onto the music stream to report your speed and distance. CNet loved the concept but weren't impressed with the execution, cited such issues as there being no screen and it taking as long as 30 minutes (!) to initially lock-on to satellites, and taking several minutes on each subsequent power-on.

Ski Magazine also mentioned it on their current print edition, as its speed information could be fun to receive while you are in motion. It's not clear whether you can pull the track log off the unit as a GPX to overlay onto SnowRanger, Google Earth, or other maps.

Montjoux

Spring Bonus: Mt Bachelor, Crystal Mtn, and Mt Hood Meadows

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 13:23:54 -0700

For those of you planning on catching some spring skiing in the Northwest, today we released three new SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps:
- Mt Bachelor
- Crystal Mountain
- Mt Hood Meadows

These are available as a 3-map Pacific Northwest set for just $13.95, or individually for $4.95 each.

Montjoux

Whither Trimble?

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 13:36:58 -0700

With Garmin, Magellan, and TomTom being so prevalent in the GPS news, I am always on the lookout for news on other players, particularly pioneers such as Lowrance and Trimble. I recently noted that Lowrance had been acquired by a marine-oriented company, suggesting a possible focus on that market, while Trimble has been in the news for its chip technology and an interesting success in the agriculture market.

GeoCarta reports that Trimble have announced a very small GPS chip module aimed at cell phones and other small portable electronics.

Forbes notes that Trimble have been very successful in selling into the agricultural market, under the "Field Solutions" moniker.

Montjoux

Big Sky Resort Released

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:10:02 -0700

Today we added Big Sky resort to our Utah/Northern Rockies set of SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps. The map includes the edge of Moonlight Basin, but a separate map for that resort will be published at a later date. Big Sky and Moonlight together constitute the largest area in the US that can be skied on a single ticket (5300 acres, verses 5289 acres for the second largest, Vail).

This brings the resort map count for Utah/Northern Rockies up to 11, and registered map set owners can, of course, download the update free of charge. The map is available separately for $4.95, or as part of the set for just $29.95.

Montjoux

Samsung Q1 Origami at CeBIT

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 16:47:15 -0700

GPS Tracklog recently suggested that Origami, otherwise known as UMPC, Microsoft's prototype Tablet/Pocket PC hybrid, might have GPS capabilities. Today Engadget got their hands on an actual Samsung Q1 Origami unit at the CeBIT trade show.

They were clearly underwhelmed by it, finding it not that different from a current Tablet PC, just a little smaller, and the GPS is mentioned as being an "external peripheral", which could be something as ordinary as a standard Bluetooth receiver unit. It's without a doubt no "nuvi-killer".

Still, "V1" of a new platform is often disappointing, while a V1.1 or V2 is truly cool, so fingers crossed for 2007 at least.

Montjoux

HP say pen-based PDA market shrinking 30% annually

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 17:32:08 -0700

Quoting HP's Vice-President for Consumer Products and Mobile Business Group in the Asia-Pacific region, Chin-Teik, cnet reports that the pen-based PDA market will likely evaporate in the next four years. It's a bold statement, on the face of it an overreaction to the popularity of BlackBerry and Treo style phones and PDAs with the tiny attached keyboards, but clearly HP has the industry position to be well informed on such trends.

Personally I am agnostic on this one, as both modes of primary input seem to work well. HP et al: just make sure that every new PDA and SmartPhone comes with a GPS receiver built in!

Montjoux

Canon introduces WiFi-enabled digital camera

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 17:24:39 -0700

Gizmodo has an overview and links to reviews of a new WiFi-enabled point-and-short digital camera from Canon, the PowerShot SD430 Wireless. This follows Nikon and Kodak's entries into what I think will be a crowded field soon.

Montjoux

Brighton and Solitude Added to Utah Set

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 12:49:41 -0700

Two new SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps were released today: Brighton and Solitude.

These are part of our Utah/Northern Rockies set, bringing its total number of maps up to 10. Since Solitude and Brighton are interconnected, and can be skied together on the same day, getting them together as part of the set makes a lot of sense. Registered Utah map set owners can, of course, download the update free of charge.

Montjoux

VGA PocketPC with GPS

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 08:28:01 -0700

WindowsMobileToday reports that Fujitsu-Siemens will be bringing out a VGA (640x480) screened Windows Mobile Pocket PC with built-in GPS capability, the Pocket LOOX N560. While there are already VGA-screened PDAs, and PDAs with GPS chips, this will be the first time the two have been brought together.

Although I maintain that PDAs are a little too fragile to be used as a backcountry, skiing, or workout GPS, for more or less every other use of a GPS they are very good. Even with a normal PDA screen size (320x240 or 240x240) they offer a good display for street maps, plus their open operating system and programming environment means it's relatively easy to create custom software for them. Add-in their Internet connectivity, large (and ever increasing) inexpensive storage cards, MP3 (and video) player capability etc, and you have an excellent travel companion. With a VGA screen one definitely gets to the point where one can leave one's laptop behind for a great many trips.

An interesting technical detail of the N560 is that it can supposedly act as a USB host. Most PDAs connect to PC host for synchronization, but cannot be used themselves as the "PC" that cameras, MP3 players, GPSes, and other USB gadgets connect to. Although there may be missing software pieces to deal with, this capability could be very useful to round out the "laptop replacement" ability of the PDA.

Montjoux

360 Electrical�s Plug and Turn outlets

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 16:15:39 -0700

I can't decide whether these are a gimmick or pure genius, but Gizmodo reports that a company called 360 Electrical is about to release a wall outlet plate with 2 rotating outlets! The concept is that you'll be better be able to fit in two odd shaped plugs--transformer wall warts, oversize plugs, nightlights, etc.--if you can turn them into different orientations. An upcoming power strip version of this idea is on my shopping list.

Montjoux

Move over solar--the Micro Windmill Charger

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:36:21 -0700

New Launches (seen via geeky traveller) reports on a new wind powered charger for cell phones, PDAs, etc. It's good to see new solutions to age-old problems, and potentially an alternative to packable solar chargers like Brunton's SolarRoll series.

Montjoux

Garmin "X" Support Confirmed

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 12:35:19 -0700

We have now confirmed that our SnowRanger maps download and work properly on Garmin's new "X" models (eTrex� Legend� Cx and Vista� Cx; GPSMAP� 60Cx, 60CSx, 76Cx, and 76CSx). We also have just posted an update to our SnowRanger Uplink tool (which lets you upload your GPS tracks at the end of each ski day for viewing and analysis) that supports the new models.

We already have one customer-contributed Snow Day and track: Kirkwood. The "X" series are supposed to have more sensitive signal reception than their older counterparts, and certainly this track (recorded with a 76CSx) seems to be clean of any anomalous points.

Montjoux

On Trams

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 11:13:17 -0700

I just returned from four days in Salt Lake City, with a side trip to Jackson Hole. My reports and tracks are uploaded at:
- Deer Valley
- Park City
- Jackson Hole
- Alta/Snowbird

This is the last year that Jackson Hole is running its 40-year-old Tram, which is causing a lot of sentimental reflection by Jackson Hole old timers. At the risk of sounding like a heathen I am not sure I see the attraction of trams. With a temperature inversion in place the day I was there the long wait for the tram was very cold and standing in ski boots is no fun. I can see of course how the "getting in line at 7:30am on a powder day" ritual must be a lot of fun though.

I found the newer/larger Snowbird tram to be more appealing, with the bulk of the wait being inside, and there even being some benches to sit on after one gets into the loading area.

Montjoux

How Ski Resorts Measure Snow Depth

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 14:11:47 -0700

The LA Times ran an interesting story last weekend on how ski resorts come up with their reported snowfall inches.

As you might expect there's a lot of variation in where the measurement is done. Some report it near the a base lodge whose lower altitude tends to under-report the average for the whole resort, while some measure it higher up, or in more shelter places where the wind is less of a variable. The measurement itself it done using anything from an eyeball estimate of the height of a snowmound, to a sonar device that measures new snow depth on top of a board that is cleaned daily. Finally they point-out how a reading taken at 5am may not have much relevence to a skier arriving at noon that day if it's been warm or windy since then.

Seen on the travel blog Gadling.

Montjoux

Utah and Northern Rockies Set Released

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 20:12:58 -0700

With the publication today of 4 more maps, the "Utah/Northern Rockies" set now has enough maps for its initial release. The set launches with the following 8 SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps:
- Alta
- Deer Valley
- Jackson Hole
- Park City Mountain Resort
- Snowbasin
- Snowbird
- Sun Valley
- The Canyons

The set is available for download for just $29.95 (with maps individually available for $4.95 each).

It is also available on CD-ROM via Amazon.

We'll be adding Big Sky, Moonlight Basin, Grand Targhee, and possibly some other resorts to this set in the next few weeks. All these additions will be available for download at no extra cost if you buy the set before they are added.

Montjoux

Lowrance acquired by maritime company

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 11:22:26 -0700

GPS Tracklog reports that GPS vendor Lowrance is to be acquired by Simrad. Simrad focuses on professional fish finders and other maritime electronics, leaving one wondering if this may shift Lowrance away from the outdoors market over the long term.

Montjoux

Mining For (Resort Statistics) Gold

Sat, 28 Jan 2006 08:16:47 -0700

As Mountain Dynamics develops and publishes our SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps we are building up a considerable database of mapping data. As of now for example we have the detailed paths (and other information) of 3026 trails (ski runs) at 37 resorts, 449 chair lifts, and 137 lodges! Since we also have detailed contour maps we'll soon be creating "digital elevation models" of each resort and using that to publish new views of resort information such as the elevation profile of each of those 3026 runs.

In the meantime, here are some "fun facts" mined out of our data.

Ever noticed how the same trail names seem to keep appearing at different resorts? In our database here are the ones that are used most often:
9 times: Sundance
8 times: Exhibition
7 times: Easy Street
6 times: International, Prospector, High Traverse, Juniper, Home Run, Columbine, Waterfall, and Last Chance

How prevalent are high speed lifts? High Speed (detachable grip) Quads have become the workhorse of the modern resort, but clearly many resorts have left a lot of traditional triples and doubles in place. Here are the top lift types:
High Speed Quad - 132
Double (fixed grip) - 125
Triple (fixed grip) - 98
Quad (fixed grip) - 26
Gondola - 20
High Speed 6 - 17
We also have 5 trams, and a rare high speed double (Ruthies) at Aspen Mountain, and high speed triple (Sunnyside) at Alta.

Montjoux

Top Three Resort Maps

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 17:58:09 -0700

Based on sales so far, our three most popular individual SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps are:
1. Taos
2. Vail
3. Breckenridge

Overall, sales of the map sets (Colorado/New Mexico and California) have been even more popular than the individual downloads.

Montjoux

Alta, Snowbird, and Jackson Hole Maps Released

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 17:39:14 -0700

Mountain Dynamics officially released three new SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps today:
- Alta, Utah
- Snowbird, Utah
- Jackson Hole, Wyoming

These maps are available as individual downloads immediately, and will be included in our upcoming Utah/Northern Rockies set in late January or early February. All three of these resorts are world-class, and have been frequently requested.

Note that Alta and Snowbird are separate maps, but if both are purchased they can be put onto your GPS concurrently using MapSource. Please Contact Us if you do not have MapSource but would like to buy and use these two maps as a pair. The interconnection points between the resorts are featured on the maps.

Montjoux

Mac version of SnowRanger?

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 21:41:54 -0700

Garmin's recent announcement of broad support for Apple Mac OS- X in their software line has brought questions as to whether SnowRanger will ever be Mac-compatible.

Strictly speaking, SnowRanger runs on the GPS and does not need a computer in operate, but it does need to be installed on the GPS USING a computer. The software that we use to do this download directly is only available for Windows PCs and I do not anticipate any change in that situation.

However our recent addition of MapSource compatibility does open up new possibilities. When Garmin ship a Mac version of MapSource we ought to be able to make our SnowRanger maps available through it, though we will have to see how things develop with that. Garmin have said that this won't be available until towards the end of 2006, but hopefully this is something we'll be able to offer near the beginning of the 2006-07 ski season. Like I said though, I have limited information at this time as to how this will play out.

The SnowRanger Uplink is likely to be only available for Windows PCs in the foreseeable future. However we now support the standard GPX file format for GPS data, so you can upload, share, and analyze your ski tracks from Macs, Linux PCs, and any other sort of computer that has GPS software for that format.

Montjoux

GPS Ski Track Upload Enhancements

Sat, 14 Jan 2006 06:54:39 -0700

We've tweaked our program for processing GPS track uploads. You can upload the 'breadcrumb' tracks from your GPS after you've skied/snowboarded to view, analyze, and share them, either directly from a Garmin GPS using our Uplink tool, or from a standard GPX file from any GPS.

The program now divides uploads into separate tracks for each day, and also merges together separate tracks from the same day into one. This means you can keep recording one continuous track or "active log" through your whole trip if you want to, rather than having to upload the day's skiing each night. This is especially helpful with Garmin units which discard the (very useful) time and elevation information from an active log if you "save" it on the GPS as a named track.

Montjoux

Garmin Legend C Review

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 09:32:14 -0700

After my great disappointment with Garmin's Rino 520 I picked up a Legend C to try in its place during a recent trip to Lake Tahoe. I am pleased to report that it was a drastically better experience, and I am very pleased with it. Note the Legend C should not be confused with the older Legend, which was the first GPS I owned several years ago, and was a great model for its day but whose monochrome screen and RS232 interface are outdated now. Nor should it be confused with the upcoming Legend Cx, which adds a microSD removable memory card slot.

I loaded the Legend C up before the trip with a combination of both Garmin MapSource Topo maps and our SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps, and was able to use the topo maps (which include some highway and street details) to find our hotel in South Lake Tahoe. I then used the SnowRanger maps for Kirkwood, Heavenly, and Squaw Valley during my three days' skiing.

The Legend C's joystick has the same "5-way" action as the hard-to-use one on the Rino, but has a much better feel when used with gloves, and worked well. The other buttons also had sufficient tactile feel to use with gloves. The buttons and 4-way joystick on the Garmin 60C (which I contrasted with the Rino) are a little easier to use with thick gloves on, but the Legend C is not far behind. I did have some issues with the joystick being moved or pressed when I was putting the GPS into my ski jacket pocket, but this was usually more of an inconvenience (fixed by pressing the Cancel button) rather than screwing anything up.

The screen was excellent, and easy to read with goggles on in all light conditions. The firmware's screens and functions all worked very well, and the SnowRanger maps were rendered in a very useful way. I did not encounter the same cold temperatures as on the Rino's trip to Colorado, so did not really stress the battery life or test if the Legend C had any cold weather quirks. One nice feature the Legend C has is that it runs from USB power when it is plugged in to a computer.

Compared to the 60C and Rino (which have quad-helix rather than patch antennas) reception did not seem quite as good. Uploaded tracks did seem to have more random, off-track points in them than I'd seen with the 60C and Rino, but performance was still more than adequate.

Overall, I was very pleased with the Legend C, and if someone were to ask me for a recommendation I would be hard pressed to choose between it and the 60C. The Legend C is a little smaller on paper, and "seems" a lot smaller due to its squarer shape with no antenna sticking out, and slips easily in and out of a pocket. The 60C has slightly better buttons for using with gloves, and seems to have slightly better reception. I imagine that the same could be said too between the Vista C and the 60CS for people who want the barometer/compass feature.

Montjoux

More Mac News: Google Earth

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 22:22:35 -0700

Garmin's announcement of Mac OS-X support for their software line-up was not the only good news this week for Mac users. Google also released Google Earth for OS-X.

Montjoux

Garmin announces Mac support

Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:51:58 -0700

Garmin have just announced Mac OS X support for their GPS upload/download software at the MacWorld show, and published a Press Release.

Initially it will just be their Training Center software for their running/training oriented models like the Forerunner, and the web uploader for the MotionBased service that they recently acquired. MapSource and nRoute support will follow, though they are only saying by "the end of 2006" for those.

Montjoux

Lake Tahoe Trip

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 13:23:19 -0700

I just got back from three days of skiing in the Lake Tahoe area. They had had a lot of storms the previous couple of weeks bringing a lot of fresh snow to the upper elevations but rain to the lake area, leaving thin coverage on the lower mountains. Still, excellent conditions overall, and two days of warm sunshine followed by one mixed day of sun and snow showers.

I uploaded three Snow Day reports, all with GPS tracks:
- Kirkwood
- Heavenly
- Squaw Valley

Montjoux

New maps released: Sun Valley and Mt Rose

Mon, 02 Jan 2006 16:14:47 -0700

Mountain Dynamics released two new SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps today.

Mt Rose, Nevada, has been added to the California set. Although it's just over the state line, it's one of Lake Tahoe's popular resorts and so has been added to the California set with the other Tahoe resorts, bringing its total up to 14. Registered California set owners can, of course, download the update free of charge.

Sun Valley, Idaho, is the first release from our upcoming Utah/Northern Rockies set, which will be available as a set later in January. Sun Valley is available as an individual download for $4.95 at this time, and once the set is released contact us and we'll give anyone who has bought it a 100% credit against the cost of the set.

Montjoux

Snow Depths Reaching Triple Digits

Mon, 02 Jan 2006 10:53:18 -0700

The recent storms that hit northern California bumped-up the snow depths considerably at some Tahoe mountains (Heavenly now boasts 82" for example) but other resorts are already reaching triple-digits. Alta has 101", Mt Bachelor 102-128", and Mt Hood Meadows has so much that it has apparently switched to reporting in feet, 8-10ft (96-120"). The Pacific Northwest resort owners must be breathing a sign of relief after last year's dismal snowfall.

Montjoux

SnowRanger now "MapSource-friendly"

Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:39:01 -0700

Several potential customers have asked whether our SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps can be used on their GPSes at the same time as Garmin MapSource maps such as MetroGuide or MapSource Topo.

As initially packaged, the SnowRanger maps and sets come with a loader that puts the maps directly onto a compatible GPS. This has the advantage of simplicity, and the user does not need to own a copy of MapSource, but since the maps replace any other maps that may have been previously put on the GPS, it was not exactly "MapSource-friendly". Rich Owings drew attention to this in his gps tracklog blog.

So we are pleased to announce that today we released new "Setup" packaging for SnowRanger that includes the original loader but also installs the resort maps into a user's copy of MapSource if they have one. Now you can mix and match SnowRanger, MetroGuide, Topo, and any other MapSource maps that you may have!

If you have bought SnowRanger from our website then you can go to My Page and download the new version. If you have bought SnowRanger on CD-ROM, then you can register your product and download updates through the end of the season at no extra charge.

Montjoux

Interland Outage Dec 23

Mon, 26 Dec 2005 13:47:33 -0700

This blog and the Mountain Dynamics website were down for much of Dec 23 due to an outage at our hosting provider Interland.

Hitherto I'd been impressed with Interland, especially with the responsiveness and capability of their support staff. This incident has left me uneasy with them as a reliable partner. Their hosting platform does not seem to have the sort of redundancy that one is entitled to expect these days. At The River, an ISP that I co-founded and helped run for 10 years, our chief network engineer Jared Reimer was able to build a world class server farm with no single points of failure, using probably 1/100th of the budget that Interland has to work with.

Montjoux

Tavo Playpoint Gloves

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 09:31:15 -0700

Tavo have introduced a glove with finger and thumb tips made from a conductive fabric that allow the wearer to operate iPod click wheels and other touch sensitive devices. Since normal gloves are electrically insulating they block the skin's electrical charge and conductivity from being detected by the input device. This should be a great liner glove for the iPod-wearing snow sports enthusiast, or standalone for a winter runner. $34.99 from J&R and others.

Montjoux

The lowly voice recorder

Tue, 20 Dec 2005 09:45:17 -0700

The digital voice recorder is about as unsexy a gadget as you can get these days, but I recently picked up an Olympus VN-960PC for note taking while skiing and surveying, and found it to be very useful and practical. I decided it would be more convenient to use a dedicated voice recorder rather than trying to use the recorder feature on my RAZR or picking up an MP3 player with a recorder, especially while wearing ski gloves and potentially in bad weather.

The VN-960PC is inexpensive, small, has a large screen, has 128MB of memory, and runs off a pair of AAAs. Loaded with some lithium AAAs it had no trouble dealing with temperatures in the mid-teens F at Arapahoe Basic or with getting snow on it at Breckenridge. The Record and Stop buttons are slightly small for glove use but I was able to get the hang of them. Since the recorder has a date/time clock I could make voice notes relating to my GPS track or any photos taken without having to specify where I was since I could easily tie it together back on the PC. When taking a waypoint I could just log it with its default numeric name on the GPS (basically a one-button-push operation) and make a voice note referencing the number and the context. At the middle ("SP") quality setting the recording quality was excellent, and even the notes I took on windy chairlifts were completely understandable.

Back at base, the recorder comes with a standard mini USB cable and some management software. The software shows the date/time each note was captured, again allowing easy cross referencing with GPS location and digital camera photo timestamps. The notes are stored on the PC as standard WAV files.

An excellent buy, recommended for anyone taking notes in the field.

Montjoux

Garmin Rino Disappointment

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 20:35:02 -0700

I've just got back from five days up in Colorado, skiing and meeting with partners and potential partners. My GPS tracks are uploaded as part of my Snow Day Reports for the trip. You'll be seeing a lot of new features added to the website over the next few weeks to display and analyze these tracks uploaded by the site's members.

This trip also gave three friends and I a chance to do an in-depth comparison of a couple of Garmin GPS units--the 60C and the Rino 520 (of which we had a pair).

The 60C, which has been my "every day" unit for the past year or so, continued to impress. The screen is large and bright and the unit is easy to handle with gloves on. I used it with rechargeable NiMh AA batteries which I found to work well down to around the mid-20s degrees F but which lost a lot of output when it was down in the mid-teens F (as it was at Arapahoe Basin yesterday). Lithiums would have been better on colder days like that, or the GPS could be kept closer to body temperature in an inside pocket. Of particular note was how easy the buttons on the 60C work with gloves on. They are small, but have enough spacing and have a positive tactile feel. The joystick works well because it is only "4-way", moving up/down/left/right but not having a push action. In this case "less is more" because you can press as hard as you want on the joystick while operating it.

The Rino 520s on the other hand were a disappointment. Since they combine a GPS unit with an FRS/GMRS walkie talkie radio that can send its position to other units in a group I was hoping for it to be the perfect ski GPS/radio.

Firstly, with their rechargeable Lithium ion battery packs attached they are quite large. Secondly, the "5-way" joystick, which crucially controls much of the user interface, was hard to use wearing gloves. Pressing this joystick is the "select" action, and you have to be careful not press too hard when you want to use its up/down/left/right movements. Thirdly, the buttons on the side have a soft rubbery movement with little tactile response. It's very hard to tell whether you've pushed the radio "talk" button when wearing gloves, and the smaller "next page" button is hard to push period. Fourthly, the audio quality was poor, worse than the $20 Motorola radios that we were also using. Finally we had trouble on both units with the screen shutting off periodically. It seemed to happen when it was cold and the "talk" button was pushed, and I'll be raising it as a possible defective hardware issue. The unit would continue to function, but the screen was blank. A power cycle restored the screen.

On the plus side, the jumbo battery pack has a convenient charging hookup, and performed well in low temps. Also the GPS position transmission feature worked very well, allowing one user to easily keep track of other users on the mountain. This last feature causes me a lot of frustration--it�s a VERY cool and useful feature, but unfortunately it's embedded in an otherwise hard to use (and overly bulky) package. Considering Garmin's track record of producing excellent hardware, and that it is a second generation Rino product I am puzzled.

Next trip, I'll be taking my trusty 60C and the $20 Motorola radio, although I would also like to put the 60C head-to-head with a Legend C. The Legend C may have the same 5-way joystick "problem" with gloves, but based on an older monochrome Legend that I used to have, I think it may be designed better than the Rino's.

Montjoux

Nano-cure for Goggle Fogging

Sun, 11 Dec 2005 22:35:58 -0700

Gizmag reports that a team of MIT scientists have come up with a solution for goggle fogging, amongst other problems caused by condensation on lenses and screens. Their silica nanoparticle polymer coating does not actually stop the condensation forming--instead it causes the water droplets that condensation consists of to cover the surface in a way that keeps it transparent, instead of fogging it.

No word on when we'll see it in ski goggles or athletic sunglasses.

Montjoux

SnowRanger California Released

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 09:18:56 -0700

I am excited to share that we got the California SnowRanger maps available online this morning. SnowRanger maps are detailed ski resort maps that may be downloaded to Garmin GPS units. We released our Colorado/New Mexico set last month and now have added 13 maps for the major California mountains:
Alpine Meadows
Bear Mountain
Bear Valley
Heavenly
Homewood
Kirkwood
Mammoth
Northstar at Tahoe
Sierra Summit
Sierra at Tahoe
Snow Summit
Squaw Valley USA
Sugar Bowl

Each map is available individually for $4.95, but the whole set of 13 maps is only $29.95 as an immediate download.

The California set will also be available on CD-ROM on Dec 15th. The Colorado/New Mexico CD-ROM is already available and may be ordered from Amazon.com.

Montjoux

Titanium Esbit stove

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 10:33:33 -0700

Nothing is as sure to start an argument amongst backpackers than whether titanium is the ultimate in lightweight cookware (since some prefer the heat transfer characteristics of alumimum or even stainless steel). And no one will argue the ultralight viewpoint as persuasively and accurately as Backpacking Light, which is both an ultralight e-zine and a specialized store.

Titanium though is universally liked in stoves such as the Snow Peak Giga Power. Now Backpacking Light has brought out a titanium stove (and matching windscreen) for Esbit solid fuel tablets. The stove weighs just 0.45 oz (13 g).

Now bring on the argument of Esbit verses alcohol verses canister stoves...

Montjoux

TransFlash == microSD

Sun, 27 Nov 2005 13:26:30 -0700

Garmin's recent (strongly rumored) use of TransFlash as a removable memory card format for new handheld GPS models set me looking for more information on TransFlash.

TransFlash is actually a trademarked product of SanDisk and is a miniaturized (~1/4 sized, 11 x 15 x 1 mm) SD card. Since it has the same interface characteristics as an SD card it can also be inserted into a SD card-sized carrier and used in any SD slot too. SanDisk have however been able to get this format ratified by the SD Card Association as a standard known as microSD and will be seen from other manufacturers. Somewhat confusingly there is also a slightly older format called miniSD (~1/2 the size of SD) that has had some adoption but may well get overtaken by microSD very quickly.

The format has been adopted by Motorola, Samsung, Kyocera and others for phones (usually for music or photo storage), and Garmin is already using it in its StreetPilot i2 and i3 auto models.

It's available with up to 512MB storage so far.

Montjoux

Garmin Sneak Peaks

Sat, 26 Nov 2005 09:20:07 -0700

Two new developments from Garmin. Firstly, Sportsim report a rumor that they will be introducing a new model in their wrist-mounted Forerunner line for runners, the 305. The 305 is expected to be smaller than existing Forerunners, and to integrate the watch with the strap to possibly allow part of the strap to be the antenna. Engadget speculate that they will be unveiling the 305 at the upcoming CES show.

Secondly, GPS Tracklog summarizes rumors of new variants of Garmin's popular 60C/CS, 76C/CS, Legend C, and Vista C. Each new model, reported to have an 'x' suffix, will use a SiRF chipset that is more sensitive than Garmin's existing chipset, and will feature a TransFlash expansion slot. TransFlash is somewhat rare and expensive now, but its very small size positions it well to be a popular format in the future, and kudos to Garmin for being an early adopter. Garmin have previously announced broad adoption of SiRF technology, and already have delivered it in units like the n�vi.

Montjoux

Coffee Talk

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 13:51:26 -0700

What good are gadgets in the outdoors if you don't have the jitters to properly enjoy them? A good cup of coffee is not too hard to make on a camping trip, although there's generally an inverse relationship between the quality of drink and the weight of the equipment needed. Although it does not seem like the season to be seeing much new camping gear, there have been a couple of new items seen this week.

Yesterday Gizmodo featured the Press-Bot. This is a folding French press that works with a standard 1l Nalgene bottle, and the folding feature is as much to do with getting it past the neck of the bottle as it is for storage and carrying convenience. $19.95, Nalgene not included, and no indication of its weight.

Meanwhile Gadling take a look at the BrewMug. This is a neat filter and insulated mug combination that nests for easy packing. $15.00, and again (argg!) no weight given.

Other recent caffeination products include the Jetboil French Press (and the Holiday Java Kit), Snowpeak Titanium French Press, and, of course, ThinkGeek's stock of Caffeine Candy.

Montjoux

Silva Radar Ski Speedometer

Fri, 18 Nov 2005 21:31:30 -0700

Silva have eschewed GPS in favor of good old fashioned radar for their new Radar Ski Speedometer. It�s a two part system, with a wrist watch display unit and radar pod that attaches to a boot and talks to the watch via RF.

The modus operandus of the system is not entirely clear, although it's obviously based on taking radar measurement against fixed objects around the wearer. The manual discusses having to calibrate the unit "to your individual style" if you are using it for cross country (as opposed to downhill) skiing, which suggests that its method involves some amount of fudge factor, but my guess is that this is necessary to compensate for the effect of one's body movements while doing those activities since the radar pod is on one's foot. For downhill skiing, where one keeps one's legs more or less steady as one moves, there is no calibration required.

The watch part can be converted to hang on a lanyard or carabiner. It also supports an optional heart rate monitor.

I see a lot of value to the cross country skier for this product since so many trails are in forests and don't receive steady GPS coverage, and the inclusion of the heart rate monitor ought to make this popular with racers and other athletes who treat XC as a serious winter workout. For the downhill skiers though I think a GPS unit brings a lot more to the table, with its positional (and elevation) record keeping, not just speed, and GPS coverage is generally very good on all but the narrowest of ski runs.

Kudos though to Silva for thinking outside the box. I wonder if this--using radar when seemingly everyone else is going to GPS--is one of the powerful "countertrends" that Weiner and Brown discuss in "FutureThink"?

Engadget reports that the price will be $259.

Montjoux

Less Tough Toughbooks

Fri, 18 Nov 2005 08:58:51 -0700

Panasonic has long been known for its ruggedized Toughbook laptops. These heavy duty (though not especially heavy) laptops feature magnesium cases, shock resistant hard drive mountings, and water and dust resistant seals, and are a favorite of law enforcement, outdoor technicians, surveyors, and the like.

Now they have introduced a "semi-rugged" line aimed more at the mobile professional who wants a notebook that can survive planes, trains, and automobiles but probably won't be heading to the Kuwait desert or the Amazon rainforest.

PC Magazine reviews the W4 while Gizmodo covers the W4 and T4.

Montjoux

Mountain Dynamics in the News

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 11:04:27 -0700

"Tooting our own horn" here a little, but the Arizona Daily Star ran a feature on Mountain Dynamics this morning.

The writer, David Wichner, had in the past covered Marcus Needham's previous start-up, an ISP called The River, which Needham helped build to a $5MM business before its sale in 2004, and was interested in what his next venture was all about.

Montjoux

Using one Bluetooth GPS receiver with two PDAs or laptops

Wed, 16 Nov 2005 08:48:38 -0700

This is a great tip on the sci.geo.satellite-nav newsgroup for anyone who cannot take to the road without a car-load of electronics.

It explains how to use a single Bluetooth GPS receiver with two (or presumably more) computers at the same time. Normally Bluetooth sets up one-one connections between pairs of devices--as befits its goal of being a "cable replacement" technology rather than a wireless network per se--but apparently one can use GpsGate running on one computer to retransmit the Bluetooth serial data stream to another computer or PDA. The first computer can also use the original data stream itself, and hence software running on both computers sees the data.

Montjoux

Rugged Sharp MP3 players

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 13:36:31 -0700

These new Sharp MP3 Players (I4U) aren�t the first to include a carabiner style clip (eg HighGear and its predecessors) but they are a rugged product by design rather than just a standard MP3 player with a clip and some butch looking gray plastic.

They feature a metal case and a "honeycomb structure", though it's not precisely clear whether that means the metal itself is honeycombed (for strength/weight ratio) or whether there is a honeycombed padding within it.

No word on US price or availability.

Montjoux

Helmet Audio

Sat, 12 Nov 2005 13:51:34 -0700

Helmets are becoming a more common sight on the slopes each year. I've not seen any recent stats but this December 2004 story reports the trend for 2001-02, and anecdotally they are seen more and more. Adding audio to these helmets is an obvious "feature". Skiing/boarding with an MP3 player is not to everyone's taste (loss of situational awareness, less social interaction on chairlift rides, etc.) but there are some neat solutions available.

Skullcandy's Link system allows both a cell phone and an MP3 player to be connected to the same head set, and works with all standard headphones, audio players, and cell phones with a normal 2.5mm jack. There is some doubt as to whether these work with an FRS radio instead of a cell phone.

Some reviews of the Link: The Travel Insider and Globe and Mail.

Giro are using Skullcandy's technology for their Tune-Ups kits for their Nine.9 helmets. Interestingly they do have a variant, the Tuneups II Two-Way, that is intended to be used with FRS radios. Put this together with a Garmin Rino and you've a great setup for music, communication and navigation.

I feel that Bluetooth is way of the future for this sort of device, especially once it becomes more common on MP3 players. My RAZR doesn't even have the 2.5mm jack. The iMuff will handle Bluetooth on the phone side, but only works with a few iPod models on the MP3 player side.

For the non-helmet wearer (or if one can fit a hat under one's helmet) there are several beanies available with built-in earbuds, such as Burton's, and of course almost any earbud is small enough to wear under a hat or helmet.

Montjoux

Apparel

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 13:54:14 -0700

I have added a new Apparel section to the Don�t Get Lost Blog. It'd be hard to claim that apparel is a "gadget" per se, but modern outdoors fabrics and designs incorporate amazing amounts of technology and for that reason I'll be covering developments in outdoors clothing and "soft goods" here.

Montjoux

Kodak WiFi Camera (EasyShare One)

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 10:11:56 -0700

CNET reviews the new Kodak EasyShare One which is the one of the first cameras to come with a built in wireless option, in this case WiFi. Putting WiFi or Bluetooth in a camera seems like a no-brainer to me given the usefulness of wireless picture sharing and file transfer, and how little the necessary chips now cost, and I am sure that we are going to see this become a standard feature on mid to- high-range digicams over the next 1-2 years. Being able to send pictures via Bluetooth from a camera phone is already a common feature.

Once they've got the file sharing feature in place it's only really a matter a firmware to be able to leverage other devices, like using a Bluetooth GPS receiver to geocode pictures or Bluetooth headsets for a combo MP3/camera.

Unfortunately CNET did not think much of the EasyShare One, poor image quality and a slow UI leading to a 5.6/10 rating.

Montjoux

Novel Tunnel/Conveyor for Snowbird

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 10:35:04 -0700

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Snowbird will be opening an innovative tunnel to link Peruvian Gulch and Mineral Basin for the 06-07 season. The tunnel was chosen over a conventional lift to comply with environment concerns about adding structures to the ridgeline of Gorilla Ridge, and is sure to be a talking point. It will be 595' long, run at a 7% grade, and have a "magic carpet" style conveyor belt like those used in ski school areas (and over the bridges at Beaver Creek Village).

Montjoux

Amazon GPS Top Sellers

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 09:26:35 -0700

Amazon's recent GPS & Navigation Top Sellers shows an enormous preference for Garmin verses Magellan amongst Amazon buyers. In an August 2005 Engadget interview Christian Bubenheim, general manager of Magellan Consumer Products, claimed a 53% market share for in-vehicle navigation but acknowledged only a 25-35% share in outdoor activity models, so it seems surprising that you have to scroll-down to 10th place to find a Magellan (the Roadmate 760 in-vehicle model). The top three sellers are (all Garmin): StreetPilot 2720, eTrex Legend, and Forerunner 301.

The Forerunner series are apparently a great success for Garmin, and show the rapid emergence of the "athletics/training" segment of the market.

Montjoux

WiFi Hotspots near Ski Resorts

Sat, 05 Nov 2005 08:47:57 -0700

We go to ski resorts to ski or snowboard, but at the end of the day it's nice to relax with a beer and check one's email or get the next day's weather forecast. Several ski resorts have added WiFi to their service over the past few years, and I thought I'd try to piece together a directory of them. Here's what I know so far, and please send me any more that you have observed.

Generally speaking these are free hotspots. Your list of options, at least in towns near to ski areas, gets a lot larger if you have a T-Mobile or SBC FreedomLink account since you can get access at most Starbucks, UPS Stores, MacDonald's, etc. You should also find that your cellphone's data service is available in most ski areas that have cellular coverage. I was able to use my Cingular phone's GPRS capability in Aspen, Durango, Crested Butte, and Telluride, for example.

- Northstar, CA
- Squaw Valley USA, CA (according to Exwire press release)
- Loveland, CO
- Brighton, UT
- Grand Targhee, WY

The Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory lists numerous options in ski towns in:
- California: Mammoth Lakes, South Lake Tahoe, Tahoe City, Truckee
- Colorado: Aspen, Breckenridge, Frisco, Dillon, Steamboat Springs, Telluride, Vail
- Utah: Park City, Sandy,
Plus other great towns such as Bozeman, Taos, Hood River, and Jackson.

Montjoux

Copper Mountain opened today

Fri, 04 Nov 2005 09:24:37 -0700

Copper Mountain opened on schedule today. The American Eagle lift is serving just two trails though (Main Vein and Rhapsody) so your $41 lift ticket does not get you an awful lot. But that $41 rate is good through Dec 16th by which time it's sure to represent a good deal. For gadget fans Copper Mountain features the SlopeTracker GPS tracking system as well as a SnowRanger GPS map.

With Arapahoe Basin and Loveland already open, the other major Colorado resort opening days are:

Nov 11th: Breckenridge and Keystone
Nov 16th: Winter Park
Nov 18th: Vail
Nov 19th: Crested Butte
Nov 23rd: Beaver Creek, Steamboat, and Telluride
Nov 24th: Aspen Mountain, Durango, and Snowmass
Dec 10th: Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk

Wolf Creek had been aiming for today but is waiting for more snow.

Montjoux

Ski and Skiing magazines' annual gear guides

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 16:14:41 -0700

Ski and Skiing magazines recently posted their annual guides to this season's gear on their websites.

Ski's features testers' profiles and photos and channels you into their Gear Finder 2006 to get any hard data.

Skiing's has handy PDFs of its favorites but otherwise leads you into a similar Gear Guide.

Montjoux

Smooth-scrolling Yahoo! Maps Beta

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 09:53:02 -0700

Yahoo! has launched a Beta of a new version of its Yahoo! Maps with the smoothly "drag-able" map viewer that Google pioneered. The new UI looks nice, and they have a detailed API for third parties to overlay their own information onto the maps, including using AJAX or Flash. Expect to see a rash of mash-ups for this new platform as developers explore it and compare it with Google's existing offerings.

Montjoux

Swiss Army MP3 player

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 16:05:27 -0700

Not satisfed with the awl, hex wrench or saw blade of your trusty "SAK"? How about an MP3 player? Gizmodo reports on the Swissbit s.beat MP3 SAK, with 1, 2, or 4GB and the usual array of blades. No word on whether it includes those nifty, but soon lost, tweezers.

An MP3 seems to me to fit with certain devices better than others, but I'd put the knife way down on the list. We're seeing some bold combo products--Oakley Thump and Motorola ROKR come to mind--yet no clear favorites amongst consumers.

G-Force zip line ski jump for Snowmass

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 08:54:45 -0700

The Snowmass Village Sun reports that Pittsburgh entrepreneur Ron Lehotsky of LeHotski Company is installing a ski jump zip line at Snowmass. A skier or snowboarder pays $20 to ride 1,150' down the zip line, attached to a harness, taking in jumps along the way. The zip line can be used by mountain bikers during the summer. Only time will tell whether this is a fun way to blow $20 or just another fad.

Montjoux

Garmin Nuvi Review

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 08:33:18 -0700

PC Mag got their hands on a Nuvi 350 and gave it a very favorable 4.5/5. Supporting real time traffic data, the latest SiRFstar III chip set, an MP3 player (with SD card and audible.com support), and a phrase book feature, the Nuvi doesn�t easily fit into any existing product category. It's not a particularly rugged unit, perhaps comparable to a typical PDA, and appears to support only a small number of MapSource maps (the City Select series).

It's a hefty $899, but expect to see it in a lot of "gift guides" in the glossy magazines this Christmas.

Montjoux

No Garmin Rino 520/530 reviews yet?

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 19:16:28 -0700

Has anyone seen any reviews of the new Garmin Rino 520 or 530 yet? Cnet's review of the Rino 120 was very positive (7.6/10) but is now over 2 years old. If anyone has seen a review of the new models, please let me know.

Montjoux

Colorado storm brings up to 19" of new snow

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 19:15:50 -0700

Most of Colorado got a fresh layer of snow yesterday (Oct 31). The Summit Daily News reports from 4" in Summit County to as much as 19" in Telluride.

Not long until the season begins in earnest!

Montjoux

Welcome to Don't Get Lost

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 14:08:32 -0700

Thank you for visiting this new blog. "Don't Get Lost" is devoted to bringing together my two passions--the outdoors and small electronics--into what I hope will be a useful and informative source of news and information on GPS receivers, MP3 players, PDAs, cell phones, FRS/GMRS and NOAA radios, digital altimeter watches, and a host of other outdoors-oriented gadgets and technology.