SnowRanger Newsletters

February 2009 Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:54:51 -0700

It's the heart of the ski season, and I am looking at a thick swarm of snowflakes falling past my window in Summit County, Colorado. We're up in the mountains this month testing prototypes of some concepts we're working on for SnowRanger� ski and SledGPS� snowmobile maps for 2009/10, gathering screenshots for a complete overhaul of our documentation, meeting with resorts and other partners, and testing SnowRanger on GPS cell phones.

• 20%-off February Sale

If you've not tried SnowRanger ski resort maps on your Garmin GPS yet, now is the time! Get our most popular sets for 20% off until the end of February:

• SnowRanger North America (75 resorts) - $59.95
• SnowRanger Austria/Germany (142 resorts) - $88.99
• SnowRanger France (108 resorts) - $88.99
• SnowRanger Italy (131 resorts) - $88.99
• SnowRanger Switzerland (97 resorts) - $88.99
• SnowRanger Europe (462 resorts!) - $199.99

These SnowRanger for Europe sets include free worldwide FedEx International Priority shipping. Just enter offer code JS45287 during checkout to get your discount!

• Snow Days Upgrades

Our free Snow Days GPS ski tracks and stats service continues to get lots of traffic (over 70 new tracks were uploaded last weekend alone!). We've added two small but important enhancements to Snow Days:
• 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.

• Garmin Partnership

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 SnowRanger and SledGPS which will include a full licensed copy of Garmin's MapSource. As well as fully integrating with any other Garmin MapSource maps that they may have, this will let skiing or snowmobiling enthusiasts plan their adventures more easily on their computers ahead of time, and manage their GPS track logs afterwards.

• SnowRanger on your GPS Phone

SnowRanger 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 n�vi 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.

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader
sales@mountaindynamics.com

January Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:20:31 -0700

This is our first newsletter with a truly international audience. Record snowfalls in most parts of Europe and North America have blessed us with one of the best winter sports seasons ever. And that snow has got you out skiing and snowboarding regardless of the state of the economy!

• 10% off January Sale

If you�ve not tried SnowRanger� ski resort maps on your Garmin GPS yet, now is the time! Get our most popular sets for 10% off until the end of January:

• SnowRanger North America (75 resorts) - $67.45
• SnowRanger Austria/Germany (142 resorts) - $98.99
• SnowRanger France (108 resorts) - $98.99
• SnowRanger Italy (131 resorts) - $98.99
• SnowRanger Switzerland (97 resorts) - $98.99
• SnowRanger Europe (462 resorts!) - $224.99

These SnowRanger for Europe sets include free worldwide FedEx International Priority shipping. Just enter offer code JS45287 during checkout to get your discount!

• Snow Days and Facebook

Our new-and-improved Snow Days GPS ski tracks and stats service has been very popular, with 30-40 new tracks uploaded a day, from all across the world! Snow Days lets you upload the �breadcrumbs� tracks from your Garmin or Magellan GPS (actually any GPS that you can upload standard �GPX� files from) and view the tracks on a SnowRanger map, with speed and elevation profiles and detailed statistics.

This lets you keep a detailed log of your skiing/riding through the season, and even share it with your friends using our Facebook option. Best of all it�s free, and it also works whether there�s a SnowRanger map of the area you�re skiing or not!

Snow Days also works with fitness GPSes like the popular Garmin Forerunner 305 and 405 watches. Although these smaller units cannot display our SnowRanger GPS ski resort trail maps they are very good for recording tracks and for recording vertical feet skied.

If you�d prefer a desktop application rather than an online tool you can also analyze your Garmin ski data using the SkiTrak application.

• SledGPS�

If you also like to get out on your snowmobile during the winter months, check out our brand new SledGPS series of US snowmobile trail maps for Garmin GPS. We have licensed detailed and comprehensive trail data (over 100,000 miles) from US TrailMaps Inc. covering 27 states, and launched SledGPS as six sets at the end of December: Great Lakes, Mountain West, North East, Pacific West, Upper Midwest, and a complete National set.

SledGPS also include streets, rivers, lakes, gas stations, lodging, restaurants, and other snowmobile related details. The maps are available on memory card and work on almost all Garmin GPSes models with an SD or microSD card slot, including the popular nuvi, the rugged eTrex and Oregon, and the motorcycle/snowmobile optimized zumo.

• Mountain Dynamics in the News

Mountain Dynamics and SnowRanger have received ongoing media interest. In particular, a feature on UK TV�s The Gadget Show kicked the season off on a high note in December.

Links and more details in our Media Center:

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader
sales@mountaindynamics.com

February Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 13:59:03 -0700

Record snowfalls in most parts of the country have blessed us with one of the best winter sports seasons ever. Resorts have been pushing back their projected closing dates later into April and May as the snow keeps coming. January also brought us record sales of our SnowRanger GPS ski resort trail maps-it seems like everyone found a Garmin or Magellan GPS in their holiday gift stash!

*** Extend your coverage to all of North America

If you love your regional SnowRanger set but wished you�d bought the whole country because of an upcoming trip to a new area, don�t worry! We�re offering a $29.95 discount on the full North America set for customers who�ve previously bought one of the regional sets. Just log-in to our website using the username that you bought your set under, and enter the Offer Code ALLNA425 during the checkout process.

Offer applies to Magellan SD card media and all Garmin media types, and is good through 4/30/08.

*** Garmin Uplink

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 here.

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 were featured in the February 2008 edition of Ski Magazine.

*** SnowRanger Europe Available for Download from Magellan

Our SnowRanger Europe maps, produced in conjunction with Navionics S.p.A. and Magellan Inc., may now be purchased for download from Magellan�s website.

These extensive and detailed maps are packaged into ten �resort complex� sets, four national sets, and one, super-sized, Europe set, and have also been available on SD memory card for Magellan GPSes, since January.

SnowRanger Europe is compatible with Magellan�s popular eXplorist, CrossoverGPS, and brand new Triton series.

*** Magellan Triton On-Mountain

We had a chance to take a brand new Magellan Triton 400 out at Mt Bachelor, Oregon last 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 helped.

*** Mountain Dynamics in the News

Mountain Dynamics and SnowRanger have received a lot of positive media interest this season. A TV feature on Denver�s 9News kicked the season off on a high note in December, and we�ve been recently featured in the New York Times, Men�s Journal, Popular Science, and About.com. We�ve also been discussed in a variety of leading blogs such as Engadget and GpsPasSion.

Links and more details in our Media Center.

As the winter storms bring more snow, and spring corn is just around the corner, don't get lost!

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader
sales@mountaindynamics.com

January Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:21:22 -0700

After looking a little patchy at Thanksgiving, snow country from Alaska to Maine is now covered with a thick blanket of the white stuff, and sales of our SnowRanger GPS ski resort trail maps have been fantastic, as has been customer feedback.

*** SnowRanger Europe

Our SnowRanger Europe maps, produced in conjunction with Navionics S.p.A. and Magellan Inc., are ready! A massive collection of data, with over 420 resorts across 5 countries, these are packaged into ten 'resort complex' sets (Paradiski, Espace Killy, Trois Vallees, Portes du Soleil, 4 Vallees, Via Lattea, Zermatt/Cervinia, Klosters-Davos, Evasion Mt Blanc, and Ki-West), 4 national sets (France, Italy, Austria/Germany, and Switzerland), and one, super-sized, Europe set. These are available on SD card from Mountain Dynamics now, and as a download from Magellan by late January.
More...

We've added shipping options for 50 countries so that we can get the SD cards out to our eager buyers. SnowRanger Europe is compatible with Magellan's popular eXplorist, CrossoverGPS, and brand new Triton series.

*** Consumer Electronics Show (CES)

We made our annual pilgrimage to the giant CES show in Las Vegas last week. This is a chance for face-to-face meetings with partners such as Navionics and über-bloggers such as Rich Owings at gpstracklog.com, and to see the new hardware from the major GPS vendors.

Magellan were showing off the features of the Triton series of outdoors handhelds, which not only can load SnowRanger maps but have the ability to take actual enhanced US topographic maps from National Geographic's Topo! series.

Garmin were highlighting their upcoming Colorado series, which are intended to replace both the eTrex and GPSMap series and include some innovative 3D topographic views.

There were also more models announced in their hot nüvi series of personal navigators. We've been using our nüvis more and more on-mountain with SnowRanger, enjoying the big touch-screens, MP3 players, and Bluetooth speakerphones.
More...

*** FUNfinder GPS

Mountain Dynamics' partner FUNfinder Inc. has gone live with its GPS rental service at Vail and Beaver Creek, CO, with Keystone and Breckenridge to follow in the coming weeks. FUNfinder have combined SnowRanger map data with a custom GPS that not only shows the actual official resort trail map on the screen (and your live position on it of course!) but also does turn-by-turn routing based on your skill level. So you can, for example, say that you're a blue level skier/rider, and ask for directions from Blue Sky Basin, Vail, to Lionshead, and get on-screen and audio directions across the entire mountain!

FUNfinder GPSes are available for rent at a wide variety of ski shops in each resort's village and base areas, and also include detailed off-mountain points-of-interest and complete roads maps of the region.
More...

Enjoy the winter, and don't get lost!

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader
sales@mountaindynamics.com

December Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:50:42 -0700

Happy Holidays from Mountain Dynamics, and welcome to the 2007/08 season! We've had a busy summer upgrading and adding maps, and working on a variety of initiatives.

*** New Northeast and North America Sets

We started the season with both a new "Northeast" US set, and a new "North America" set that includes all 64 (and counting) US and Canadian resorts. The Northeast set, which is $29.95 like our other regional sets and has already seen great sales due to the early snowfall in New England, includes:
- Bretton Woods, NH
- Killington, VT
- Loon Mountain�, NH
- Mad River Glen, VT
- Okemo, VT
- Smugglers' Notch, VT
- Stowe, VT
- Stratton, VT
- Sugarloaf/USA, ME
- Sunday River, ME
- Whiteface, NY

The North America set costs $74.95, and is a tremendous value at just half the price of all the regional sets combined. As with all our sets, buyers of the Garmin Download version get free upgrades through the end of the season, including additional resorts.
More...

*** Web Store Update

We've overhauled our website to make it easier to shop amongst the different versions of SnowRanger. The underlying maps do not differ, but they are now readily available from the website in the following formats:
- Garmin Download - the classic and still by far the most popular!
- Garmin microSD card - for outdoors GPSes with an "x" in the model name, such as the Vista CSx
- Garmin SD card - for n�vi personal navigators (see below)
- Garmin CD-ROM - provides the same package as the download, so generally the download makes more sense, but these do make great gifts for the skier/rider who "has everything"
- Magellan Download - this option will take you straight to the product page at Magellan's website to do the purchase and download
- Magellan SD card - a new choice, our Magellan sets are now available on SD card directly from us.
More...

We've also updated our selection of recommended GPSes for sale. At first glance these might not seem quite as discounted as you can see these models for online, but all of them include your choice of a free SnowRanger map set, and selected models throw in the whole North America set for free! Together the bundled pricing is as good as you can find anywhere on the Internet.
More...

*** Europe

Our SnowRanger Europe maps have been slightly delayed but are almost ready for release, and they are worth waiting for! A massive collection of data, with over 450 resorts across 5 countries, these will be packaged into ten "resort complex" sets (Paradiski, Espace Killy, Trois Vallees, Portes du Soleil, 4 Vallees, Via Lattea, Zermatt/Cervinia, Klosters-Davos, Evasion Mt Blanc, and Ki-West), 4 national sets (France, Italy, Austria/Germany, and Switzerland), and one, super-sized, Europe set. Produced in partnership with Magellan, expect these to be available in a few weeks on SD and for download, for their popular eXplorist, CrossoverGPS, and brand new Triton series.

*** Garmin n�vi

We are getting a fair number of questions asking whether SnowRanger works on the hit Garmin series of n�vi "personal navigation devices" (PNDs). We can report an enthusiastic "yes!" and have prepared a tech note on n�vis and SnowRanger.

We'll be using a n�vi 370 ourselves at Breckenridge next week, taking advantage of that gorgeous screen, audio driving directions, MP3 playback, and Bluetooth speakerphone.

There's a lot snowing coming this weekend in many parts of the country, so get out there and enjoy the season!

Montjoux, Mountain Dynamics Team Leader
sales@mountaindynamics.com

March Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 08:07:59 -0700

It's been a very warm March in most of the West, but fresh snow has fallen in Park City, Whistler, and Telluride, and is in the forecast for Vail and many other areas today. There might only be a month or so of skiing left this year, but with the special offers below you can be sure to get the most out of your SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps all NEXT season too.

*** 20% off SnowRanger for Garmin� and Free 2007/08 Upgrade

SnowRanger for Garmin GPS ski resort map downloads are now 20%-off through the end of the season. That's $6.00 off the normal $29.95 price for a Colorado/New Mexico, California/Nevada, Utah/Wyoming, or Northwest/Montana regional set, when downloaded from our website.

Just click 'Buy Map Set Now...' by the set you'd like to buy, and enter the Offer Code ES98428 during the checkout.

Buyers of these sets will also get free upgrades to the 2007/08 versions of them in November when the updates are posted, including any further updates during the season. Each year we make sure the maps contain the latest changes to each resort, and upgrades are normally $9.95 per set each season.

SnowRanger for Magellan� continues to be available from the Magellan MapSend� website, and upgrade policies have not been determined as yet.

*** Big Screen GPSes: the Magellan CrossoverGPS and the Garmin n�vi

Garmin and Magellan are introducing more and more "personal navigation devices" (PNDs) such as the n�vi and the CrossoverGPS. These PNDs feature large color screens and preloaded street maps with extensive "points of interest," and work well in or out of the car. Both series also work great with SnowRanger, and when the snow is gone they make great travel companions throughout the year.

The n�vis are available in a variety of sizes and models, but all feature a large bright color touch-sensitive screen and an SD card slot into which you can slide a SnowRanger map set. The n�vis are not waterproof or rated for use in low temperatures, so you'll want to keep yours in an inside pocket when you're skiing or snowboarding.

The CrossoverGPS is a little bulkier than the n�vis, but is waterproof and much more tolerant of the cold. A SnowRanger user recently spent a week skiing at Big Sky with a CrossoverGPS and liked the big bright screen, and found the 8 hour rated battery life to be realistic. The "Sport Guard" that it comes with-basically a rubber band around the edge of the unit-did not add much protection, but the unit was fairly rugged.

*** Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Updates

We've added one new FAQ this month: When I upload tracks from my Garmin to your website I do not see speed or time information.

February Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 16:43:14 -0700

Fresh snow has been falling in Tahoe, Colorado, Whistler, and many other areas. With two months-plus of fun left at most resorts, it�s not too late to pick up a copy of our SnowRanger ski resort maps for Garmin� and Magellan� GPSes and get the most out of each day�s lift ticket.

*** SnowRanger for Magellan

As we reported last month, SnowRanger maps are now available for Magellan eXplorist GPSes. After a couple of delays, one being for us to upgrade our website to allow the native Magellan LOG track file format to be uploaded, Magellan formally announced the product with a press release last week.

Magellan LOG track files may be uploaded at the end of each day to track your skiing/snowboarding here.

A very exciting development is that the maps also work on Magellan�s new CrossoverGPS series. The CrossoverGPS 2500T is a large screen GPS that comes preloaded with both street and topographic maps, and is also waterproof and rated for operation down to 15F (-10C). Load it up with SnowRanger maps, some tunes for its built-in MP3 music player, and take it skiing/snowboarding, then put it back in the car and let it guide you to your hotel with spoken turn-by-turn directions and even an optional real time traffic update receiver!

As we mentioned last month SnowRanger maps are also now compatible with the similar Garmin n�vi� series of multi-function �personal navigation devices.�

*** Skiocaching

The second in our series of Skiocaching� events took place at Kirkwood on Jan 20th, and was well attended, and with a lot of people stopping by our table at Expedition Kirkwood to ask about the SnowRanger maps. Skiocaching is an on-mountain GPS treasure hunt that adds an extra challenge and fun to your day.

The third and final event of the season is coming up in two weeks at Kirkwood on March 3rd. We�ll also be presenting a GPS information class the evening before as part of Kirkwood�s Backcountry Festival that weekend.

Bring your GPS, have some fun, and try to win an eXplorist 500LE from Magellan preloaded with SnowRanger maps! Kirkwood also has GPS rentals available from the Expedition Kirkwood office in the village.

*** Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Updates

We�ve added a couple of new �frequently asked questions� to our FAQ page in Customer Support. The first one relates to using SnowRanger maps on a GPS when you have loaded both SnowRanger and Garmin MapSource� street maps on it. The other relates to an occasional error when downloading maps to Garmin models with a serial (RS-232) PC connection instead of the newer USB connection.

*** Get paid to spread the word about SnowRanger

As a small company, word-of-mouth is key part of our advertising strategy, and in recognition of that we have a referral program to reward our customers. When someone buys a $29.95 SnowRanger for Garmin map set from www.mountaindynamics.com and enters your username as the referrer, we�ll credit $5.00 to your account for use in a future purchase from the site! So each time you recommend SnowRanger to a friend you�ll be getting $5.00 off your next purchase of a set. And you can get as many referral credits as you want�refer six buyers and you�ll have enough credit to get a whole set for free! Just tell them to enter your username where it says �Referred By� when they are paying for the map.

Enjoy that fresh snow!

January Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 14:32:04 -0700

After the excitement (and lift lines) of the Holidays, the season has settled into its core months, with good snow across most parts of the western US covered by the four sets of our SnowRanger GPS trail maps (California/Nevada, Colorado/New Mexico, Northwest/Montana, and Utah/Wyoming).

* SnowRanger for Magellan Now Available!

Magellan has launched the certified version of SnowRanger for their eXplorist GPSes, and it's available from their MapSend website now, at the same $29.95 download price as the Garmin version:
California/NV
Colorado/NM
NW/Montana
Utah/Wyoming

Magellan provides support regarding the purchase, download, and installation of the maps, while we support anything regarding the content or use of the maps. The Garmin version continues to be available directly from our website or from our retailers.

* Lower priced Garmin Bundles

Garmin lowered some of their pricing on January 1st, so we've been able to drop the price on a couple of our GPS/SnowRanger bundles. They now start at just $149.99 for a Garmin Legend with your choice of SnowRanger map set.

* Mountain Dynamics Events

The first Skiocaching� event took place at Northstar-at-Tahoe on Jan 5th, and although attendance was a little light, those who did take part enjoyed it and we expect the next event, at Kirkwood on Jan 20th to be well attended. Bring your GPS, have some fun, and try to win an eXplorist 500LE from Magellan preloaded with SnowRanger maps!

Our Garmin distributor partner PMC will have the Garmin/SnowRanger tent at Aspen's Gondola Square during the Winter X-Games (Jan 25-28), and at Snowmass Village Mall for Presidents' Day weekend (Feb 17-19). They'll be demoing standard GPSes, communication GPSes like the Rino 530 on which you can see where the rest of your group are on the mountain, and the hot new Garmin n�vi personal navigators.

* SnowRanger for Garmin now Available on Memory Cards

Got a Garmin n�vi or an Apple Mac? In most cases the download version of SnowRanger for Garmin is all that you'll need. Some customers would like to get it on a microSD memory card because of the convenience of just popping the card into their GPS, or because they have a Mac. The memory card is compatible with all Garmin 'x' models that have a microSD slot, such as the Vista Cx, and with Garmin n�vis. It is available for just $10 after you have bought the standard download, which covers the cost of media and shipping.
More...

* Waymarking

You've probably heard of geocaching, the worldwide GPS activity where people hide caches and post the coordinates (latitude/longitude) on www.geocaching.com for other people to find? Groundspeak, the company that runs geocaching.com, has developed a variant called 'waymarking,' where participants post the coordinates of landmarks and other features for other players to find (and log visits to) without having to setup and manage a physical cache at the location. We see this as being an excellent activity for skier and snowboarders to do, because in the cold of winter and with variable amounts of snow depth, finding and opening a hidden coffee can or ammunition box would often be difficult.

Working with Groundspeak we have added a category on www.waymarking.com called 'Ski Lodges' where you can create waymarks for your favorite lodges (both base area and on-mountain) to let other people 'collect' those waymarks by logging a visit to them.

Whether you're snowboarding, skiing, or waymarking, and with a Magellan or a Garmin GPS, have a great January!

December Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 14:56:14 -0700

Snow is falling all around, and we've hit the ground running this season, with very strong sales of all four Garmin sets of our SnowRanger GPS trail maps (California/Nevada, Colorado/New Mexico, Northwest/Montana, and Utah/Wyoming).

SnowRanger CD-ROMs make a great gift, and if you order before noon PST tomorrow (Dec 19th) we'll have them to you, or your gift recipient, by Dec 23rd.

* Magellan and Garmin

We're still not quite there with the Magellan-certified version of SnowRanger for their eXplorist GPSes, but it will be released on the Magellan MapSend website any day now. Magellan is moving to promote their GPSes and the SnowRanger maps in the snow sports arena, sponsoring our Skiocaching� events and also taking part with us in a season-long promotion that Kirkwood Mountain Resort and Subaru are running with Sacramento's KCRA-TV Channel 3.

On the Garmin side of the house, we're now an official Garmin partner, and are offering four special bundles: get a Garmin Legend, Legend Cx, Rino 120, or Rino 530 GPS with a SnowRanger map set and save up to $65!
We've chosen these models because we think they are the best blends of features and price for the skier or snowboarder in Garmin's model line-up. The Rinos, with their built-in walkie-talkie and position- sending features are particularly well suited to the task.

* Mountain Dynamics Events

This coming week we'll be in the Snowmass Village Mall on Dec 22-23 with Garmin distributor PMC, so stop by the Garmin/Mountain Dynamics tent for a hot drink while you check out the latest Garmin GPS hardware. The tent will also be in Aspen's Gondola Square on Dec 28-29 and for the Winter X-Games (Jan 25-28), and back at Snowmass Village Mall for Presidents' Day weekend (Feb 17-19).

The first Skiocaching event is at Northstar-at-Tahoe on Jan 5th, followed by Kirkwood on Jan 20th and again on Mar 3rd. Bring your GPS, have some fun, and try to win an eXplorist 500LE from Magellan preloaded with SnowRanger maps!

* Technical Corner: Garmin nuvi, Apple Mac, and memory cards

Our SnowRanger software installs so smoothly that we rarely get technical support emails or calls, but the ones we do get are nearly always related to whether we support the hot new Garmin nuvi series of personal navigators, or whether we work with Apple Macs.

We're verifying exactly how the maps can best be installed on the nuvis, and how they appear, but they should work well. Right now, you can install SnowRanger maps directly to a nuvi across its USB cable if you have a copy of Garmin's MapSource software.

We are about to also make SnowRanger maps available on microSD memory cards. These will slide directly into the memory card slots on the Garmin 'X' series models (e.g. the Legend Cx or the 60CSx), and with an included adapter will also slide into the larger SD memory card slots on the nuvis. With these cards there is no need for downloads, CD-ROMs, or USB cables-just pop the memory card into the GPS!

These memory cards will also be a good choice for Apple Mac owners.
Neither Garmin's MapSource or our own installer software work on a Mac, but with the microSD cards that's not an issue.

* Coming Up

Working on creating the Garmin GPS bundles and memory cards set us back a little on the project to improve the Snow Days web pages (which show your GPS track overlaid on our trail maps with vertical feet and speed statistics and graphs) so look for that in early January.

Happy Holidays from Mountain Dynamics!

November Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 21:05:01 -0700

Thanksgiving may be the traditional start of the US ski season, but
excellent snowfalls have allowed resorts in many parts of the country to
open early, and nearly all the rest will have very good conditions come
the holiday weekend. We've seen excellent pre-season sales of our
SnowRanger GPS trail maps and are looking forward to an exciting and
successful season. We'll be kicking-off with 54 resorts in 4 regional
sets.

* SportsDo

We've been working over the past few months on our first licensing deal
for our trail map data, and we're excited to see the fruits of this now
on the market: SportsDo's Ski Resort Location Packs for GPS-enabled cell
phones. 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.

The Location Packs are available now from SportsDo for �3 (currently
approximately $5.70 US), and their website has complete support and
compatibility information:
SportsDo Ski Resort Location Packs

* CD-ROMs

If you would rather buy SnowRanger map sets on CD-ROM rather than as a
download--for example as a gift item--the 2006/07 CDs are ready, and may
be purchased from Amazon.com or one of our 'bricks and mortar' retailers.

* Skiocaching� and other Mountain Dynamics Events

Skiocaching is the name we have trademarked for a GPS-based treasure hunt
held at a ski resort. Now you can ski/snowboard while also testing your
wits and navigation skills! We are working on the calendar for the
2006/07 season, together with finalizing our partners, sponsors, and
prize list, but we have three events with firm dates:
- Northstar at Tahoe�, Friday January 5th
- Kirkwood, Saturday January 20th
- Kirkwood, Saturday March 3rd

We also will be joining up with Garmin distributor PMC for GPS
promotion and information events in Aspen's Gondola Square on Dec 22-23
and during the Winter X Games Jan 25-28.

* Website Upgrades

The resort map examples on our website are now fully interactive. You
can click on each chairlift or trail to get its name, type, and even its
average grade and elevation profile!
For example: Northstar

We are still working on improvements to our Snow Days Tracks web pages,
which show your GPS track overlaid on our trail maps, with vertical feet
and speed statistics and graphs.

* Resort Partners

Going into the 2006/07 season, SnowRanger GPS trail maps are featured as
a download format on the 'trail maps' web pages of the following resorts:
- Alta Ski Area
- Bear Valley Mountain Resort
- Big Sky Resort
- Crystal Mountain
- Jackson Hole Mountain Resort
- Kirkwood Mountain Resort
- Loon Mountain�
- Northstar at Tahoe�
- Sierra at Tahoe�
- Snowbasin Resort
- The Summit at Snoqualmie
- Taos Ski Valley

We are also working with ski lift ticket discounter Liftopia to interlink
our product offerings, and with GroundSpeak, home of geocaching.com, on
some ski-specific activities.

* Coming Up

In the next newsletter we'll have:
- Sales information on the Magellan version of SnowRanger, which has been
certified by Magellan and will be available from their MapSend website
within a few weeks now,
- Details on the Liftopia and GroundSpeak projects,
- And more...

Happy Thanksgiving!

October SnowRanger Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 08:35:41 -0700

It�s getting to that time of year when the race between Loveland and Arapahoe Basin to be the first North American resort to open for the season reaches a crescendo. Both Colorado resorts� snowmaking was slowed by warmer weather last week, but have snow in the forecast for the next few days.

* New Maps

We�re working hard getting ready for the start of the season ourselves. As promised last month we�ve added Whistler Blackcomb, Summit-at-Snoqualmie, Mt Baker, and Alyeska to our Northwest/Montana GPS ski resort trail map set, and [link "Grand Targhee" ""] to Utah/Wyoming. We�ve updated roughly half the existing maps with 06/07 changes, and anyone buying a set now will get any remaining map revisions at no additional charge as soon as they are released.

We�ll also be adding Big Mountain and Moonlight Basin to the Northwest/Montana set, and we�ve started work on an all-new Northeast set. The exact resorts to be included in this set have not been finalized, but the first one to be released will be Loon Mountain, NH.

With the addition of Whistler Blackcomb we now have maps for all of Ski Magazine�s Top 10 US Ski Resorts (featured in their October print edition and on their new www.skinet.com website), and with Big Mountain we�ll have 28 of their Top 30 western resorts.

* Magellan Support

Our Magellan maps are also almost complete and we are looking for beta testers. If you have been waiting for the Magellan MapSend version of the maps (last year�s maps were for Garmin only, while this year�s maps will be available for both) for your Magellan eXplorist please contact us at support@mountaindynamics.com. If you qualify we�ll send you a free beta test version of the maps.

* Mash-Ups

On the www.mountaindynamics.com website side of things we�ve been busy making "mash-ups" with Google Maps and Flickr. A mash-up�which Google, Flickr, Yahoo!, and other so-called Web 2.0 sites actively encourage�is when a developer combines two sets of web information into one web page.

With Google we've used it to show all of our GPS ski resort map locations on one interactive Google Map, together with one for each set (California/Nevada, Colorado/New Mexico, Northwest/Montana, and Utah/Wyoming). We've also used it to give you driving directions from anywhere in the country to each resort's main village.

With Flickr, a popular photo sharing site, we�ve taken advantage of their new �geo-tagging� feature to show a gallery of pictures that have been taken at each resort. Geo-tagged pictures include the latitude and longitude where they were taken, allowing fascinating map-based browsing of all of Flickr�s members� pictures. Examples: Jackson Hole, Whistler Blackcomb.

* Coming Up

In the next newsletter we�ll have:
- dates and resort locations for a series of on-mountain GPS treasure hunts that we call Skiocaching�
- a round up of which resorts are featuring our maps on their �trail maps� web pages (so far 14)
- a makeover of our Snow Day tracks web pages, which show your GPS track overlaid on our trail maps with vertical feet and speed statistics and graphs
- details of our first licensing deal (which we signed this week) to put our map data onto exciting new choice in handheld GPS devices.

Bring on the snow!

September Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 05:00:00 -0700

This is the latest news from Mountain Dynamics on our growing family of SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps and web services.

As I cleaned up after my Labor Day barbeque and pondered my list of things to get done before the 2006/07 ski season begins I realized with a shock (and a thrill) that there were only two and half months to Thanksgiving! And, as of today, Loveland ski area's countdown to the start of snowmaking is at just ten and half DAYS! That's based on last year's start date, 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.

The big news for our SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps this season is the addition of support for Magellan GPSes, alongside our current Garmin support. We're an official MapSend partner of Magellan Navigation Inc., and will be offering SnowRanger for their popular eXplorist series.
- SnowRanger Resorts

In terms of resorts, our biggest new addition this year is the biggest of them all (in North America): Whistler Blackcomb. With 8171 acres and 5280' of vertical drop this world-renowned destination will be hosting the next Winter Olympics in 2010. This will be added to our Northwest/Montana set, which also will be gaining Alyeska, Mt Baker, and Summit-at-Snoqualmie, while our Utah/Wyoming set will gain Grand Targhee.

Our four Garmin map sets (these two plus California/Nevada and Colorado/New Mexico) are available immediately for $29.95, and anyone buying a set now will get any new additions, together with comprehensive map revisions (new lifts and trails, etc.) at no additional charge as soon as they are released. Magellan maps will be available in November.

Our business continues to grow as GPS-related technologies flourish, and we're in negotiations with several companies who want to license our resort map data to make it available on some very exciting new handheld devices. We're also busy adding a host of new features to our website, and they'll be more news on that next month.

Now to get my new skis--gotta love those off-season clearance sales--adjusted and waxed!

Spring Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Tue, 09 May 2006 05:00:00 -0700

This is the latest news from Mountain Dynamics on our growing family of SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps and web services.
- SnowRanger

With the 2006-07 season over-for those of us not lucky enough to live close to Mammoth Mountain or Whistler anyway-we here at Mountain Dynamics are reviewing our first season's success and starting the planning process for next season. We ended the season with 46 different resort maps available for Garmin GPS receivers, and with our maps featured on three resorts' websites and available in three retail store groups. We also got great feedback from you, our users, to incorporate into next year's maps.
- SnowRanger Resorts

Looking ahead to next season, we'll be adding more maps to our existing regional sets, and adding a Northeast USA set. We also are in the process of completing two major agreements that will dramatically broaden the range of GPS units that SnowRanger can be used on, increase the availability of the maps at resorts, and give our users access to a fabulous set of additional features.

We'll be sending out more information on these new ventures and on the
2006-07 product line later in the summer. Start the countdown snow
lovers-just 6 months until Thanksgiving!

February Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 05:00:00 -0700

This is the February newsletter from Mountain Dynamics, with the latest news on our growing family of SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps and web features.
- SnowRanger

* Utah/Northern Rockies Set Released

Our new Utah/Northern Rockies set was released this week. The set launches with the following eight resort maps:
- Alta
- Deer Valley
- Jackson Hole
- Park City Mountain Resort
- Snowbasin
- Snowbird
- Sun Valley
- The Canyons

We'll be adding Big Sky, Moonlight Basin, Grand Targhee, and possibly some other resorts from Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming 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.

You might be asking why we are releasing the set now when we know that more maps will be added. The answer is that many people prefer to buy a set than buy individual maps-since the set is available for $29.95 while individual maps are $4.95 each-and also the set makes sense when you have interconnected resorts. Alta/Snowbird and Big Sky/Moonlight Basin have official interconnects so skiers will often use two maps on one day. The rectangular maps of the three Park City resorts (The Canyons, Park City Mountain Resort, and Deer Valley) have a large degree of overlap (and the boundaries of the last two touch each other) although there are no interconnects between them.

If you've bought one of the maps from the set already (Sun Valley, Jackson Hole, Alta, and Snowbird have been available individually for several weeks) but would rather have bought the set, email us at sales@mountaindynamics.com and we will give you an Offer Code to
apply the $4.95 to the purchase of the set.

Utah/Northern Rockies, like our other two sets, is also available on CD-ROM via Amazon.

* The 'Don't Get Lost' Blog

If you're into blogging or just want to follow our news and views on gadgets, snow sports, and other outdoor pursuits I write a blog called 'Don't Get Lost'. Recent posts include:
- Mac Version of SnowRanger?
- Top Three Resort Maps
- Mining For (Resort Statistics) Gold

The home page for the blog is http://www.mountaindynamics.com/en/msggroup.php?b=dgl and it supports the RSS standard for adding the blog to your My Yahoo! page or other 'news aggregator'.

Have a safe and exciting season, and keep those Track Uploads coming! Don't forget too that when you refer someone to our website you get a $5 credit for any map sets that they buy. Just tell them to enter your username where it says 'Referred By' when they are paying for the set.

January Newsletter from Mountain Dynamics

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 05:00:00 -0700

This is the January newsletter from Mountain Dynamics, with the latest news on our growing family of SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps and web features.

The US ski and snowboard season is well under way, with most parts of the country having received excellent snowfalls and great conditions. I spent 3 days last week in the Lake Tahoe area with my partner, skiing
at Kirkwood, Heavenly and Squaw Valley, and testing out some new ideas for our SnowRanger maps and trying out a new Garmin Legend C GPS (which I liked very much).
- My Comments

* Mt Rose, NV and Sun Valley, ID Released

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

Sun Valley is the first release from our upcoming Utah/Northern Rockies set, which will be available as a set later this month. 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.
- SnowRanger Sun Valley GPS map

* MapSource Integration

We've had several requests for a version of the maps that will integrate into a customer's existing Garmin MapSource� sets of maps, so they can put a mixture of city/street, topographic, and SnowRanger ski maps onto their GPSes at the same time.

We are pleased to announce that earlier this month we released new 'Setup' packaging for SnowRanger that includes the original loader (for people who do not have MapSource) but also installs the resort maps into
a user's copy of MapSource if they do have one. Now you can mix and match SnowRanger, MetroGuide�, Topo, and any other MapSource maps that you may have!

To get the new packaging just go to My Page and download the latest version of your maps or sets. Upgrades are free through the end of the season that you bought in.
- My Page

* GPS Track Uploads

We've drastically upgraded the tools available to view and share the GPS tracks of your days' skiing/boarding. Now as well as viewing the track (the 'breadcrumbs' trail of where you have been that your GPS keeps) drawn on top of a rendering of our maps, you can see the elevation and speed profiles of your day, together with overall stats such as vertical feet of descent and maximum speed. The Uplink tool is easy to use with any Garmin GPS, or you also can now upload tracks in the GPX standard format from ANY manufacturers' GPS.
- SnowRanger Uplink

Have a safe and exciting season, and keep those Track Uploads coming! Don't forget too that when you refer someone to our website you get a $5 credit for any map sets that they buy. Just tell them to enter your
username where it says 'Referred By' when they are paying for the set.

Happy Holidays from Mountain Dynamics

Mon, 19 Dec 2005 05:00:00 -0700

This is a Holiday newsletter from Mountain Dynamics, with the latest news on our growing family of SnowRanger GPS ski resort maps and web features.

It's been a busy month for us here at Mountain Dynamics. We finished the California set and sent it off to the CD duplicators in the early part of the month. Then I spent 5 days in and around Summit County, Colorado, meeting with retailers, skiing, and comparing the SnowRanger maps on a couple of different Garmin� GPS units. Finally, we got the California CDs in stock and have made a few changes to our website just in time for your final gift shopping!
- SnowRanger

* California Map Set

The California set includes 13 resorts in Tahoe and the rest of Northern and Southern California, including all the major ones such as Heavenly and Squaw Valley USA. It's available for immediate download from our website, or if you want it on CD--or want to send it as a gift on CD, which we can still get out by the 24th--from Amazon.com.
- SnowRanger California
- Amazon

* Get paid for recommending SnowRanger!

The latest feature to be added to the website is a referral credit manager. When someone buys a $29.95 map set from www.mountaindynamics.com and enters your username as the referrer, we'll credit $5.00 to your account for use in a future purchase from the site! So each time you recommend SnowRanger to a friend you'll be getting $5.00 off your next purchase of a set, or you'll be able to download a single resort map for free. And you can get as many referral credits as you want--refer six buyers and you'll have enough credit to get a whole set for free! Just tell them to enter your username where it says 'Referred By' when they are paying for the map.

* Colorado Updates

I took a pair of Garmin Rino 520s with me to Colorado and used them (with three buddies) for five days skiing at Arapahoe Basin, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Steamboat, and Vail. I was disappointed by the Rinos--they were hard to use with gloves, had poor audio quality, and both units' screen would shut off periodically--although the ability
for each user to send his/her GPS position to the other unit worked well and was very useful. We've tweaked the maps of the above 5 resorts based on usability testing with the Rino, and also to add the new Imperial Express SuperChair to the Breckenridge map. If you've previously bought one the above maps (or the Colorado/New Mexico set) you can download the updated maps at no charge.
- SnowRanger Resorts

* Coming soon

Right now when you upload a track (the 'breadcrumbs' trail of where you have been that your GPS keeps) to our website you can just view it drawn on top of a basic rendering of our maps. Soon we'll be adding a set of
tools to bring this record of your skiing/snowboarding to life: elevation profiles, speed graphs, overall stats like vertical feet, and more. You can start uploading your tracks now since the new tools will be able to pull all the information that they need out of older tracks.
- SnowRanger Uplink

The next CD set to be released will be Utah/Idaho/Montana/Wyoming, available mid to late January. Look for some of the maps in the set to be released individually over the next few weeks.

We've had several requests for a version of the maps that will integrate into a customer's existing Garmin MapSource� sets of maps, so they can put a mixture of city/street, topographic, and SnowRanger ski maps onto
their GPSes at the same time. We're working on this, and expect to make it available as a free upgrade by mid-January.