Google snowmobile comes to Vermont and gives you a virtual look at ski trails
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 01:06 PM
Some fresh snow fell on ski areas in Vermont yesterday, most notably at the northern resorts, and today it is darn chilly and that is just fine with me! The ski resorts are reporting that they are cranking out the snow from their snowguns and snow fans.
In other news, I came across some interesting techie news recently ... I’ve learned of two Vermont ski resorts that are now viewable with the “street view” feature that is available on Google Maps. They started with Whistler Ski Resort for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and now Google snowmobiles have started to descend and document ski trails around the globe.
Follow these links to see a trail-level view of Burke Mountain and Stowe Mountain. It appears that the Google snowmobile visited in the spring time to gather the images.
If you click and drag the yellow “street view” man around and then hover over the ski slopes, the available “street view” trails become highlighted in blue. And when you drop the little guy onto a trail, he turns into a skier with a helmet on. After he lands, click on the arrows in the snow to move around a trail. And to look all around you, spin or click the disk in the top left of the screen.
I noticed that the Google snowmobile did not document the Front Four at Stowe. Perhaps they should make a winch-mobile to shoot the steeps and bumps!
Some ski resorts with Google “street view” / trail view feature
Burke Mountain Resort, Vermont 
Stowe Mountain Resort, Vermont
Wildcat Mountain, New Hampshire
Attitash Mountain, New Hampshire
As well as:
Snowbird, Utah and
Breckenridge, Colorado
Squaw Valley, California
Deer Valley, Utah
Crystal Mountain, Washington
Whistler / Blackcomb, British Columbia
Have you come across others?
Images are of the Google Maps interface showing a run and view from Burke Mountain, and Google's little skier dude.
Filed in: Alpine / downhill skiing, Burke, Stowe, Western skiing
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