Once upon a time, a trail map was something you consulted for direction while out on the mountain or pored over at lunch to plan your route for later. But in a digital age, maps can be so much more. And nowhere is this more true than on the websites of Sugar Bowl, Calif., and Park City Mountain Resort, Utah.

At Sugar Bowl (www.sugarbowl.com), “Our goal was to provide as much information as anyone could hope to have,” says marketing VP Greg Murtha. Click on the “interactive map” icon on the home page, and the typical map view appears. But it becomes quickly apparent that this is no static map.

Mouse over the lifts and trails, and open/closed status is revealed. Click on an icon in the upper left of the screen, and the status for the entire mountain appears—what’s open, what’s closed, what’s been groomed. Visitors can print out these daily reports and carry them in their pockets.

Of course, open and closed status can change even during the day. So Sugar Bowl has taken timeliness to a new level: Information on the interactive map can be updated in real time—so if a lift goes on or off wind hold, or trails open or close—the website can reflect the changes immediately. Ops departments can input the information themselves.

For those who are not intimately familiar with Sugar Bowl, this map can bring visitors up to speed in a hurry. Looking for specific types of terrain? Mouse over the terrain difficulty symbols, and the relevant terrain is highlighted on the map.

Want to see what the open terrain looks like? Sugar Bowl gives you several options. There are five live webcams scattered around the mountain for up-to-the-minute views. Still photos show what the terrain looks like at several points, and in some instances provide 360-degree panoramas. Point-of-view video clips provide a you-are-there look at specific descents. Historical footage from the Warren Miller library and current action clips round out the video options that put the map into motion.

There’s more for those with the time and curiosity. Daron Rahlves and others provide podcast audio tours and history. Viewers can download them and play later, or listen as they click and mouse through the map.

The interactive map also provides a detailed look at Sugar Bowl’s new slopeside real estate. It’s not exactly a village—Sugar Bowl exists on a smaller scale than that—but a tight little community. And here, illustrations portray the individual facilities and interiors. An animated flyover provides a bird’s-eye view of the development.

All of this transforms the trail map into something quite different; it would be more accurate to describe it as a multi-media information center, with the map as the starting point. “Nobody’s doing anything like this to promote the mountain and the village,” says Murtha, and we suspect he’s right.


Park City Mountainzones
One resort that comes close, though, is Park City (www.parkcitymountain.com). In addition to its customized daily planner map (see “Share the Wealth,” SAM May 2007), Park City has added another tool that helps visitors understand the mountain and plan their day—the Mountainzone Trail Map. The seven color-coded zones indicate the terrain served by a certain lift or group of lifts, and like the Sugar Bowl map, clicking on an icon in a key highlights the locations on the mountain. Click on “NASTAR,” for example, and the course location flashes on or off. Click on detachable six-packs, and the map highlights them.

Pinpointing services, lifts and terrain in this way is useful because Park City sprawls over several ridges and 3,300 acres, and it’s not always easy to find the location of restaurants, first aid, and other services.

Park City also hopes that the Mountainzone maps give visitors a way to grasp the size and potential of the mountain and how they can experience it. “This is another tool for us to create a better downhill experience, making it easier for guests to explore all 3,300 acres of our mountain,” says Paula Fabel, communications manager. “The Mountainzones allow a guest to feel a sense of accomplishment when they finish a day on the slopes.” For example, if they are able to ski four of seven Mountainzones in one day, that is a unique achievement because it has added value to the overall experience.

“As a resort benefit, it should help to spread out visiting skiers and riders since each zone is highlighted for its unique terrain. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of the day,” Fabel says. That’s similar to the goal of Park City’s Personal Mountain Tours, and gives guests another option for discovering what the area has to offer.

And that, after all, is what a trail map is supposed to do. It’s just that the Internet, and modern communications generally, give resorts many more tools to help visitors find what they are looking for, if only you can discover ways to put the tools to work.