1. In one short decade, the Internet and the mobile phone have
evolved from cumbersome novelties to unquestioned parts of our
daily lives. At the same time, innovations in digital technology
have introduced new ways of communicating and collecting
information. More and more, industries across the board embrace
these tools, and the ski industry is no different.
Deployed properly,
technology on the mountain
is nearly invisible, so seam-
lessly integrated into the experience that it goes unnoticed. That
degreeofintegrationrequiresequalpartsvisionandcapability–both
of which are in no short supply in the tech-savvy Pacific Northwest.
Information technology (IT) staffers at major resorts in Oregon
and Washington will tell you that customers in the Northwest
expect serious innovation all the way through the mountain expe-
rience. To meet this growing demand, IT workers operate in two
main areas: on the web and on the mountain.
Web technology extends from the behind-the-scenes world
of IT and tech support to very visible areas such as marketing,
online sales, and mobile updates. Some of these applications update
customer service protocols established long ago. Others provide
services and conveniences never before possible, like ticketless entry
and up-to-the-minute weather updates delivered to mobile devices.
Equally integral to the overall mountain experience is highly visible,
on-the-mountain technology like barcode ticket scanning and radio
frequency identification (RFID). It seems the more technology
improves, the more we grant it second-nature status.
To get a closer look at these technologies, let’s walk through a
hypotheticaldayofskiingatthreeoftheNorthwest’spremierresorts.
We’ll skip around Mt. Hood Meadows, an hour east of Portland,
Ore.; Mt. Bachelor, a few hours farther south; and Washington
State’s Stevens Pass, about 90 miles east of Seattle.
“Gone are the days when you call up snow phone first thing
in the morning for an announcement of general conditions,”
says Paul Thomson, IT manager of Mt. Hood Meadows. “People
want to know exactly what’s going on. They’re basing their trip
to the mountain on very up-to-the-minute information.” To that
end, Meadows communicates closely with the nearby Northwest
Avalanche Center, which feeds data on snowpack, temperature,
and wind speed directly to Meadows’ website in real time. Such
real-time updating is the cornerstone of information services at
Meadows and other Western resorts.
Once the decision is made for a day on the mountain, RFID
technology allows customers who pay a one-time fee for a micro-
chip-bearing card to reload that card online from home. Skiers
arrive at the mountain with their pass already charged for the day
and can head straight to the lift, avoiding the ticket window alto-
gether. RFID also allows detailed data tracking of the card bearer,
In theTech-Savvy Pacific Northwest,
Skiers and Riders Demand Innovation
TECHNOLOGYPARTII
BY JONATHAN ZWICKEL
38 • NSAA Journal • February/March 2011 w w w. n s a a . o r g
TECHNOLOGY

2. w w w. n s a a . o r g February/March 2011 • NSAA Journal • 39
data that customers can access to determine which runs they hit on
a particular day and how many vertical feet they traveled – infor-
mation that can be analyzed by a resort’s marketing department to
better target advertising and promotions.
“A strong selling point for us is that [the RFID card] is
completely unobtrusive to the guests,” says Dennis Kelly, RTP
administrator for Stevens Pass. “They keep the pass in their pocket.
They never have to take it out, and we still have 100 percent accu-
rate data on every gate and lift. Once they have the pass, they can
go online and reload another ticket on it. And after that transac-
tion is complete, that info is available in the database. They could
potentially purchase something on their phone in the parking lot
and never have to wait in line.”
Web technology has allowed Mount Bachelor to customize
its ticket prices daily depending on conditions, holidays, and the
number of lifts open. “The night before, we look at the forecast
and then announce on the web what the pricing is going to be,”
says Anthony Flores, Bachelor’s IT director. “If it’s really windy and
stormy and we only have the front side open, 50 bucks. If every-
thing’s open, it’s $60. Holidays are $70. I don’t know if any other
resorts have adopted that or not, but it breaks down to 70 percent
are midprice, 10 percent top price, and 20 percent lowest.”
Whenit’stimetoheadtothemountain,MountHoodMeadows
offers some high-tech options to facilitate the carpool-bound skier’s
ride from the Portland metro area to the mountain. The resort has
long offered transportation/lift ticket package deals – midweek for
adults, weekends for kids – but online tools have streamlined the
logistics of doing so, Thomson says.
“The most important part of that system is the inventorying
of the seats so we can promote the schedule of public transporta-
tion from Portland,” he says. “Trip organizers [independent ticket
resellers who work with Meadows on an affiliate basis] can schedule
what stop they want to pick up at, and we can provide rosters to our
chaperones. That helps get the customers to the mountain and get
them to the right bus to go back at the end of the day. It’s all done
without any human touching, until they get to the bus and meet
the chaperone.”
Affiliate sales totals are tracked more efficiently this way, and
operations staff use these detailed transportation tallies to estimate
business for any upcoming day. “They know how much business
is forecast for a particular Saturday versus a particular Sunday,”
Thomson says. “It’s a lot more up-front notification, so our opera-
tions can better prepare for those days.”
Upon arriving at Meadows, customers encounter not the
RFID system used at Stevens and Bachelor but a printed ticket and
barcode scan system, in place since 2006. Lift operators scan guests’
barcode passes to confirm access to that lift. The barcode, individu-
alized to each person’s daily ticket, is a means of tracking him or
her on the mountain, again to provide the skier/rider with detailed
tracking of their runs that day and user information to the resort.
But there are other advantages as well.
“If there’s ever an issue where we need to contact you – say
your kid’s in ski school and feeling ill or injured or something – we
can [remotely] mark your pass so the next time you are scanned at
the lift, a message goes out to the guest: ‘Please check in with ski
school,’” Thomson says.
AccordingtoFlores,RFID,pairedwithlong-haulDSLmodems,
provides a reliable solution for a mountain as sprawling as Bachelor.
“A lot of resorts don’t have the best infrastructure,” he says.
“Our infrastructure is not what Stevens’ is, for example. It’s a little
more spread out. But if we lose the connection to our central data-
base at our main lift, we can continue to check tickets because
they’re chip-based.”
Flores says the primary problem with RFID is software
connectivity between the RFID card, the antennae that scan it,
and the turnstiles at the lift. “It’s a handoff,” he says, and some-
times inconsistencies with software lead to a fumble. With that in
mind, he built a network-monitoring solution that emails him with
any issues, telling him instantly whether the RFID system is up or
down. “That’s been amazing, in terms of being ahead of the phone
calls,” Flores says.
At Bachelor, television monitors tied to the mountain’s website
are posted in each lodge, displaying constantly updated informa-
tion about conditions and lift operations. Meadows and Stevens
have gone even further with their real-time updates.
“We have two Twitter feeds,” says Dave Tragethon, Meadows’
executive director of communications. “One is general Mt. Hood
Meadows operating information that we’ll send every morning with
snowfall. The other is a specific Twitter feed that only talks about
what lifts are operating, sent out at the beginning of the day and
with any change in lift operations. Last Sunday we got Cascade
Express open for the first time at 2:30 p.m., and a Twitter feed went
out showing it was open. So people who subscribe to that feed get
that information in real time.”
As cellular technology improves on the mountains (reception
in remote areas is a constant challenge), expect to see more person-
alized updates like this, sent in real time, letting skiers and riders get
more out of their mountain experience than ever before. And keep
in mind that each of these mountains employs a year-round IT staff
of four at most. If the resorts ever had doubts about investing in a
capable IT staff, innovations like these should assuage them.
“It used to be the case that if the lifts aren’t running, you’re not
making money,” says Stevens’ Kelly. “Now if your tech system isn’t
running, you’re not making money.” n

3. 40 • NSAA Journal • February/March 2011 w w w. n s a a . o r g
Three patrollers from California’s Mountain High Resort
have developed a special application for use on Apple
iPads that does away with traditional methods of inci-
dent reporting and provides more seamless distribution of
departmental communications.
Recognizing an opportunity to optimize informational
services on the mountain, Mountain High Resort Safety
Coordinator Jason Perlmutter led the development of Ski MED,
a paperless data collection application for iPads. In partner-
ship with fellow patroller Robert “Bub” Chacon (also Mountain
High’s assistant mountain manager) and Patrol Director Cappy
Probert, Perlmutter built the related database and its interface
with the iPad. With the application, once data is entered into an
iPad, the information automatically updates to a host computer
via bluetooth or WiFi. All data is then backed up to a server
and external hard drive, effectively replacing the need for hand-
written incident reports.
“The integration of our electronic investigation database and
iPad have decreased our time spent per incident by 75 percent,”
says Chacon. “What used to take us an hour for a complete inci-
dent and investigation now takes less than 20 minutes.”
With the iPad applications, users must completely fill out
all fields of the related forms before being able to move on to
the next screen. The home computer interfaces with the existing
resort computer network and is able to communicate with all
iPads on the location. Such applications can be used within
various mountain departments, including lift operations, ski
school, and dispatch.
Incident data can be composed to provide broader evalua-
tions including plot maps, 3-D modeling, graphs, and charts in
order to further analyze and create benchmarks for future safety
education efforts.
“We have drawn all of our chairlifts and terrain features and
have uploaded these as models into the application,” explains
Chacon. “Now we merely drag and insert the feature or chairlift
and add measurements. It’s about being efficient and complete.”
Designated users can immediately search for incident
reports by data entered into any of the required fields. Instant
access to the incident reports can be expanded to other neces-
sary users, including risk management personnel and the resort
insurance carrier or attorney.
TECHNOLOGY
By Troy HawksBy Troy Hawks
MountainHighPatrollersDevelop
iPadAppsforSkiAreaOperations

4. w w w. n s a a . o r g February/March 2011 • NSAA Journal • 41
New DigitalTechnologies
Take Departmental
Communications to
the Next Level
Patient Information
Will not allo
the next pa
fields have
Calculates age when DOB is
given to create efficiency
Drop down m
input
Equipment
Will not allow you to go to the
next page unless all fields have
text in them
quipment
ically take
ensure it is
PATIENT INFO SCREEN:
With Mountain High’s Ski MED iPad application,designated users
can immediately search for incident reports by data entered into
any of the required fields.Instant access to the incident reports can
be expanded to other necessary users,including risk management
personnel and the resort insurance carrier or attorney.
EQUIPMENT SCREEN SHOT:
If the injured person is a skier, the app will automatically direct
the user to fill in the skis’ DIN settings. Users must completely
fill out all fields of the related forms before being able to move
on to the next screen.
“From the risk management standpoint, the key feature is
accessibility and forecasting,” says Chacon. “With this system
we are able to set plot maps, track terrain feature incidents, age,
skier ability, and several other fields if necessary. No longer are
the days digging through boxes for litigation – all the informa-
tion is now accessible at the click of a button.”
In the end, Mountain High’s 290-acre operation is much
better connected and integrated thanks to this new technolog-
ical device, which isn’t much larger than the average note pad
it replaces.
“We are about streamlining the process and making it
more cost-effective,” says Chacon. “Now a patroller can spend
their time patrolling, rather than processing paperwork in the
patrol room.” n