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and seem to be coming down in price. Drones are also               any time during the day, where people are going fast-
proving invaluable to mapping terrain with minimal                 est, and where people are going fastest and slowest, which
manpower or cost of equipment. At the same time, inter-            could result in an accident,” said Trace co-founder David
active maps are experiencing their own evolution, as               Lokshin. “Right now it’s just something we use internally.
Propeller Media Works unveils a new map that can be                But if a resort came to us and really wanted to have access
embedded on any page of a resort’s website and is point-           to that information, we’re not opposed to having a discus-
and-click easy to distribute to media partners and snow            sion about going down that path.”
report aggregation services.
                                                                   READY FOR YOUR CLOSE UP?
    “What we have done is create an interactive trail
map that connects with a control panel that allows the             With all the possible applications of 3D mapping at ski
snow reporter to go out at 5 a.m. to check conditions,             areas—along with its potential for making a big dent in snow-
then go in and tap the radio buttons on what’s open and            making and grooming costs—resorts have some very strong
what’s closed, and hit send,” said Dave Gibson, CEO or             incentives to learn more about the technology and determine
Propeller. “That information immediately goes to the               whether the up-front investment makes sense for their opera-
resort’s website, and also is published to snow report             tions. For now anyway, 3D mapping may be the best way to
aggregators such as SnoCountry.”                                   get the ultimate big picture at any given moment.

    One emerging consumer-based product, the Trace Ski             Peter Kray is a freelance writer who skis, telemarks, and snow-
App—which tracks speed, vertical, and airtime, and fea-            boards out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is the co-founder of the
tures auto-editing for GoPro users—has an additional feature       Gear Institute (gearinstitute.com), a website developed to profes-
that could of great interest to mountain ops. On the back end      sionalize the testing of outdoor equipment, and the author of the
(where it is presently only available to Trace staff) the app can  recently published novel, The God of Skiing.
heat-map in-resort use.

    “We can see where the resort is most crowded at

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