Google Earth and ski area viewing

Has anyone tried google earth to vie a ski area yet?

I have known about the Sat images of the earth for a while. Back when
microsoft had its terra server up and running and then google got in on the
deal the problem was it was very low resolution images. Just recently Google
earth has added alot of new hi res scans. when I recently went on I noticed
they had the whole of west yorkshire updated. It wasn't long before I
started to look at the ski areas, damn low res but I noticed on the version
of google earth that you download you can tilt the map and view the contours
of the mountain. This is very cool, you can zoom in rotate and almost 'fly'
through the valleys.

Anyhow, I just happened to zoom into andorra and found that it was hires
images. when you zoom in you can see the pistes, lifts and even some people
and if you use your imagination you can even spot the odd mogul field.

if you haven't already got it check it out here
http://earth.google.com/

and then try (copy and paste the following position into the search box)

42°31'48.93"N, 1°27'33.05"E

Truely impressive stuff!!!!

Cheers
Paul

Paul-S8 wrote:
Has anyone tried google earth to vie a ski area yet?

I have known about the Sat images of the earth for a while. Back when
microsoft had its terra server up and running and then google got in
on the deal the problem was it was very low resolution images. Just
recently Google earth has added alot of new hi res scans. when I
recently went on I noticed they had the whole of west yorkshire
updated. It wasn't long before I started to look at the ski areas,
damn low res but I noticed on the version of google earth that you
download you can tilt the map and view the contours of the mountain.
This is very cool, you can zoom in rotate and almost 'fly' through
the valleys.
Anyhow, I just happened to zoom into andorra and found that it was
hires images. when you zoom in you can see the pistes, lifts and even
some people and if you use your imagination you can even spot the odd
mogul field.
if you haven't already got it check it out here
http://earth.google.com/

and then try (copy and paste the following position into the search
box)
42°31'48.93"N, 1°27'33.05"E

Truely impressive stuff!!!!

Cheers
Paul

I've never thought of using it for ski resorts! Really cool when you change
the viewing angle!!

"Paul-S8" wrote in message
...
Has anyone tried google earth to vie a ski area yet?

I carry a Garmin GPS with me while skiing. Amongst other things it records a
daily "track" of where I've been. On returning home I can upload these
tracks into Mapsource (a program that manages Garmin maps, waypoints, tracks
etc.) and view the tracks on a map. With the latest Mapsource there is an
option to "View in Google Earth" which launches GE then displays the tracks
in the appropriate place. You can then use GE to replay the tracks as a
"fly-by". Its quite neat although all of my tracks are in the French Alps
which are still very low resolution, and the GE images were taken in the
summer so there's not much snow about either. You get a pretty accurate idea
of the terrain though, especially if you exaggerate it a little in the
Options page (multiply by about 1.5 looks quite good).

The Andorra images look really great!

Walter

"Walter Wright" wrote in message
...

"Paul-S8" wrote in message
...
Has anyone tried google earth to vie a ski area yet?

I carry a Garmin GPS with me while skiing. Amongst other things it records
a daily "track" of where I've been. On returning home I can upload these
tracks into Mapsource (a program that manages Garmin maps, waypoints,
tracks etc.) and view the tracks on a map. With the latest Mapsource there
is an option to "View in Google Earth" which launches GE then displays the
tracks in the appropriate place. You can then use GE to replay the tracks
as a "fly-by". Its quite neat although all of my tracks are in the French
Alps which are still very low resolution, and the GE images were taken in
the summer so there's not much snow about either. You get a pretty
accurate idea of the terrain though, especially if you exaggerate it a
little in the Options page (multiply by about 1.5 looks quite good).

The Andorra images look really great!

Walter

Wow, just wow, I didn't think it could get much better.

I have a garmin but won't be using it this year as I am trying the skido
think for my smartphone but I am hoping that I can do something with the
track data along the same lines. I think I will even suggest it to the skido
developers!!!!

Paul

Walter Wright wrote:
The Andorra images look really great!

There's also some hires imaging for the Turin Olympic resorts
(Sestriere, Bardonecchia, etc.) that looks to have been added fairly
recently (and hastily - there's a narrow missing strip close to Cesana,
and a rather overexposed frame around Claviere).

John.

--
-- Over 3000 webcams from ski resorts around the world - www.snoweye.com
-- Translate your technical documents and web pages - www.tradoc.fr

Does this mean you can avoid paying the $20 for Google Earth Plus?

The 3D view allows you to get a good idea of ho the Ski resorts relate
to one another and how the mountain paths (for summer walks) can be
used. For example it is very straightforward to see the off piste route
from Tignes to Champagny.

I have been unable to work out how to take tracks traced on Google Earth
and import them into a GPS receiver as waypoints etc.

Though it uses map data as opposed to remote sensed data, IGN in France
does digital maps that link to GPS (these are georectified scanned
copies of the 1:25000 maps). The British company, memory map, claims to
offer similar; plus 3D fly thoughs and higher resolution aerial
photography in its premier edition. I have not tested the Alps version,
but I like the one for the UK, especially the cross section profiles and
the ability to see how much 'vertical' you have done in a day.

If anyone has some more experience of this software for skiing I would
like to read about it.


John


Walter Wright wrote:
"Paul-S8" wrote in message
...

Has anyone tried google earth to vie a ski area yet?


I carry a Garmin GPS with me while skiing. Amongst other things it records a
daily "track" of where I've been. On returning home I can upload these
tracks into Mapsource (a program that manages Garmin maps, waypoints, tracks
etc.) and view the tracks on a map. With the latest Mapsource there is an
option to "View in Google Earth" which launches GE then displays the tracks
in the appropriate place. You can then use GE to replay the tracks as a
"fly-by". Its quite neat although all of my tracks are in the French Alps
which are still very low resolution, and the GE images were taken in the
summer so there's not much snow about either. You get a pretty accurate idea
of the terrain though, especially if you exaggerate it a little in the
Options page (multiply by about 1.5 looks quite good).

The Andorra images look really great!

Walter

Wow, just wow, I didn't think it could get much better.

I have a garmin but won't be using it this year as I am trying the skido
think for my smartphone but I am hoping that I can do something with the
track data along the same lines. I think I will even suggest it to the skido
developers!!!!

Interesting, which Garmin do you have?

On Thu, 9 Feb 2006 08:55:34 -0000, "Paul-S8"
wrote:

wrote in message
roups.com...
Wow, just wow, I didn't think it could get much better.

I have a garmin but won't be using it this year as I am trying the skido
think for my smartphone but I am hoping that I can do something with the
track data along the same lines. I think I will even suggest it to the
skido
developers!!!!

Interesting, which Garmin do you have?

Garmin Legend

When I was in Tignes over xmas one of the tour reps was running a
little sideline where he'd lend you a small GPS receiver/recorder[1]
which he'd then take back and use to produce a complete plot,
displayed in several different ways, of your skiing for the day,
including speed, rate of descent, distance covered, etc. etc. He was
then laminating them and suggesting they could be used as placemats.
Charged about 20 EU each, IIRC.


[1] no idea what model it was, but it could be worn on your arm.
--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

"Ace" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 9 Feb 2006 08:55:34 -0000, "Paul-S8"
wrote:

wrote in message
groups.com...
Wow, just wow, I didn't think it could get much better.

I have a garmin but won't be using it this year as I am trying the
skido
think for my smartphone but I am hoping that I can do something with
the
track data along the same lines. I think I will even suggest it to the
skido
developers!!!!

Interesting, which Garmin do you have?

Garmin Legend

When I was in Tignes over xmas one of the tour reps was running a
little sideline where he'd lend you a small GPS receiver/recorder[1]
which he'd then take back and use to produce a complete plot,
displayed in several different ways, of your skiing for the day,
including speed, rate of descent, distance covered, etc. etc. He was
then laminating them and suggesting they could be used as placemats.
Charged about 20 EU each, IIRC.


[1] no idea what model it was, but it could be worn on your arm.
--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the
Ski Club.


Any idea roughly what speed an intermediate skier will be reaching in an
average day's piste bashing?

According to my Garmin I peaked at 55mph in Morzine last week but that was
in a racing tuck at the end of a long red. My friend, a much better skiier
than me, thought that skiers only reach about 30mph and still reckoned the
reading was wrong when he borrowed the garmin and hit 58mph.

On Thu, 09 Feb 2006 11:38:42 GMT, "Norman"
wrote:

When I was in Tignes over xmas one of the tour reps was running a
little sideline where he'd lend you a small GPS receiver/recorder[1]
which he'd then take back and use to produce a complete plot,
displayed in several different ways, of your skiing for the day,
including speed, rate of descent, distance covered, etc. etc. He was
then laminating them and suggesting they could be used as placemats.
Charged about 20 EU each, IIRC.

snip

Any idea roughly what speed an intermediate skier will be reaching in an
average day's piste bashing?

Some of the group I was talking to had topped 70mph, but they were
definitely not in the 'intermediate' category. I'd skiied with them
with the Ski Club rep the day before and, while not actually
struggling to keep up, I certainly wasn't hanging about. Of course, on
neither day were they specifically trying to go balls-out fast. If
they/we had, I suspect higher speeds might have been acheived.

According to my Garmin I peaked at 55mph in Morzine last week but that was
in a racing tuck at the end of a long red. My friend, a much better skiier
than me, thought that skiers only reach about 30mph and still reckoned the
reading was wrong when he borrowed the garmin and hit 58mph.

Speeds of up to 100mph are recorded on some of the faster Downhill
events on the World Cup circuit, so I'd suspect that your readout was
correct and that your friend was misinformed.

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.