Ski season is officially underway! We’ve been getting a lot of snow in Colorado and powder fever is setting in. As a result, the LiDAR Magazine article introducing FATMAP’s interactive 3D Ski Maps caught my attention. When I first moved to Colorado, I spent an entire season learning how to navigate my favorite ski resorts and find the best ski runs for me. The trail maps kept me from getting lost, but they don’t provide much information about terrain. As a result, I occasionally found myself on a run that was beyond my skill level. My first time skiing a Colorado mountain, I ended up facing a section of steep moguls and riding down them on my backside! Of course, I can’t even count the number of times I accidentally slowed down just before a flat section of trail when I learned to snowboard. An interactive 3D ski map in my pocket would have saved me lots of bumps, bruises, and frustration.
The new FATMAP Ski app combines high resolution imagery with 3D terrain information to provide more true-to-life trail maps for users. Maps of many US and European ski resorts are available as free downloads, and advanced features such as live location tracking and gradient information can be purchased for each location. While I was exploring the maps in this new app, I began to wonder if I could create a similar map using Surfer and Voxler.
