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It's time to start thinking about getting the family out on the slopes for some much needed fresh air, exercise and time away from zoom....

Friday, November 18, 2011

We're open! And EpicMix hits Northstar!


I'm happy to report that the snow was awesome yesterday, and it was great to take some warm up runs before this weekend.  

The mountain and the ski school office are officially open, so those of you who've reserved dates on my calendar can call to confirm them with our friendly office staff (Stephanie, Lisa & Jenna). The private lesson line is still 530-562-3848.

And If you've not yet solidified your plans, and want to look or reserve a spot on my calendar it's available at this link. The calendar is not the official version, which is controlled by Stephanie and her team, but I'll be keeping it as up to date as possible.  I'm working on embedding it here on the blog, but having a few technical issues with google and Blogger.

Now there's a ton of changes at Northstar which I outlined in an earlier post, and I've now got first hand experience with the most exciting, EpicMix.   

Here's my quick take, and there's a great video here embedded down below. I'll try not to gush too much.

Last year over 100,000 people used the EpicMix app at Vail's other resorts allowing them to capture and share mountain achievements.  The system tracked how many vertical feet they skied, where they skied, and allowed them to earn fun awards.  If you've seen the Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson movie, The Big Year, you'll understand how people made it a competition to see who could ski the most.

The winner, a retiree with a lot of energy, logged 171 days and over 7,209,005 vertical feet of skiing!  Yesterday I logged my first three runs, and am proud of my 2,881 vertical feet.  

But the best thing about EpicMix is that it's now photo-enabled.  I'm sure you all know how much I love taking photos of my students to share with them (or if they are kids, with their parents).  But I'm not the best photographer in the world, and skiing backwards while snapping pictures isn't as easy as it may look.  So... EpicMix to the rescue!


Northstar will have 25 professional photographers all over the hill, taking pictures for free that will be automatically uploaded to your EpicMix account, and visible online, on your Android or Iphone within just a few hours.  The mountain has high speed wifi, and the photos are sent instantaneously to a center in Colorado where they're quality controlled before hitting your account.  This is all free of charge, and the privacy is under your control as well.  It's totally ok to link your account to Facebook, or not.  

Ok...enough gushing... hope to see you all on the slopes soon!

Jay

PS... if you want to be friends on EpicMix, just friend me on Facebook, and activate EpicMix after you get your lift ticket or season pass.

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