Website roundup
By Adnews Staff
Big White Ski Resort and Silver Star Mountain Resort have added a new feature to their websites, located at <http://www.bigwhite.com> and <http://www.skisilverstar.com>, called "Virtual Mountain Tours." Visitors to these sites can now take a web-based tour of either of the B.C.-based resorts. The tour begins by selecting a chairlift. The user can then choose which of various intersecting ski runs to explore, including simulated jumps and tricks. The Flash-based tours are in full-motion and presented from a first-person perspective. The work was done by Vancouver-based Hot Tomali Communications, which won the assignment in competition with seven other agencies. "In our research we found several sites that offered 360 degree tours, or low quality video clips, but nothing that actually allowed users to get a true feel for the depth of terrain on a mountain," said Thomas Stringham, president of Hot Tomali. "These tours are as close as you can get to boarding or skiing without actually being there." The agency also modified the look and feel of the sites, improved their usability, constructed a content management system and added other new features such as live web cams and condition updates that can be streamed to a user's computer desktop. Big White and Silver Star are owned by Schumann Resorts.