The Vail Resorts group made snow headlines when they released their EpicMix enabled ski passes this season. So, just what is EpicMix and why is it awesome?
What is EpicMix?
EpicMix tracks your your ski stats and location automatically as you ski/snowboard. You can see things like exactly which areas of the mountain you rode and how many vertical feet you’ve ridden. You can access this information online or through their iphone/android app.
You also earn pins and points similar to the popular iPhone app ‘Foursquare’. Pins may be awarded for things such as riding every lift on the mountain in one day.
Why is this awesome?
EpicMix shows you which of your friends are on the mountain, where they are and also helps you msg and plan meeting points.
This is an awesome feature to have. I don’t care about the other stuff.
I’ve lost count of the number of times that I have wished that I knew exactly where on the hill my friends were. Txt and calling sucks. Most of the time, your friends don’t hear their phone ring unless they’re on a chairlift.
It makes things so much easier if I can head up to the hill each day, check out EpicMix on my phone and instantly know “Okay, Charlie is riding Catskinner Chair and Frank is eating lunch right now at the restaurant.” Instantly, you now know exactly where your friends are and where you can meet them, not to mention you can shoot them a quick meetup msg via epicmix.
How does EpicMix work?
Each chairlift at the participating resorts has an scanner that automatically scans the pass in your pocket. Every time you board a chairlift, it will update your information to figure out where you are and which lifts you’ve ridden. It’s a lot more accurate of a system than a lot of other things.
Where is EpicMix available?
It’s currently available at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly. You need to have an ‘Epic’ pass which comes preinstalled with EpicMix.
Currently, Epic passes at these resorts are available in a variety of season passes or 7 day lift passes.
The Future Is Here!
I can’t wait for this to be available everywhere. I hope other resorts get on this and start installing similar systems at their resorts. Oh and let’s ramp this up a notch. You should not only get ‘pins’ for accomplishments on the mountain but each pin should give you a coupon for free food/drink at the resort restaurants. Ride every chairlift on the mountain in a day? Get a free burger!
What do you guys think? I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who is easily motivated by free food 😉