Connecting to a winter wonderland

Scan the slopes from the comfort of your keyboard

Ski Odyssey was the better name for Skitown.com, but nobody could seem to spell it.

Because while Skitown does have information on resort towns, that’s only the beginning. From lodging, to weather conditions to the latest news, a skier truly can find the information for an entire odyssey on the slopes.

That why when Charles Greer first put together a guide to ski resorts in 1993, he called his product “Ski Odyssey.”

“There was a few book guides here and there, but no comprehensive listing of ski resorts,” Greer said. “And by the time a book goes to print, it’s already outdated.”

“Ski Odyssey” began as a CD-ROM in 1993. In 1995, Greer took to the Web to promote the CD-ROM. In 1996 he launched the Web site. On the Web, where addresses have to be letter-perfect, the “Odyssey” was changed to “Skitown.”

Visitors to the site enter a virtual village, where they click on snow-covered storefronts to link to Media Odyssey’s 14 ski-related sites.

“We have more variety of information and more depth of information than any similar site out there,” Greer said. “Our focus has always been on information.”

That focus has proved successful for the site. From its beginnings of Greer and his wife working out of their basement, Skitown now has a dozen full-time employees. Since 1997, the main focus of the organization has been developing its own information.

“We are constantly talking to our resorts to make sure we have the absolute latest information,” Greer said. “When people come to us, they’re coming to the source.”

What type of snow sport-related information does Skitown link skiers and boarders to?

It would be easier to answer what they don’t offer.

In Skitown’s virtual village the visitor will find links to:

” Resort Guide – a comprehensive guide to more than 600 ski areas in North America.

” Lodging Finder – a guide to lodging to fit every need.

” Real Estate – listings of available real estate in and around ski towns.

” Cafe – visitors can read and write reviews, browse regional events, post questions in forums or send a postcard to a friend.

” Weather – check current snow conditions and view continually updated weather maps.

” Ski Clubs – search for a ski club in your area.

” Events – look for regional events or subscribe to a monthly newsletter to receive key event listings via e-mail.

” Employment – job listings at North American resorts and ski towns.

” Travel Center – browse for travel packages or have a travel specialist customize a trip.

” Newsstand – local news from resort town publications

” Deals – a listing of special discounts.

” Last Second Club – a listing of last-minute vacancies at resorts.

” Shops – buy Skitown merchandise or visit some of the top outdoor-goods e-tailers.

” Heliski Guide – a list of information from more than 50 heliski and snowcat operators.

Skitown’s variety of sites is a big advantage with resort marketing departments trying to get the word out about their properties.

“Skitown works well for us because it provides multiple doors of entry for different people to come through,´ said Shawn Johnson, director of Internet marketing for Winter Park Resort. “They really drive traffic to us.”

In the three years Winter Park has worked with Skitown, it has been fourth or fifth in bringing traffic to the resort’s site.

“They also bring a lot of our target audience to us by making our information available on popular sites,” Johnson said.

For example, Skitown provides content to Intellicast.com. When someone checks in on the forecast they are easily linked to Skitown’s resorts.

In 1999, Skitown had 12.5 million pages viewed. As of the end of this September, the site already had surpassed that with 13 million pages viewed. Colorado’s Breckenridge Resort is the second most popular of the 630 resorts listed on Skitown. But many visitors are actually looking for information on smaller, local resorts.

“We get e-mail all the time from people that say ‘I can’t believe you have information on our favorite little place,'” Greer said.

Originally, Greer had planned to put together guides for other areas of interest besides snow sports.

“We got stuck in the mountains,” he said. “The amount of information people want is so vast, that we have plenty to keep us busy.”

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