In the last year I’ve been introduced to a handful of apps that, in one form or another, announce themselves as a competitive solution to Vail Resort’s EpicMix. Before I go any further, let’s look at the basic functionality of what EpicMix does so we can have some criteria to compare these apps against. Here’s a bare bones version (I’ll shorten each area for reference later):

• TRCK: Tracking of vertical feet and days on the mountain
• PINS: Earn pins for random accomplishments
• SOC: Social sharing of accomplishments
• PICS: Photo capabilities
• LEAD: Online leaderboards

There are more, I know, but those five elements will be the core we’ll look at. In order for Vail Resorts to get EpicMix off the ground they needed a whole host of high-tech shenanigans: scanners at every lift, applications and databases for tracking and storing data, web interface for leaderboards and profiles, etc. This is where the apps suddenly begin to have an advantage. Many of these apps are already written, with the developers eager to partner with resorts. Plus, no additional infrastructure is needed.

The Drawbacks
There are two big drawbacks to mobile apps that should be addressed:

1) You have to have a smartphone to use the app. Not just a smartphone but typically an Android or iPhone. Anything else and most app developers won’t have a option for your resort. This is becoming less and less of an issue as smartphones are quilckly becoming the only phones, but still an issue.

2) Battery life goes down the tube pretty quick when GPS is running constantly. There are added benefits of GPS that EpicMix doesn’t have (knowing exactly where went on the mountain, not just which lifts you rode and in which order), but it comes at a cost of not being able to take many pictures, videos, or make calls during a long day on the slopes.

The Options
Here are 4 that I’d recommend. Keep in mind, each of these, aside from the 5 criteria were comparing against EpicMix, have lots of cool features like a friend location (Trail Tap), 3D replay and challenges (Alpine Replay), etc. Does this make these viable alternatives to something like EpicMix? I think so. They aren’t perfect, but for the cost to get one of this solutions branded for your resort, it’s a steal.

Trail Tap (by Treeline Interactive)
http://www.trailtap.com/ / http://www.treelineinteractive.com/
TRCK: Yes – PINS: No – SOC: Yes – PICS: No – LEAD: No
I met Jason Van Peeren at NSAA and got a chance to see the interactive map they put together for Sierra at Tahoe. Very cool stuff and now that they’ve refined the platform, they are ready to customize it for any resort with their Trail Tap brand. Add in social sharing, browser replay of your day and you’ve got a great app setup.

Alpine Replay
http://www.alpinereplay.com/landing
TRCK: Yes – PINS: Yes – SOC: Yes – PICS: No – LEAD: Yes
A full leaderboard and badges, among other things, give this app and website a great start in competing with EpicMix. I’ve talked to the developers and they are ready to partner with resorts.

Powder Nation
http://www.powdernation.com/
TRCK: Yes – PINS: No – SOC: No – PICS: No – LEAD: No
Headed up by a couple smart younger guys Powder Nation has pretty standard features from what I’ve talked about so far but I am pretty sure you’ll find this as an extremely affordable custom solution.

Navitronics
http://www.navionics.com/MobileSkiFeatures.asp
TRCK: Yes – PINS: No – SOC: No – PICS: No – LEAD: No
These guys don’t have a ton of ski experience but they do have a ton of mobile app / gps experience with their original sailing navigation app. They’ve put a lot of work into their ski app and already have resorts in the system. They’re looking for strategic partnerships.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.