The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: December fourteenth, with a few lines about on-line ski lines.

A good ski vacation usually involves advance planning and lots of luck with the weather. Information about skiing has never been more accessible, at least in theory. The Internet can bring a blizzard of information on ski areas and conditions around the world to anyone with a computer and access to the World Wide Web.

For starters, most ski areas now maintain their own Web sites, offering lift prices, current snow conditions, maps of their trail systems, web cams and available accommodations. Unfortunately, these sites are usually actively up-dated only during the ski season, which makes them somewhat less useful for advance planning than for figuring out how many layers to wear on any particular day.

If you're still shopping for a place to go, another option is visiting one of the well-designed, on-line ski information clearing houses. One operated by the University of Maryland ranks high, providing direct links to and trail maps for hundreds of ski areas around the world. The Snow Page is another free online service with colorful pages and lots of interesting and informative links. In addition, there are various ski clubs and organizations, ski-zines, list servers and on-line discussion groups, any of which can provide valuable insights.

During the season, you can always access the latest snow and weather conditions by clicking on several ski web sites or the National Weather Service ski report. Finally, if you're still advance planning your trip and want facts about long-range weather forecasts anywhere in the world, there's the National Climate Data Center. FMI List on on-line ski resources

Snow link: www.skimaps.com

Snow net: www.skinet.com

Ski central: www.skicentral.com

AMI News: www.aminews.com

Snowzine: www.wzone.com/snozone

Mountain Zone: www.mountainzone.com
Present weather and snow conditions: www.wxusa.com/ski

Future forcasts - National Climate Data Center: www.Cdc.Noaa.Gov/

 

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