Tour operator Interski has created four new virtual piste maps for the resorts of Courmayeur, Pila, La Thuile and Champoluc in the Aosta Valley of western Italy, where they’ve organised holidays for 32 years.
The maps allow you to “see before you ski” or just relive fond memories of a favourite slope and pick any run in the resort to “virtually” ski down the piste, taking in all the dips and turns of each resort’s blue, red and black runs. “It started three seasons ago with some GoPros,” said Colin McIntosh, Managing Director of Interski. “We thought, why not convert existing piste maps; join the digital revolution; be the first, the originator; blaze the trail? Piste maps, Jim, but not as we know them!” The task was perhaps larger than Interski had initially envisaged, taking three seasons to film and a further six months to collate, construct and perfect. “It was stacks of work,” admitted Colin. To use the maps and check out a run before you ski it, either live on the day to see whether it’s the kind of thing you want to ski, or perhaps months ahead before you even leave home, you simply click on the run’s name and a video opens up on the screen showing a topto-bottom descent of the piste from a skier’s perspective, clearly filmed and easy to follow. virtual.interski.co.uk
