6 ms·

Tool for tracking upcoming powder days at ski resorts and last-second flights

78 points by Gaussian 10y ago

JamesChevalier 10y ago
This is cool! I built https://blizzalert.com https://blizzalert.com a while back which does part of this - sends an SMS with snowfall alerts for mountains that you're watching. I didn't think to match it up with flight costs. Nice job!
- rbritton 10y ago
  Out of curiosity (if you're willing to share), did you actually find a decent source for ski condition data, or did you end up having to scrape and parse?
  - toast0 10y ago
    Onthesnow / mountain news has good data and APIs, but I don't know how easy it is to get access (you have to go through a contact form), where I was using it, the contract had been setup many years before I joined.
ISL 10y ago
Agreed that it's a cool idea, especially if extended to international travel. Some parts of the world are closer than we expect. Local note: Why would a Seattleite fly from SeaTac at $562 to Vancouver in order to arrange other transport to Whistler? There are direct sub-$100 buses SEA-Whistler...
Kapura 10y ago
Ah, finally. A tool that will serve the needs of the common man. Just the other day I was talking to a bus driver at a bar and he was telling me that he wanted to be booking last-minute flights to ski at a day's notice, but that he wished there were a tool to help him out.
- IanDrake 10y ago
  In a world where Snapchat just IPO'd, do you really want to ride the high horse on this one.
  - foobar1962 10y ago
    It's already dropped below issue price.
- arjie 10y ago
  LOL. I checked your webpage expecting some work considering your sanctimonious tone. Instead it's just a bunch of games. You made games while people are starving and you decide to hector people. Give me a break.
kafkaesq 10y ago
An interesting arbitrage. Quite likely generalizable, too.
lavezzi 10y ago
Isn't this approach going to end up being expensive all round? It doesn't factor in any of the other incidentals.
pashabitz 10y ago
Sweet! Please add sorting by powder (hi to lo) combined with price (lo to hi) for an ultimate "powder per dollar" index. Thanks
- avn2109 10y ago
  This is the killer feature.
nether 10y ago
The ranking's a bit disingenuous since precipitation totals are notoriously hard to predict. There should be a huge sigma for each value, making it impossible to guarantee that the 28" forecast at a location will exceed the 27" forecast elsewhere. Accumulations will also vary after the clouds have gone, as wind transport can shift the distribution significantly, leading to that one side of the mountain that seems to be permanently scraped off or wind crusted.
kevinSuttle 10y ago
Literally the whitest post ever
blklane 10y ago
Ah thats pretty cool! I made https://snow.watch https://snow.watch that gives 10 day forecast snow reports via SMS. Wanted to do a second angle on it, see you did travel which is pretty sweet. I assume those are affiliate links, wonder what % are buying flights?
- Gaussian 10y ago
  Thank you. Flight buys: Not a big percentage. Very small. This was more about making something useful that I wanted for myself, which I did, and I did it just for Chicago. It emailed me every morning. I finally got around to building a page around it, however, and added other metros.
rrhyne 10y ago
Cool, but you could improve the user workflow. I have 2 airports tops I could leave out of here in San Diego. It doesn't help me at all that there are fares from Seattle to xxxxxxx. I recommend you ask me to enter my location and show me only relevant results.
- Gaussian 10y ago
  Good idea. One issue I have is that I'm limited on the number of queries I can make to ITA for free. Google keeps jacking up the rates.
grogenaut 10y ago
You have it finding flights from SEA to YVR. That's basically pointless, it's 180 miles and I have a car if I drive up. Or train. Cool otherwise.
griffinkelly 10y ago
I've been following the site a while. Great to see a new feature addition and get me coming back before we're missing the snow. Would be cool to have a comparison between train/flight/drive per ticket/extrapolated cost and time, and see what would get me there the quickest and cheapest. Pending I can actually find an affordable fare lets see if I'll be on the mountain one last time this season.
aaronmu 10y ago
Anything like this for Europe?
meteore 10y ago
I am surprised that nobody has mentioned the environmental perversity of this. Guys, wake up! There will be no snow for you or for anybody very soon if you go this route.
awareBrah 10y ago
Nice page. Was thinking of building something like this for my own use, but then I saw yours and it was pretty much what I wanted so that's great. Glad to see whistler on that list! I'll be there next week if anyone wants to hit some runs, ping me

78 points by Gaussian 10y ago

This is cool! I built https://blizzalert.com https://blizzalert.com a while back which does part of this - sends an SMS with snowfall alerts for mountains that you're watching. I didn't think to match it up with flight costs. Nice job!

rbritton 10y ago
Out of curiosity (if you're willing to share), did you actually find a decent source for ski condition data, or did you end up having to scrape and parse?
- toast0 10y ago
  Onthesnow / mountain news has good data and APIs, but I don't know how easy it is to get access (you have to go through a contact form), where I was using it, the contract had been setup many years before I joined.

ISL 10y ago

Agreed that it's a cool idea, especially if extended to international travel. Some parts of the world are closer than we expect. Local note: Why would a Seattleite fly from SeaTac at $562 to Vancouver in order to arrange other transport to Whistler? There are direct sub-$100 buses SEA-Whistler...

Kapura 10y ago

Ah, finally. A tool that will serve the needs of the common man. Just the other day I was talking to a bus driver at a bar and he was telling me that he wanted to be booking last-minute flights to ski at a day's notice, but that he wished there were a tool to help him out.

IanDrake 10y ago
In a world where Snapchat just IPO'd, do you really want to ride the high horse on this one.
- foobar1962 10y ago
  It's already dropped below issue price.
arjie 10y ago
LOL. I checked your webpage expecting some work considering your sanctimonious tone. Instead it's just a bunch of games. You made games while people are starving and you decide to hector people. Give me a break.

kafkaesq 10y ago

An interesting arbitrage. Quite likely generalizable, too.

lavezzi 10y ago

Isn't this approach going to end up being expensive all round? It doesn't factor in any of the other incidentals.

pashabitz 10y ago

Sweet! Please add sorting by powder (hi to lo) combined with price (lo to hi) for an ultimate "powder per dollar" index. Thanks

avn2109 10y ago
This is the killer feature.

nether 10y ago

The ranking's a bit disingenuous since precipitation totals are notoriously hard to predict. There should be a huge sigma for each value, making it impossible to guarantee that the 28" forecast at a location will exceed the 27" forecast elsewhere. Accumulations will also vary after the clouds have gone, as wind transport can shift the distribution significantly, leading to that one side of the mountain that seems to be permanently scraped off or wind crusted.

kevinSuttle 10y ago

Literally the whitest post ever

blklane 10y ago

Ah thats pretty cool! I made https://snow.watch https://snow.watch that gives 10 day forecast snow reports via SMS. Wanted to do a second angle on it, see you did travel which is pretty sweet. I assume those are affiliate links, wonder what % are buying flights?

Gaussian 10y ago
Thank you. Flight buys: Not a big percentage. Very small. This was more about making something useful that I wanted for myself, which I did, and I did it just for Chicago. It emailed me every morning. I finally got around to building a page around it, however, and added other metros.

rrhyne 10y ago

Cool, but you could improve the user workflow. I have 2 airports tops I could leave out of here in San Diego. It doesn't help me at all that there are fares from Seattle to xxxxxxx. I recommend you ask me to enter my location and show me only relevant results.

Gaussian 10y ago
Good idea. One issue I have is that I'm limited on the number of queries I can make to ITA for free. Google keeps jacking up the rates.

grogenaut 10y ago

You have it finding flights from SEA to YVR. That's basically pointless, it's 180 miles and I have a car if I drive up. Or train. Cool otherwise.

griffinkelly 10y ago

I've been following the site a while. Great to see a new feature addition and get me coming back before we're missing the snow. Would be cool to have a comparison between train/flight/drive per ticket/extrapolated cost and time, and see what would get me there the quickest and cheapest. Pending I can actually find an affordable fare lets see if I'll be on the mountain one last time this season.

aaronmu 10y ago

Anything like this for Europe?

meteore 10y ago

I am surprised that nobody has mentioned the environmental perversity of this. Guys, wake up! There will be no snow for you or for anybody very soon if you go this route.

awareBrah 10y ago

Nice page. Was thinking of building something like this for my own use, but then I saw yours and it was pretty much what I wanted so that's great. Glad to see whistler on that list! I'll be there next week if anyone wants to hit some runs, ping me