Cyberspace Has a Run on Ski Sites

Whether you’re a fainthearted novice looking for advice on how to recover from a bunny hill tumble or an adrenaline junkie in search of the world’s most extreme runs, you’ll find an avalanche of ski and snowboard information on the World Wide Web this winter: At least 4,500 sites, up from a few hundred just two years ago.

Thanks to demographic similarities between Internet geeks and snow hounds--both groups tend to be young, affluent and well-educated--everyone from ski resort marketers to equipment manufacturers has a presence in cyberspace. As author Jim Neff points out in his recent Snow Country guide to ski-related sites (https://www.snowcountry.com/997/shussweb.html), buyers can even design their own skis or snowboards online. So pervasive is the industry’s reach that one tour operator, Colorado-based Moguls Ski and Snowboard Tours (https://www.skimoguls.com/welcome.html), reports more than half its sales come from its Web site.

So how do you separate the fresh powder sites from those that are icy with rocks? One of the best places to start is Ski Central (https://www.skicentral.com), a directory that claims the most exhaustive list of snow-related sites on the Web. About 200 sites are added each month, and the well-organized directory is updated several times a day to correct changed or outdated addresses. Ski Central is fast and easy to use, and its sophisticated search engine provides links to corresponding areas within the site. Type in “Whistler,” for example, and you’ll also be directed to its neighboring resort, Blackcomb.

This year, most of the attention is on so-called “mega sites” that offer ski-related news and events, updated snow reports, instructional advice, and information on equipment and resorts.

The most irreverent of the bunch are iSki (https://www.iski.com) and its sibling, Snowboarding Online (https://www.solsnowboarding.com). iSki’s year-old Mountain Club, a free membership program, offers registered users discounts on lift tickets, lodgings and other necessities, while Snowboarding Online includes a thoroughly researched dictionary of snowboarding terms.

But a recent check of iSki’s forums was a bit disheartening: An early season request for readers to “Talk About the Weather” generated just one plaintive, mid-October post, “Where is it snowing?” Two weeks later, he still hadn’t received a reply despite a major blizzard in the Colorado Rockies.

SkiNet (https://www.skinet.com), a site that combines the considerable resources of Ski and Skiing magazine, emphasizes news and events updated daily (it was among the first ski-related sites to address the potential impact of this winter’s El Nin~o on snowfall across North America). New features include a daily roster of “10 Best Dumps” and expanded snow reports that cover nearly 500 North American resorts and 70 European resorts.

The biggest advantage of the uncluttered, easy-to-navigate GoSki site (https://www.goski.com) is its reliance on a team of more than 7,500 “good eggs”--readers who contribute unvarnished, on-the-spot reviews of equipment--and more than 2,000 resorts in 30 countries. The hands-down winner for Southern California skiers is Mark Bixby’s Southland Ski Server (https://www.skisocal.org), which focuses on the local mountains and Mammoth.

New this season, meanwhile, are The Mining Co.’s trio of ski and snowboarding sites, each staffed by a guide who directs readers to handpicked sites (https://skiing.miningco.com, https://snowboarding.miningco.com and https://skitrips.miningco.com). Best of the three is Paula Eisenberg’s skiing site, thanks in no small measure to the Internet consultant’s obvious expertise and passion for the sport. Eisenberg is also the mastermind behind Paula’s Ski Lovers (https://www.lynx com.com/pje/skilover/), a lively forum that tackles subjects from discount cards to memorable conversations on chairlifts.

Bly welcomes reader comments; her e-mail address is Laura Bly@latimes.com. Electronic Explorer appears monthly.