Did you know you can ski Alberta’s slopes using Google Maps?

I was planning an upcoming road trip and I just stumbled upon something really cool. Did you know that you can use Google Maps to check out any number of Alberta’s ski resorts. And I don’t mean their parking lots, I mean the actual runs!

Apparently they’ve been posted since 2012, but I’m just noticing them now.  So, it’s new to me. Beyond just being cool, I actually really think it’s really helpful because say you wanted to check out the hills before you picked one for your vacation, now you can. Or if you want to check out specific runs.  Or, you could do what I’ve been doing and pretend to go down the black diamonds that you know that you’d never be able to go down in real life.

To see the runs, just go to Google Maps and visit one of your favourite Alberta ski hills. Once there, just drag that little Google guy over the hill and you’ll be able to start to pretend you’re skiing with the best of ’em.

Oh man, I can’t wait to get back out on the slopes!  It’s March now, which means we still have a good two months left!

(Sort of related, but if you haven’t played with Google Street View’s time machine, you might as well say goodbye to your productivity now.)

Lake Louise:

Nakiska:

Winsport:

Sunshine Village:

Mount Norquay:

So how’d Google do it?
I think this photo gives it away:

While I was gathering these photos, I checked out Jasper’s Marmot Basin to see if they had any shots of their slopes, they don’t. But this Google Street View shot of the road up to the ski village in the summer is pretty epic, eh?