Our buddy Joe Stevens called me moments ago to discuss the great conditions happening right now here in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic. Joe is always good for a quote and this morning was no different. He shared, “This MLK Weekend setup was a perfect storm. The weather was mild and allowed everyone to safely get to the resorts, then cold and snow hit to pretty up and freshen up the slopes. Snowmaking kicked in and everyone is having a blast and then sunny skies hit to allow everyone to get back home safely before the next snow hits Tuesday.”
He’s not wrong. One look at the webcams at each ski area will attest to the massive crowds of people who have invaded each mountain of the region. This is certainly awesome news for every ski area management staffer.
After sharing some nice comments, Joe quickly went on a rampage. He asked me, “Did you know that OnTheSnow doesn’t even mention the Southeast on their website navigation anymore?”
I didn’t.
OnTheSnow promotes themselves as the resource to – “Find snow reports, weather forecasts and webcams for ski areas worldwide, plus skiing gear, travel info, news and deals.”
They are owned and operated by Mountain News Corp, which is owned by Vail Resorts.
Joe reached out to OnTheSnow with the following email:
Greetings –
Why isn’t there a southeast region for Region or Resorts pull down on OnTheSnow.com home page? No mention of Va, WV, Md, NC or TN. What gives, please explain what I am doing wrong? This is my third email on the subject. Thank you.
The response came from Heather Fried, the managing editor. She wrote:
With limited space in our nav and on our homepage, we have to prioritize the most highly trafficked destinations.
Rest assured that most people are coming in through organic search directly to the resort pages they’re looking for. Those who do land on our homepage heavily use the search function, where all resorts are represented equally.
Best,
Heather Fried | Managing Editor
What are we missing?
Like Joe pointed out, the Southeast and mid-Atlantic ski areas probably teach more first time skiers and snowboarders how to play than any other region in the United States. Ms. Fried’s response was a bit disingenuous since there is tons of room to include the region on their navigation as well as under resorts. They also have eliminated any mention of the region in their footer navigation at the bottom of their front page.
As Joe shared, “I was hoping that this was just a programmer mistake that nobody noticed. I sent an email to the website and receive their answer, which I considered rude and ridiculous. I know there are resorts that pay the website for their service and to be left off the home page directory?!?”
Needless to say, Stevens’ is fired up on this one.
Awwww…Who Needs ‘Em Anyway…
Let’s be honest…who covers the Southeast and mid-Atlantic ski areas like we do anyway? Our team has posted more than 10,000 FirsTrax stories, tens of thousands of photos, tons of videos and hundreds of lodging and shopping partners for every resort in the region. We’ve created a network of LIVE, STREAMING webcams that show every ski area like nobody else and our weather network now blankets the Southeast and mid-Atlantic like the snowmakers of our region can cover our slopes.
In closing, I will say that the omission of our region is an odd one though. Relax Joe…we’ve got this.