If you are already familiar with the features and capabilities of SnowRanger Europe, you may make your purchase selection below; otherwise, read-on to find out about this exciting map software.

Mountain Dynamics SnowRanger Europe is a series of complete European ski resort piste maps for your Garmin GPS, showing:

• Pistes
• Lifts
• Ski Schools
• Terrain Parks
• Parking
• Restaurants and Refuges.

No more messing around with torn paper maps in high winds or trying to spot a landmark in a white-out—just pull out your GPS and see exactly where you are and which way to ski or snowboard to get to the next lift or lodge. It takes less than 30 seconds to put these maps onto your Garmin nüvi, eTrex, Oregon, or other GPS, using the pre-programmed memory cards. There are four national sets, and the complete Europe title, available on either memory cards or CD-ROM. A complete list of included resorts is shown on a separate page.

As well as more traditional GPS units like the eTrex and Oregon, Mountain Dymanics SnowRanger Europe is also fully compatible with Garmin's hit series of nüvi Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs), which display the maps with great detail and clarity on their large touchscreens. You can listen to MP3s off the nüvi while you ski, and even take calls without having to take your phone out of your pocket on the Bluetooth-enabled models.

Mountain Dymanics SnowRanger Europe even works on Garmin's Rino series of handhelds, which combine a GPS with a "walkie-talkie" radio. These units transmit their positions to each other so you can see where other members of your family or group are right on your GPS screen.

With Mountain Dynamics SnowRanger Europe your handheld GPS shows you exactly where you are on the map and which way you are heading, so you should never get lost again. You can put all this power literally into the palm of your hand with a "plug and play" memory card or a versatile CD-ROM. Despite their power, these maps are extremely easy to install and use. And by knowing where you are, even if a storm rolls in or you take a wrong turn, you'll always know where to find the safety of the village or the nearest lodge. Plus with high lift ticket prices, Mountain Dynamics SnowRanger Europe will let you get the most out of each day.

The Mountain Dynamics SnowRanger Europe gives you the information you need out on the mountain. Other GPS-related ski products are just trackers that let you look at your stats at the end of the day. Get lost in a whiteout or find yourself in desperate need of food and they are not going to help you, since their GPS units have no maps, or even a screen. With Mountain Dynamics SnowRanger on your GPS though, you can have it all.

SnowRanger Europe maps for Garmin devices offer turn-by-turn directions for on-mountain navigation. This is just like the directions feature that vehicle navigators offer, and SnowRanger uses the capability built into most Garmin GPSes by making trail maps act like street networks. On vehicle-type units such as the nuvi, the directions will be spoken, and you can be skiing along listening to directions in an earpiece if you connect one to the GPS. For outdoors hendheld units the directions are shown on-screen, and the unit will usually "beep" to announce that the directions displayed have changed.

It's essential to bear in mind that SnowRanger Europe is using the standard street navigation feature of the Garmin GPS devices, and the application does not have precise control over how that works. You need to use common sense when reviewing directions given and keep in mind the following points:

1. The GPS does not know what level of skier/snowboarder you are. Even though SnowRanger Europe tends to avoid difficult pistes, you need to ensure that you can handle the skiing ahead.
2. The GPS treats most of the lifts and pistes as "one-way streets". Consequently, if you are at a piste junction, or at the top of a lift where multiple pistes go off in different directions, the GPS may think that you are already "on" the nearest piste and committed to going down it, even though the best route is actually for you to walk a few seconds towards another piste.
3. Lifts and pistes might be currently closed, especially near the beginning and end of the season.
4. Sometimes you might be told to turn left when actually you need to turn right (or vice versa). This may happen when you are approaching the bottom of a lift that you are to get on, for example. If the piste on the SnowRanger Europe map approaches on the right side of the lift station you will be told to turn left onto the lift. However you might be skiing along the left hand side of the piste, coming more to the left of the station, and so for you it's to your right. The scenario also may occur based on where the ski resort arranges the entrance for the lanes for waiting to load the lift.
5. If you start a new route while you are standing on the slopes under or near the path of a lift, the route might start by putting you on to the lift. The GPS does not know that you cannot just jump onto the lift in the middle.
6. If the GPS cannot create a proper route from here to there, it will show a simple "as the crow flies" straight line to guide you towards your destination.

Mountain Dynamics has done their best to implement the turn-by-turn feature in the framework of the built-in Garmin routing system. Consider the turn-by-turn directions provided by SnowRanger Europe more of a "suggestion" that the definitive routing as you might get in your car. For additional information and suggestions about this feature, please visit the Mountain Dynamics website.

Routes can also be created on your PC, if you choose the CD-ROM version of SnowRanger Europe. These routes can be reviewed on the PC, including looking at their elevation profiles (no more flat cat-tracks!), and then downloaded to your GPS.

SnowRanger Europe 2010/11 adds new resorts in the Pyrenees, 14 in all, bringing the current Europe total to 450 resorts. The new resorts have been added to the France/Andorra National set, or, of course, can be bought in the best-value Europe set:

• France/Andorra
  • Ax-3 Domaines Ax-Les-Thermes, Bonascre
  • Baqueira-Beret Bonaigua
  • Cauterets
  • Font-Romeu Pyrenees 2000 Bolquere
  • Gourette
  • Grand Tourmalet Bareges, La Mongie, Domaine du Tourmalet
  • Grandvalira Soldeu, El Tarter, Grau Roig, Pas de la Casa, Encamp, Canillo
  • La Pierre Saint-Martin
  • Luchon-Superbagneres
  • Luz-Ardiden
  • Peyragudes
  • Piau-Engaly
  • Saint-Lary Soulon Pla d'Adet, Espiaube
  • Vallnord Arcalis, Pal, Arinsal, Ordino, La Massana.
    

The complete list of resorts is provided on a separate page.

Whether you use SnowRanger Europe or not, you can keep a journal of your skiing or snowboarding on the Mountain Dynamics website, so that you can log and share your adventures. Your experiences are dynamically incorporated into the website and into the SnowRanger Europe maps themselves.

As part of your reports you can upload the "tracks" from your GPS showing where you have been, and view them online overlaid on a SnowRanger resort map.  Log your Snow Days into the Mountain Dynamics GPS ski tracking and statistics service and use the maps and your reports to relive your winter escapades all year long.

When Mountain Dynamics SnowRanger Europe is purchased on CD-ROM, the maps are locked until you enter an unlock code that corresponds to the "Unit ID" of your GPS. Your Unlock Code can be obtained right after you purchase the SnowRanger Europe product, or when you install and run the Garmin MapSource software that the CD contains, and can be managed at your My Page portion of the Mountain Dynamics website. All of the Mountain Dynamics CD-ROM titles come with two unlock codes so that you can use your maps with up to two personal Garmin GPSes.

Any Garmin GPS receiver that supports map downloads or memory cards, such as nüvi (all models), Colorado (all models), Oregon (all models), Dakota (all models), GPSmap 60/60C/60CS/60Cx/60CSx, GPSmap 76/76C/76S/76CS/76Cx/76CSx, eTrex Vista/Vista C/Cx/HCx/Legend/Legend C/Cx/HCx, eTrex Venture Cx, Rino 120/130/520/520HCx/530/530HCx, Edge 605/705, zūmo® (all models), Astro 220, and GPS V. Some of these models require a microSD memory card hold downloadable maps.

SnowRanger Europe maps can be used under Garmin Mobile XT software, on a wide variety of Windows Mobile, Palm, and Symbian-based smartphones.

 

 

 

Home About Us Maps Adventures Contact Us Site Map Links

Mountain Dynamics ALK Technologies Future Maps