Winter Park ski resort is installing "first of its kind" digital technology on one of its chairlifts.
Certain chairs on the resort's Super Gauge Express lift will now feature several digital screens on their safety bars.
The five upgraded chairs will stream real-time weather updates, information about Interstate 70 traffic and details about which terrain on the mountain is open. That sounds ... pretty useful, actually, since phones tend to give up and die on the mountain.
The chair-screens will not make any sounds whatsoever, the resort promises.
The devices are made by Alpine Media Technology, a startup out of Centennial. The parties claim this technology is the "first of its kind in the ski industry world-wide."
Winter Park is the only client listed on the company's website. The resort is "the first to have screens on a chairlift out in the elements," according to spokesman Steve Hurlbert.
The screens will be in use all season on the five chairs. "Since it’s a pilot program, after the season is over we’ll evaluate whether it was a successful experiment and either remove the screens or add them to more chairs.," Hurlbert wrote Denverite.
And, if you're curious: The screens will apparently be recharged as they pass through the lift terminal at the bottom of the run.
No one has told me whether I'll be able to play SkiFree on these things, but obviously that is their best and highest use.
