For those of you who ski at Sunshine or any big hill

[darkmanCANADA]

This year a few of our friends have bought family seasons passes at Sunshine. I was wondering what the best way to communicate with a big group consisting of 5 adults and 5 kids. Sometimes a couple of the parents will take the younger kids on some of the easier runs while the other parents will ski the runs off Goats Eye or the Divide. Or sometimes some of the older kids want to go off on their own. This past weekend some snowboarder took out my 6 year old son on the Divide and my wife could not get a hold of me because my cell had no service down by Wolverine chair.

My question is how do you communicate with such a big group? Cellphone? GMRS/FRS radios?

[Ponto]

Re: For those of you who ski at Sunshine or any big hill

We made a plan to meet somewhere at a certain time, and would meet there. If someone was 5-10 minutes late no big deal. Since we didn't have any means of getting a hold of someone on the hill.

That being said, Radios maybe? Never really used anything aside from cell phones, which of course don't always have signal.

Edit.. I suck at reading, missed the part of a border taking out your kid. Sorry man, wasn't trying to be a dick. Hope he is ok.

[CGDoig]

Re: For those of you who ski at Sunshine or any big hill

We used to use radios. To get quality ones is a bit of money but worth it when your seperating.

[P Arkus]

Re: For those of you who ski at Sunshine or any big hill

Man thats horrible. Hope your son is ok. From what i've heard from friends, 2 way radio's are the best way to keep communication, however they need to be good quality radios so they'll be a bit more expensive.

[snipa_mini85]

Re: For those of you who ski at Sunshine or any big hill

Good quality 2-way radios that have a ton of channels to choose from and not just the standard 1-14. Probably the ones that can do all the decimal places as well that way you can always switch frequencies if an unwanted person is on the same freq.

The Oakley Airwave and Smith Recon also have a 'Buddy Tracking' option but there are too many factors it relies on (bluetooth, OS, everybody needs to be running the same app, cell reception) and it's more for parents tracking other parents since both goggles are over $650.

[Kor]

Re: For those of you who ski at Sunshine or any big hill

How did people go skiing before technology, it must have been impossible right?

[100%VAGitarian]

Re: For those of you who ski at Sunshine or any big hill

How did people go skiing before technology, it must have been impossible right?

awesome.

[darkmanCANADA]

Re: For those of you who ski at Sunshine or any big hill

Man thats horrible. Hope your son is ok. From what i've heard from friends, 2 way radio's are the best way to keep communication, however they need to be good quality radios so they'll be a bit more expensive.

Thanks for the concern. My son was OK except for a little soreness in his leg. He is a tough little guy. But seriously how can you not see a person with a bright safety green jacket and black pants. My wife was literally less than 10 feet away when it happened. I think it would have been a different story if I was there but I was with my daughter on the other side of Sunshine. I think I would have tried to charge him with reckless something or other....

About 20 minutes ago I picked up some Cobra 37km (yeah right) radios at The Source on a door crasher for $30. The 43km ones were $90.

[darkmanCANADA]

Re: For those of you who ski at Sunshine or any big hill

Good quality 2-way radios that have a ton of channels to choose from and not just the standard 1-14. Probably the ones that can do all the decimal places as well that way you can always switch frequencies if an unwanted person is on the same freq.

The Oakley Airwave and Smith Recon also have a 'Buddy Tracking' option but there are too many factors it relies on (bluetooth, OS, everybody needs to be running the same app, cell reception) and it's more for parents tracking other parents since both goggles are over $650.

I looked at those commercial radios and those can between $200-$500 per handset and require a license from the CRTC. Having said that there are some Chinese manufacturers like Baofeng that make inexpensive ones for around $40 shipped to Canada. Go to dx.com and do a search. Lots of ham radio operator use them and it gets some fair reviews http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/10349.

[asp gti]

Re: For those of you who ski at Sunshine or any big hill

sunshine is nice cause rogers is a big sponsor and all rogers calling is considered 'calgary area' while you are there so no long distance charges. Also i have found decent coverage over the whole mountain. That being said best way to do it is have places you plan to meet at certain times ie "Trappers at 1pm"

[bonfire]

Re: For those of you who ski at Sunshine or any big hill

Charged him? Lol.

[PRY4SNO]

Re: For those of you who ski at Sunshine or any big hill

I'm sure your radios will do fine. I've used them before but to be honest, they seemed to be more of a pain in the ass than anything... lately I just use the old keep up or see you at the bottom (or next intersection) when I'm out with people.

Charged him? Lol.

This.

[martin13]

Re: For those of you who ski at Sunshine or any big hill

sunshine is nice cause rogers is a big sponsor and all rogers calling is considered 'calgary area' while you are there so no long distance charges. Also i have found decent coverage over the whole mountain. That being said best way to do it is have places you plan to meet at certain times ie "Trappers at 1pm"

Rogers used to be the sponsor but I believe it is telus now. Last year I had horrible cell service at subshine (I'm with Rogers) and the people that were with telus had full coverage

[darkmanCANADA]

Re: For those of you who ski at Sunshine or any big hill

UPDATE

Shortly after started this thread I ordered: http://dx.com/p/baofeng-1-5-lcd-5w-1...t-black-129389. It took almost 7 weeks to get here. I ordered the radio, external speaker/mic & programming cable for a total cost including shipping $59.

So far the radio is great. My first task was to program all the FRS & GMRS frequencies so that I could communicate with all the bubble pack radios out there. Here are some points I found:

-power is 4W on high and 1W on low (bubble pack radios are rated at 1/2W)
-standard battery that it came with lasts a whole day
-I could send/receive to a Cobra CTX345C (35km stated range) at Lake Louise from the Whiskyjack Lodge to the top of the Top of the World Express
-I could send/receive to a Cobra CTX145C (25km stated range) at Sunshine from the bottom of Standish to the top of the Great Divide Express

It has received some good reviews on various forums on the net and has lots of support on a few sites as the translated manual really sucks and the included software is just as bad. I used the CHIRP software from http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home.