Garmin GPS launch new ski sat nav device – chalet holidays to be won!
Satellite navigation experts, Garmin have teamed up with a number of chalets across the Alps to launch two new GPS devices, designed especially for the ski slopes.
Never again will you panic as you realise that you have been reading the piste map upside down all day and will never make it back to the chalet in time for afternoon tea and cakes. With the Dakota 20 and Oregon 450 navigators you can find your exact location on the Mountain Dynamics SnowRanger map and receive detailed directions telling you what combination of lifts and pistes will take you to where you want to go. Useful locations such as lift pass office, car parks, restaurants and ski schools are all marked on the map.
The product even gets the seal of approval from Olympic skier (and Ski Sunday presenter) Graham Bell: “My Garmin tells me everything from max speed to vertical metres skied and is a great way of recording my whole day's skiing... With ski resort maps I can plan my day on an unfamiliar mountain and I know I will never get lost even in white-out conditions.”
The Garmin Dakota 20 and Oregon 450 are durable, waterproof and have tough glare-resistant screens. Both have a built-in 3-axis electronic compass, which shows where you're heading even when you're standing still, without needing to hold them level. A barometric altimeter tracks changes in pressure to pinpoint your precise altitude. When you've finished on the slopes you can review, relive and replay your runs on the Garmin Snow Club website.
The European Snow Ranger maps feature over 420 ski resorts, and there is also a North American edition.
Guests at certain chalets across the Alps will have the opportunity to trial the Oregon 450, complete with Mountain Dynamics SnowRanger maps, in the resorts of Tignes, Chamonix, Morzine, Courchevel, Les 2 Alpes, Val d'Isere and Meribel. Test centre guests can then upload their data to the Garmin Snow Club website and enter into a League Table, competing with other guests across all test centres. End of season results will determine the winners in such categories as top speed, total distance and total vertical descent. First prize is a week-long chalet holiday in one of the test centres!
Follow Graham Bell and co-host Ed Leigh as they blog about their mountain adventures on the Garmin Snow Club website.
