A small ski hill's website has one job each morning: show whether the drive is worth it. Put today's conditions, what is open, prices, lessons and the road at the top, updated before the first chair.

What the site is actually for

The decision to drive to a small ski hill is made the night before or over breakfast, usually by a parent holding a phone.

The questions come in a predictable order: whether it is open today, whether the snow is any good, what it will cost for everyone, whether the youngest can take a lesson, and whether the road is passable.

A site that answers those in a minute gets the visit. A site that makes the parent hunt loses them to a quiet day at home, or to the bigger mountain whose site answered first.

With the Family Day weekend and spring break still ahead, this is the stretch of the season when the website works hardest.

Today's conditions, at the top

The home page should open with a conditions box, above any photographs or welcome message.

Open or closed today. Hours, and whether night skiing is on tonight. New snow overnight, the base, the temperature at the bottom and the top. Lifts and runs open, and what was groomed.

And the time it was updated, in plain words: updated at 6:40 this morning. Without a time, a visitor cannot tell this morning's report from last Tuesday's.

What a visitor checks, in order

The first is the one stale sites get wrong most often. A home page still showing December's holiday hours, or an old closure notice, sends families up on the wrong day or keeps them home on a good one.

Prices on one page, in text

Put every price on one page, as text rather than a PDF: adult, youth, child and family tickets, half-day and night tickets, rentals by age, and lesson packages.

Say what is included. A rental package with or without a helmet, a lesson with or without a lift ticket, a family price for how many children.

A parent adding up the cost for four people is deciding whether the trip is worth it. A clear total makes that easy; a missing price makes them guess high.

Lessons for first-timers

Families with beginners need the most reassurance, and they are often the families a small hill depends on.

Explain what a first lesson involves, from what age, how long it lasts, where to meet, what to wear and whether it must be booked ahead. Show the beginner area and the slow lift in a photograph.

A parent who can picture the morning is far more likely to commit to it.

A worked example

A community-run ski hill an hour from town has two chairlifts, a rope tow for beginners and a day lodge with a cafeteria. It opens Thursday to Sunday, with night skiing on Fridays.

Its site had been built several seasons ago. The home page led with a slideshow and a welcome message, and conditions were a PDF the manager emailed to a volunteer, who uploaded it when he could.

On busy weekends the report was often a day old. On one January Thursday the hill closed for wind, the site still said open, and families drove up anyway.

The new home page leads with a conditions box: open or closed, the time updated, overnight snow, temperatures, lifts running, and whether night skiing is on.

The lift supervisor updates it from a phone before the first chair, using a short form with the same fields every day, then shares the link on the hill's Facebook page.

Prices, lessons and the road each moved to a single text page, one tap from the box.

The road and the parking

For a hill an hour away, the drive is part of the price. Describe it: the turn-off, the climb, whether winter tires are enough or chains are sometimes needed.

Link to current highway conditions from the same page, and add a line to the conditions box when the access road itself is the problem.

Explain the parking: where the lots are, whether they fill on weekends, and where overflow parking or any shuttle runs from.

Built for a phone first

Most of these checks happen on a phone, at home or in the car. The conditions box has to be readable without zooming, near the top, on a small screen.

The phone number should be tappable, the pages light enough to load on a weak signal, and nothing important hidden in a slideshow or a PDF.

A webcam helps if it is a still image refreshed every few minutes, with the time shown. Heavy live video does little for a parent on one bar of signal.

Everything else, below the daily facts

Season passes, race days, events, lodge rentals and staff hiring all belong on the site. They belong below the daily information, not in front of it.

A hill selling passes in the fall can give them the top spot then, and hand it back to the conditions box on opening day.

The counter-case

A very small hill that opens only on weekends, with a loyal local crowd, may already post daily updates on Facebook that its regulars follow.

For it, the website's main job can be the stable facts: prices, hours, lessons, directions and parking, with the latest Facebook update linked prominently from the top of the home page.

But the question every visitor arrives with is the same at any size: whether it is worth the drive today. The site has to answer it near the top, every day the hill is open.

What to build first

  1. Open the home page with a conditions box.
  2. Show the time it was last updated.
  3. Name the person who updates it each morning.
  4. Put every price on one text page.
  5. Explain first lessons for beginners and parents.
  6. Describe the road and the parking.
  7. Check the whole morning on a phone in a minute.

Step three is what keeps the rest honest. A conditions box with no owner goes stale within a week, and a stale box is worse than none, because families act on it.

Why visits to a site like this jump with every snowfall, and how to read that, is covered in a cold snap in the visits graph.

Frequently asked questions

When do families check a ski hill website?

Usually the night before or that morning, on a phone, while deciding whether the drive is worth it. The site has to answer them within a minute.

What belongs at the top of the home page?

A conditions box: open or closed today, hours, night skiing, new snow, base, temperatures, lifts and runs open, grooming, and the time it was last updated.

Why show when the conditions were updated?

Without a time, visitors cannot tell this morning's report from last week's. A stale report sends families up on closed days or keeps them home on good ones.

Should prices be in a PDF?

No. Put every ticket, rental and lesson price on one text page, with what each includes, so a parent can add up the cost on a phone.

What do parents of beginners need to know?

What a first lesson involves, from what age, how long it lasts, where to meet, what to wear and whether to book ahead, with a photograph of the beginner area.

Who should update the conditions each day?

One named person, before the first chair, using a short form on a phone with the same fields every day. Without an owner, the report goes stale within a week.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Conditions page still a PDF?

Send us your current home page. We will sketch a conditions box your staff can update from one phone.

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