Oregon Public Broadcasting

The winter storms across Oregon have done a number on the mountain passes. But at Oregon's biggest ski resort, several feet of new snow has been a blessing.

Mount Bachelor, near Bend, hopes to take advantage of the snow by debuting a new mobile phone technology for customers. As Central Oregon correspondent Ethan Lindsey reports,  it is one of the first in the country to do so.

The first thing any real skier or snowboarder does every morning is check the weather report to see whether it's a good day to 'call in sick' - and hit the slopes.

Now, Bend's major ski resort has made playing hooky even easier.

Mount Bachelor has set up a program that sends an early morning text message to mobile phones.

Frankie Labbe is the resort spokeswoman.
    
Frankie Labbe: “To people who subscribe, and I'm one of the subscribers, its an excellent way of receiving information. You don't have to go to a telephone or a newspaper or a computer. You wake up in the morning and it shows you all of the conditions on the mountain.”

The mobile ski report service has been running since the beginning of the ski season, in early December. Labbe says there are now about 1000 subscribers.

But during the winter holidays, when Bachelor rakes in a ton of its money, the resort debuted a new use of the technology.

Subscribers began receiving electronic coupons for discounts on food and other products.

At a cafeteria in the Mount Bachelor main lodge, customers with Internet-enabled mobile phones can download a coupon that cashiers can scan like any paper discount.

Industry analysts say the ski industry is ripe for stuff like this.

Skiing is  expensive and many skiiers have the money to buy the latest and greatest technology, like fancy cell phones.

Frankie Labbe: “We all understand skiing is an expensive recreation, so we offer our guests some discounts on food and other products we have here on the mountain.”

Labbe says Mount Bachelor is trying to take advantage of that intersection between expensive new technology and the ski business.

But that hasn't been as simple as it sounds.

Take the new lift tickets that Mount Bachelor debuted  last year.  The idea is that skiiers don't have to take anything out their pockets--their tickets are read automatically by radio frequency. And in theory, hands-free ticket scanning sounds like a perfect match for heavily-gloved skiers.

But many locals say the process is slow and bogs down their skiing experience.

And for another thing, Labbe says almost no customers have taken advantage of the text message coupons.

Frankie Labbe: “From the response we got on the cashing in of the coupons, we might be a little ahead of ourselves as far as people who have that web-enabled technology.”

Labbe says that doesn't worry her.

She says the contract that Mount Bachelor signed to deliver the mobile coupons is very cheap and is a just pilot program with a local Bend company, RocketBux.

Plus, as skiers will point out, the sport seems to advance every year. That is advance technologically-speaking, but also in terms of price.