Winter is coming, so a gallery of interesting ski locations is just the thing

Nov 22, 2011 11:11 GMT  ·  By

Google's Street View covers huge areas at this point. Entire countries are available, such as the UK where every street has been photographed, but also interesting or exotic locations such as Stonehenge or theme parks.

There's plenty to see, the problem is, how do you find it all, how do you find interesting locations if you don't know they're there.

You could load Google Maps and just start looking up locations at random, but Google's Street View Gallery offers a better solution.

Googlers select the most interesting locations and the best-looking Street View imagery and compile them into collections of related places or themes.

Winter is coming, in the Northern hemisphere anyway, so what's better than to check out some ski slopes. Google's new "Ski Resorts and Slopes" gallery should be just the thing.

"From the streets to the slopes, Street View in Google Maps recently updated its special collections to include a number of new ski resorts, so you can tour some of the world’s most beautiful ski terrain right from your browser," Ryan Falor, product manager, Street View Special Collections, announced.

"Whether you’re planning your annual trip to your favorite resort or hunting for an exciting new adventure, Street View can transport you to your desired destination," he said.

The 'street' part of Street View begins to lose its meaning when talking about ski slopes, but the name has stuck. To capture images on the snowy mountains and resorts, Google couldn't rely on the regular Street View cars and definitely not on the Street View trike.

It does have a vehicle up to the job though, the Street View snowmobile, created a couple of years ago for the Winter Olympics. Since then, it's been hitting more locations and capturing ski resorts at their best times.