9th
Social Network: Epic Mix
This is absolutely brilliant. Epic Mix is a multi-hill season pass AND a social network for skiers in Colorado. The participating resorts include Vail, Heavenly, Keystone, Breckenridge, and Beaver Creek.
Each pass is equipped with a RFID tag that gets scanned every time you go up a lift. The data is then populated in your online profile (similar to Nike+), which you can share with your friends.
In my mind, GeoSocial hasn’t really taken off because it’s too much work for the user. This initiative on the other hand is a perfect low-barrier passive experience that would almost beg you to use it. Also, combining gaming mechanics (badges, stats, etc.) with a social network (a la Foursquare, Gowalla, and Miso) is a great idea. Well done.
The Epic Mix experience is pretty bad ass.
Nike+ on steriods meets Facebook for mountains such as Vail, Heavenly, Keystone and others.
Great incentive for buying a season pass.
