From the Couch to the Chairlift: The New Ski Cloudcroft Website

A ski trip usually starts on a phone. Before anyone loads the car, someone in the family is checking how big the mountain is, what a lift ticket covers, whether the kids can rent boots, and who to call about lessons. Those questions get asked on the couch, in a parking lot, or halfway up the highway, and the ski area whose website answers them quickly is the one that gets the visit.

Speed decides a lot of those visits. In The Need for Mobile Speed, published last month, Google's DoubleClick reported that 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned when a page takes longer than three seconds to load. For a small ski area competing for a family's weekend, a fast mobile site is part of the front gate.

Ski Cloudcroft has been a favorite ski area in New Mexico for more than 50 years. It calls itself the southernmost ski area in the state, and it sits in the mountains outside the village of Cloudcroft with a base elevation of 8,400 feet and a summit at 9,100. Families come to ski, snowboard, and tube. MPC Studios built Ski Cloudcroft's previous website too, and the new site, launching ahead of the 2016-17 season, keeps the five pages guests already know while rebuilding everything underneath them.

A homepage that answers the first three questions

The homepage opens on a full-width photo of a skier in fresh powder with the line "You're going to love Ski Cloudcroft," followed by the promise the mountain makes to families: a place "to ski, snowboard, tube and, most importantly, have fun!"

Directly below the photo sits a full-width announcement banner. Right now it thanks guests for a great season and says the mountain looks forward to seeing them next year, and when opening day arrives the same spot will carry that news. Putting the status message in one consistent place, above everything else, means a guest checking whether the mountain is open never has to hunt for it.

Next comes a section called Ski With Us, with three cards for the three things first-time visitors ask about most: rates and information, rental equipment, and the Cloud Nine Ski School. Each card has a short description and a Read More button that goes straight to the page with the details.

Mountain stats that sell the hill

Skiers compare mountains by the numbers, so the homepage gives them a Mountain Stats section with animated counters. The top elevation is 9,100 feet with a 700-foot vertical drop. There are 25 trails, made up of eight beginner runs, seven intermediate, eight advanced, and two marked expert only. Three lifts carry guests up the hill: a double chairlift, a handle tow, and a rope tow. Those figures tell a family in seconds whether the mountain suits a beginner, a teenager who wants steeper terrain, or both.

Rates, rentals, and lessons, each on its own page

The Rates & Information page gathers lift tickets, rentals, tubing sessions, and lessons into one rate table, repeats the mountain stats, and shows the trail map so guests can picture the runs before they arrive. Keeping every price on a single page saves a family from adding up costs across several screens.

The Rentals page explains that guests don't need to own any gear. It describes a fleet of more than 300 sets of Fischer XTR and Viron skis and 129 Burton snowboards, along with tune-ups and repairs for guests who bring their own equipment.

The Ski School page introduces the Cloud Nine Ski School, with group lessons for ages 8 and up and private lessons for both skiing and snowboarding. Every lesson type ends with the phone number to book, (575) 682-2333, so a parent reading on a phone can tap and call.

Built for phones, and easy to keep current

Every page on the new site adapts to the screen it's viewed on. On a phone the navigation collapses into a single menu button, the photos resize, and the stats and cards stack into one easy column. The Contact page pairs a short question form with an embedded map, and the footer on every page carries the phone number, email address, street address, and a Get Directions link, so the information a guest needs on the drive up is always one scroll away.

The rebuild also makes the site easier for the mountain to keep current. The announcement banner, the rate table, and an Upcoming Events area in the footer can all be updated as conditions change, which matters at a ski area where the most important news is whether the lifts are running today.

What other ski areas and attractions can take from this site

A ski area's website works hardest in the days before a trip, when a family is deciding where to go and what it will take to get everyone on the snow. Ski Cloudcroft's site is organized around that decision. The homepage answers the first questions in order: is the mountain open, is it right for us, and what will we need. The pages behind it each handle one topic completely, and the phone number and directions are never far away.

Smaller mountains and seasonal attractions can hold their own against bigger destinations with a fast, phone-friendly site that describes the experience honestly, keeps the status of the season easy to find, and makes the next step obvious, whether that's renting skis, booking a lesson, or getting directions up the mountain.

Ski Cloudcroft's website is live at skicloudcroft.net. Built by MPC Studios.

Working on a website for a ski area, attraction, or seasonal business? Let's talk.