Ok, here are the explanations. <B>(don't read this message if you're not deeply dedicated to skiing, cause you will laugh, cry or get mad)</B>. Hmm, I hope people won't think I'm too much sick, after reading this... I'm a real stats dedicated + a dedicated skier, so the mix is quite dangerous. <BR> <BR>First, few little fast facts about me and skiing. <BR> <BR>7½ y/o : I began to ski (jan 1988) <BR>(and began to like ski in feb 1988) <BR> <BR>8 y/o : I was always asking the name of the trails we skied to my father. (I took my first extreme trail at 8, too) <BR> <BR>9 y/o : I was knowing every ski areas in the province with all their stats and I invented the formula that I still use to rate the ski areas size today. <BR> <BR>10-11 y/o : I began to draw some trail maps. I really skcu for drawing in general... and trail maps is probably the only thing I'm good to draw today <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT="

"> <BR> <BR>I kept my lift tickets a long time, in my early ski years, but I threw all to the garbage, one day (arggggggggghhhhhhhh what a mistake). <BR> <BR>In 1993, I did my 1st big summary of a ski season. I still laugh to see my drawn trail maps into it, although it's less worst than the very first ones. <BR> <BR>On this summary, I have my very 1st chart of best ski areas. The top 5 in that time was #1 : Val Saint-Côme, #2 : Garceau, #3 : Mt Blanc, #4 : Mt Gabriel and #5 was Tremblant. I also had my top 25 toughest trails ever. The "Sous-Bois" of Mt Blanc was my #1... it's still in my top 50 today. <BR> <BR>During summer 1995, I began to write the trails that I was hiking and the vertical I hiked in my days. So in november, when my ski season started, I did the same thing for my reports. (not vertical, though) <BR> <BR>Stats I had at this moment : <BR> <BR>Date ; Mountain ; trails taken (with their level) ; the toughest to less tough rating for the trails and the open lifts..... and a trail map drawn with color codes. <BR> <BR>If you think I was crazy when I was doing this, please DON'T READ the following 3 paragraphs. <BR> <BR>Now I must say it's really easy and fast, cause I took a part of the boring summer 2002 to draw and scan the trail maps for every ski areas where I ski, so I have just to print and to fill with few colors the trails I've skied, etc... but for the stats sheet, it's a little bit more complete than it was in 1995, although I also have complete models in Excel, so it's really fast to do : <BR> <BR>Date ; mountain ; skis used ; trails taken, Rating 1-10 for them ; First trail taken in the day ; last one ; Number of times I skied each trail ; level of difficulty of the trails ; approx. percentage taken ; percentage of the trails that were open (only the ones I took) ; the number of times I took the trails closed if so ; the top 5,10 or 20 toughest trails and favorite trails of the day (depending of the number of trails taken) ; The lifts taken, how much times each ones ; the approx. vertical of each one and the vertical feet (and metric) skied in the day. <BR> <BR>Oh yeah, it's true, I also do a little resumee in words... pretty cool to read, during summer after. <BR> <BR>OK, I know what you're going to say (or at least think), and it's true, I'm simply sick and I should see a psychiatrist LOL. 3-4 years ago, it would have been true, but now, to do the draw + stats, <B>it can take me 15 minutes</B> for a little mountain to max 1h for places like Tremblant. I prefer this than to go drink a beer after a ski day... that's all. All those stats are actually quite useful for me. I really like to do stats, so it's a manner to have fun after my ski days. In 2001-02, I was losing really too much time on that and it was becoming a real problem for me, but now, with the models, it's extremely fast to do, so I stopped to consider me as sick, doing it <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT="

"> <BR> <BR>For the vertical skied, I just count it since late season 2001-02, when I skied with a telemark dedicated (who provided me in trail maps for years, before I met him) who had an altimeter and counted his vertical for each ski days. I liked the concept <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT="

"> <BR> <BR>So that's it. I think it's the first time ever that I say all I do after a ski day (except Patrick who has seen some of my resumees few months ago). I have the info (but not the time + interest) to make thousands of different stats, related to my ski since 1995, but you know, IMO, it remains quite less worst than all the statistics that are kept in baseball !!!!!!