 Poster: A snowHead
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Hey everyone,
I've been working on a website that combines all the webcams from across each big resort area onto a single viewer. The site is here: snow.obsession.cam.
The worst example of the need for this is Portes du Soleil. I currently have 56 webcams for that area; the Portes du Soleil site makes you hunt through 12 sub pages and doesn't have them all, and the Avoriaz site has only 8 of their 12 working webcams. Yes, I know, there are many other sites like Bergfex that cache or have links to all the cams for an area. This site is intended as a much more convenient viewer that lets you click between the direct feeds from all the camera providers. There's also a map, and links into OpenSkiMap.com.
I shared some early versions on a different thread here, but someone suggested a new post here would be worthwhile.
So look, this site is a homebrew. On desktop it's pretty good, but it's not perfect. If you rotate your phone sideways, it should now work OK on both iPhone and Android. For me anyway, it's a MUCH better way of clicking through the different cameras.
The focus so far is on the really good quality cameras. Some areas might have a few cams missing (particularly if these are poor quality or weird one-offs). I can add these on request.
I'm happy to get feedback, but please be nice, and remember that this is a one-man free project.
So far there are about 1300 cameras in 38 resort clusters, and right now it's Alps and Pyrenees only. Most of them are meant to be "the places you might go on a single trip" or a single ski pass area. They could be broken out differently if anyone thinks I've committed some sort of travesty there.
Also if anyone like me is a nut for these webcams and wants them as a live Windows wallpaper that updates every 10-20 mins, check out my other project, Be There. It has a lot more cameras, including beaches and cities.
Enjoy!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I like the map option for flicking between the cams.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I like it.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Great work - thanks for your efforts!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| blahblahblah wrote: |
| I like the map option for flicking between the cams. |
Glad you liked the map. OpenStreetMap shows lifts, although they aren't that clear. Maybe one day I'll be able to integrate OpenSkiMap. that map is so much better.
If you have a favourite location with multiple cameras at the same lift station (within about 100m), there's a little button at the bottom that toggles between those cameras, since you can't very easily do that on the map.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I usually go to the 3 valleys, so this is easier than the back and forth. Its great.
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Cool. Helped research the Via Latte where I'm heading next week
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Nice idea! I could easily lose myself for a few hours in this sort of thing - I like watching the TV channels you sometimes get in resort hotels with webcams rotating around the country, normally accompanied by some jolly accordion music
Are you looking to add a few more resorts (e.g. Zermatt/Cervinia) and maybe others in the French/Swiss Alps?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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This is amazing for Tignes/Val d'Isere.
It seems as a result of those resorts not really getting on with each other they've decided you can only view the webcams for each resort via the separate resort websites, despite obviously together being "a place you might go on a single trip".
Just being able to click around the single list or map is loads easier.
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I would prefer to see in order by country, or select a country first.
Though by the time I am looking at webcams, I have already booked my flight & destination, so usually on the tourism website.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Whitters wrote: |
Nice idea! I could easily lose myself for a few hours in this sort of thing - I like watching the TV channels you sometimes get in resort hotels with webcams rotating around the country, normally accompanied by some jolly accordion music
Are you looking to add a few more resorts (e.g. Zermatt/Cervinia) and maybe others in the French/Swiss Alps? |
The site actually works ok on smart TVs! I check it often at the weekend. You should check out my desktop Be There app if you like the ambient aspect of it. At some point I might add YouTube streams to obsession.cam, but I suspect these are not very stable.
Re Zermatt/Cervinia, it's there already. You can search for those resorts or even lift name on the homepage. That cluster is called Aosta.
Regarding others, I have most of them in my Be There database so I could probably add them. Try searching, but if there are specific ones I haven't switched on for obsession.cam, let me know what you'd like to see added.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Thanks both!
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Thanks, nice one!
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Poster: A snowHead
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I love it, especially the link to openskimap  I would quite like to be able to make the map bigger/ map have a larger area on homepage but I am being picky. Thank you!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Thanks for the request! I have most of those cams in my database, I think. I'll try and switch that on in the next couple of days. It'll be called "Maurienne" and will have the other Maurienne valley resorts as well.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@amh15, Good work. Would be great if you could add some northern European cams too.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@amh15, sweet. thank you.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I've put the Maurienne resorts live: https://snow.obsession.cam/maurienne . That should include (with duplication, some of these names mean the same as others):
Le Grand Domaine
Valmorel
Saint François Longchamp
Aussois
Val Cenis
Valfréjus
Valloire
Galibier Thabor
Valmeinier
Lanslebourg-Mont Cenis
Les Karellis
Albiez
La Norma
Pralognan-la-Vanoise
Pralognan doesn't really belong there, but I don't have a better home for it.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| thecramps wrote: |
| @amh15, Good work. Would be great if you could add some northern European cams too. |
I'll give it a go. I don't have great numbers of Nordic ones at the moment. Did you have anything specific in mind?
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Very good. Great effort.
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@amh15, Good work!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@amh15, thanks.
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@amh15, What about the Sierra Nevada mountains in sunny Spain?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Great work, many thanks for this! Great to be able to flick between all webcams in the 3V! 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@Legend.,
| Legend. wrote: |
| @amh15, What about the Sierra Nevada mountains in sunny Spain? |
Hi Legend, appreciate the suggestion. I have Sierra Nevada in my system and they those cams were briefly on the site, but to be honest the presentation was a mess due to the way some of those cameras work. Some of them are nice Feratel cameras that work great in an iframe, but there are only 4 of those. The others seem to be a direct link to a JPEG like this: https://recursos.sierranevada.es/_extras/fotos_camaras/pradollano/snap_c1.jpg. I might need to make a little wrapper for the JPEG so that it can be autosized, zoomed and panned, otherwise it will load zoomed in and look pretty bad. I'll look into it, it was one of those "to do" items already in the back of my mind.
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@amh15, Åre in Sweden would be good. There's a few cams there.
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You know it makes sense.
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Great job. I like it very much. Maybe the front page could be grouped in four columns - France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy or something. Or maybe colour code the country boxes/buttons a different colour each.
BTW - the first Zugspitze cam has a "no longer operational" message.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@rdk, thanks, and noted re the countries. I'll see what I can do. Several areas are multi-country though. But you can type a country name into the search box, and it should filter correctly.
I'll take out that dead Grainau cam on the next data update, probably when I add Sierra Nevada in the next 24h.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@thecramps, having had a look, I reckon I can get the Åre cams into the system in the next few days. I can do it the same way as Sierra Nevada. Looks like there are 10 cams there and I have another four or five in other Swedish resorts about to come into my database (Stöten i Sälen, Tänndalen, Björkliden, Kabdalis). Might be a case to do all of Sweden in one for now. Shouldn't take too long.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@amh15, That's great, thanks. There is a Nordic ski forum you could maybe post a link in, www.freeride.se. It's in Swedish but Google translate will help you out. (Unless you speak Swedish of course).
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Thanks for sharing. Really useful. Great work.
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FAQ
