Mountain Summit Signs: Post 'Em!

[jamesdeluxe]

These big bad branding exercises used to:

• Only be found at francophone resorts in the Alps but are now spreading throughout the other language regions.
• Only seen in Europe but are now popping up elsewhere in the world.
• Only put up in the biggest industrial resorts; however, smaller ski areas are getting in on the act too.
• Only constructed on mountain summits but are now being seen elsewhere including base areas and access roads.
• Be sneered at by some/many as a visual blight but are now accepted as a fact of ski life, like death and taxes.
• Only designed for ski areas but are now being used in cities

Post 'em if you got 'em and keep adding as you find/accumulate more. I'll prime the pump with a few of mine. We all know which FTO member has the most.

Feb 2016

Feb 2018 (Isola, FR)

Feb 2018 (Auron, FR)

Jan 2023

Mar 2023

Mar 2026

 

[Tony Crocker]

Lake not mountain.

Recent trip:

I’m sure there must be one in Grand Massif but we didn’t see it.

One of the first US copycats;

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Not to be a backseat photographer but you couldn't have waited for the cloud to drift by?

 

[Tony Crocker]

That morning at Zermatt was sunny; the afternoon was getting progressively cloudier.

 

[Sbooker]

I figured I’d post one that few others on here would not have seen.
From 2016.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I figured I’d post one that few others on here would not have seen.

Nice pic (I like the bell) but as the OP, I'm DQing it -- the signs have to be the style with the person-sized letters, like the one of Zermatt with the half hidden Matterhorn!

There doesn't appear to be a dedicated report here from Thredbo. Have you posted one that I can't find?

 

[Sbooker]

Nice pic (I like the bell) but as the OP, I'm DQing it -- the signs have to be the style with the person-sized letters, like the one of Zermatt with the half hidden Matterhorn!

There doesn't appear to be a dedicated report here from Thredbo. Have you posted one that I can't find?

I don’t think I’ve posted much about Thredbo but I’ve got enough pics to put something together I think.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I like this one; it looks like the lake district of Switzerland: Schwyz canton

 

[EMSC]

I guess I have been "lucky enough" to not see these kind of signs in the US so far. I did see a couple in 3 Valleys last season (see James' Meribel sign above for one example).

The best I have for the US so far are the following, though Obviously I did not ski this winter so someone could have put a new one somewhere in Colo...

Not at the top and no way to walk over and pose with it...

Does this type of nonsense count?

How about these type of adverts? Very clearly meant to be photographed just like the big signage stuff...

Same with this billboard at the Copper mtn T-Bar. It's only purpose in life is to be photographed by the tourists...

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Does this type of nonsense count?

Not sure about the messaging (I assume that's what you're calling out as nonsense) but I've always been a fan of WP's historic site signage. I like the logo and maroon/black/white "brand colors," although it looks like they need a fresh painting.

I truly dislike Copper's logo.

Was this the previous one? IMO it's much better.

 

[Tony Crocker]

There doesn't appear to be a dedicated report here from Thredbo.

I scanned pics from my day in 1997 and posted here.

the signs have to be the style with the person-sized letters

I'm inclined to agree that should be the presumption for this thread though I think that bell at Thredbo is a worthy exception.

North American areas often have signs, but the person-sized block lettering style copied from the Euros is a recent development here.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I scanned pics from my day in 1997 and posted here.

Would you mind breaking that out into a separate report (or I can do it)? That'll make it easier for people to find. Although I'll probably never actually go, I'm fascinated a wee bit by skiing in Australia.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Would you mind breaking that out into a separate report

I retitled to include both Perisher and Thredbo, so presumably either area in title search will find that thread. Users will benefit from getting both TRs at once.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Since other people are doing it, I'll also ignore the terms and conditions of this thread (to only post photos with the person-sized block lettering style) and include a favorite shot taken at the top of Auron, when my guide and I posed inside this photo op frame.

It was a beautiful powder day (and evening) which I wouldn't give back; however, I always wondered what that shot would've looked like on a bluebird day. Through the wonders of AI, here it is with the exact background: the Blainon chair on the right framed by the Las Donnas ridge:

When you zoom in, it's pretty funny how AI took artistic license and gave us both more typically French faces (neither of us look like that)!

 

[Tony Crocker]

a bluebird day.

Our day in Auron was a bluebird day. Look at the pictures and there is barely a clue you're so close the the Mediterranean. It could be anywhere in the Alps at a small-on-paper-but-skis-much-bigger-than-it-looks-on-the-trail-map place. It's typical surrounded-by-other-mountains Alps scenery.