At the heart of Hill Bomb is the ability to integrate with Google Maps. We do this by allowing you to upload tiny data files that contain the location and exact path of the run, plus any extra points you may want to add.

Start by downloading Google Earth if you haven't already. You can get it from http://earth.google.com. Follow the installation instructions to get it up and running.

Next, zoom in to the hill you want to upload to Hill Bomb. You can either do this using the mouse controls, or by typing the location into the Google Earth "Fly to" box, where it will search and find your location automatically. Make sure you get nice and close to your hill:

Now click on the "Add path" tool (circled in red below), or click "Add -> Path" on the main menu, to add a new path.

The following dialog will open, where you can type a name and description. You can now click points on the screen to draw the exact path that a rider would take down the hill. Mark out the entire hill this way, using the controls in the top right of the screen or the arrow keys if you need to pan around. Make sure you keep the "new path" dialog open while you draw your path.

Once you've finished mapping the path, and you've closed that dialog, you'll see your new path appear under the "My places" list.

You can now right-click on the path and choose "Save As" to save just that path as either a .KMZ or .KML file. It doesn't matter which one you use, but the KMZ is smaller. Please don't use special characters like accented letters.

Save it somewhere like your desktop. That's the file that you need to attach when you create a new hill on Hill Bomb!

Of course, you don't have to have just one path per hill. It's easy to use the other tools in Google Earth to create placemarks, with different icons and colours, plus extra descriptions for anything your heart desires. Mark out hazards, points of interest or certain parts of the hill.

Make sure that you save all the placemarks and other items together with the path into the same folder.

You'll see the "Inanda run" folder which I've created under "My Places". You can create folders by right-clicking on "My Places" and choosing "Add->Folder". Once you're sure you've got everything together, right-click the folder, choose "Save As" and save it to your desktop as a .KMZ or .KML, ready for upload to Hill Bomb.

Now, when you upload your hill and data file to Hill Bomb, the Google Map will appear on your hill with all your paths, icons and placemarks:

If you've changed the colours of the default icons in Google Earth, they may revert back to their original colours when displayed on the map. Unfortunately that's a problem with Google. If you want coloured icons, rather choose default icons that are already the colours you want in Google Earth.