Best Ski Tracking App (free or paid)

Cannonball

I use Strava for all my activities (the free version). It does work well but it doesn't auto-pause on the chairlift rides.

Agree that auto pause is an issue. However I did notice that the Alpine Ski activity setting can tell when you're on a lift (I assume by positive elevation gain) and doesn't count that towards your distance and elevation. So that's not too bad. You have to live with 'total time's vs 'active time' but at least those other key parameters are taken care of.

NELSAP

I forgot to mention I use Garmin Connect which does have a ski tracking option. The main issue is that it almost always underestimated vertical drops by 10%, though the rest of the values were correct.

skelley19

I just wanted to bump this thread to see if people have formulated any new opinions or options on the best replacement for Trace Snow now that they have hopefully had some time on the mountains and tried out some other Apps.

I used Snoww on my iPhone once at Wachusett and I was not a big fan other than it didn't seem to be a big drain on battery life. I didn't like the map that really only showed where I went but not the trails. Perhaps it works better at other resorts? Also the Map was "upside down" with the summit at the bottom of the pic.

I then used Slopes and that seems pretty similar to Trace Snow. I like the map much better than Snoww and it seems to track pretty accurately. My one major complaint is it seems to be a battery hog. If you hit Record and then just leave it running in the background until you finish for the day it isn't as bad but still consumes a lot of battery. If you check the app during your session it really seems to kill the battery quickly. I believe it refreshes a bunch of things every time you open the app. It is not a matter of the cold killing the battery as I am usually checking emails, IMs etc on the lift and my battery life is fine.

I also tried to track once via my Garmin watch but not sure I did it right. Any of the people using Garmin have a little more info on settings? I only have Forerunner 235 which does not have a ski mode out of the box like some of the higher end ones do. I looked through the Garmin App Store but didn't see any great options for me so I think I just set it to Other but I don't remember for sure. I got my current watch as a gift and I have enjoyed it way more than expected so I will likely upgrade to a higher end one such as a Fenix before too long.

I still miss Trace Snow but Slopes seems like the best replacement so far.

NewEnglandSkier13

I also tried to track once via my Garmin watch but not sure I did it right. Any of the people using Garmin have a little more info on settings? I only have Forerunner 235 which does not have a ski mode out of the box like some of the higher end ones do. I looked through the Garmin App Store but didn't see any great options for me so I think I just set it to Other but I don't remember for sure. I got my current watch as a gift and I have enjoyed it way more than expected so I will likely upgrade to a higher end one such as a Fenix before too long.

My girlfriend tracks her skiing on a Forerunner 35 watch which also does not have a dedicated setting for skiing. She just uses walk mode and then changes the activity type to resort skiing after it is synced with the Garmin Connect app. It seems to be pretty accurate.

rickbolger

Just a little side note here, quite a few years ago I was shown a ski tracking app at Okemo by our own Jeremy Davis. This was after making a few runs together, mostly in Solitude section IIRC. He showed me the individual runs, top speed, cumulative vertical etc. I didn't know such a thing was possible! Immediately went out and bought my first smartphone.

Cannonball

I also tried to track once via my Garmin watch but not sure I did it right. Any of the people using Garmin have a little more info on settings? I only have Forerunner 235 which does not have a ski mode out of the box like some of the higher end ones do. I looked through the Garmin App Store but didn't see any great options for me so I think I just set it to Other but I don't remember for sure. I got my current watch as a gift and I have enjoyed it way more than expected so I will likely upgrade to a higher end one such as a Fenix before too long.
My girlfriend tracks her skiing on a Forerunner 35 watch which also does not have a dedicated setting for skiing. She just uses walk mode and then changes the activity type to resort skiing after it is synced with the Garmin Connect app. It seems to be pretty accurate.

I used to have a Garmin watch without skiing mode. I would do almost exactly what you described. However, I found that it worked better to put it in cycling mode vs walking mode. Sometimes it seemed to edit my tracks when using walking mode because it was unreasonable to be 'walking' at 25+ MPH. Skiing and cycling have fairly similar speeds.

Now I have a Garmin Vivoactive3. The dedicated ski and snowboard modes are really great. They perfectly autopause when you start/stop skiing and they recognize lift rides separately from actual skiing.

skelley19

Thanks for the Garmin advice NES13 and Cannonball. I will try Bike mode today and covert to skiing after the fact on Connect and see how that works for me. I love the idea of being able to track from my watch and not worrying about phone battery life.

rickbolger

[edit] wrong thread!

montebedi

I use Ski Tracks. It was 99 cents. Seems adequate enough. You don’t have to compete with anyone but yourself.

I use that one too. I think they also have a free version, but I upgraded for 99cents to the "pro" version or whatever.

And Rick agree mind blowing, and on my own side note used the data I collected this week teaching a Statistics class.

NELSAP

Just a little side note here, quite a few years ago I was shown a ski tracking app at Okemo by our own Jeremy Davis. This was after making a few runs together, mostly in Solitude section IIRC. He showed me the individual runs, top speed, cumulative vertical etc. I didn't know such a thing was possible! Immediately went out and bought my first smartphone.

That was Alpine Replay, then Trace, now gone :( It really was a good app. I'm using Ski Tracks, but finding that it shuts off now and then for no reason.

z1000307470

Just a little side note here, quite a few years ago I was shown a ski tracking app at Okemo by our own Jeremy Davis. This was after making a few runs together, mostly in Solitude section IIRC. He showed me the individual runs, top speed, cumulative vertical etc. I didn't know such a thing was possible! Immediately went out and bought my first smartphone.

That was Alpine Replay, then Trace, now gone :( It really was a good app. I'm using Ski Tracks, but finding that it shuts off now and then for no reason.

Alpine Replay/Trace was a great app. I am glad I did not buy one of those discs they were selling since they are kaput.

ski_it

I had Ski Tracks shut off only once or twice on me. Probably unrelated, but now I always switch to view another app like Safari and/or lock my phone before I put it back in my pocket. Also keep it warm and fully charged. Hasn't happened since.
Now check out these oddities. This is Waidlich even though it says Eaglebrook. That's not the weird part. Check out how my altitude climbs throughout the 2 hours!

While XCing I paused my track because I drove over to another location and I wanted a combined total. It drew a straight line between the two locations. It didn't change the max speed, etc. I'm not sure but I suspect it added to the total distance. I'll have to run a test. One day I hit 4 locations. The map looks like tic tac toe.

joshua_segal

That's funny. When I skied at Buck Hill, MN, I used Tracks. It got the area and the total vertical OK, but it said I made zero runs!

yardsale

I've used ski tracks all season. It hasn't crashed once. The altitude graph has been accurate and the number of runs have been spot on. I wonder if you lose a cell/data signal for an extended period then it starts to glitch?

ceo

I've been generally happy with Ski Tracks, when I remember to turn it on. Remembering to turn it off is another issue:

ski_it

joshua_segal
"That's funny. When I skied at Buck Hill, MN, I used Tracks. It got the area and the total vertical OK, but it said I made zero runs!"
The app site told us once they were going to improve this in new versions. IDK if they ever did or what the new low limit is. "If the run and lifts are less than 280ft/90m this can cause the current algorithm issues with regards to counting runs and lifts."
In my case it looks like 32 runs at 60ft each should be1920 ft vert whereas it gave me 136ft!

yardsale
"I've used ski tracks all season. It hasn't crashed once. The altitude graph has been accurate and the number of runs have been spot on. I wonder if you lose a cell/data signal for an extended period then it starts to glitch?"
I think you can turn cell data off and it will still work. (another test required). You are probably right about GPS signal strength.

ceo
"I've been generally happy with Ski Tracks, when I remember to turn it on. Remembering to turn it off is another issue:"
89mph? Where r u skiing? Near the Autobahn? :D
I've had the same issues several times. The paid version has a neat feature on the map view where you trim the end of the track. It fixes all the numbers with the exception of, IIRC, the duration.

brad

Try We Ski & Snowboard! It's free, no ads, both iPhone and Android.

Stats, Maps, Friend Locator, Leaderboards, Nearby Lifts (and crowdsourced wait times).

I'm the developer.

Apple App Store
Google Play Store

joshua_segal

Try We Ski & Snowboard! It's free, no ads, both iPhone and Android.

Stats, Maps, Friend Locator, Leaderboards, Nearby Lifts (and crowdsourced wait times).

I'm the developer.

Apple App Store
Google Play Store

Decided to try it. While there was much I liked about it, the user interface to start a session, pause a session, end a session and save a session was not easy to figure out. I suspect it would be fine once I get used to it, but for now, I'm not changing.

brad

I could really use feedback. Can you be more specific on how it was not intuitive? Any suggestions for improvement?

joshua_segal

I could really use feedback. Can you be more specific on how it was not intuitive? Any suggestions for improvement?

Look at the user interface on Ski Tracks or SNOWW. It's very clear how to start a session, pause a session, end a session and save a session.

One thing I really like is that you have the vert. associated with lifts. That should result in more accurate vertical numbers.

Not sure how it will behave for non-lift serviced terrain.

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