Life should be downhill in winter, and there’s plenty of great snow left to ski and ride this season.
Simplify your spring skiing or snowboarding vacation with one of these FREE apps that track your runs, speed and vertical, even your kids and friends, and allow you to share the info.
Warning – These apps use GPS running in the background to track you, so they suck power like crazy, especially in the cold. Pack your phone in an inside pocket for warmth, or pack a charger in the pocket with your SPF50 – or both.
Ski Tracks – Save up to five days of info, including altitude, number of runs, average speed, top speed, vertical slope, and a map of your trail routes, on the free version, called Lite. Or upgrade to the full version for $.99, and get unlimited day-trip storage and trail maps of top resorts.
- Available for Apple and Android devices.
Slopes – This app allows you to take photo and notes on each run and share it with friends. Unlike many other apps, this one also works in the backcountry, too. Another unique feature is that it tracks your calories burned, which you can and save the data to Apple’s HealthKit for other apps to see.
- Available for Apple devices.
On the Snow Ski & Snowboard Report – Get real-time updates on weather and snow forecasts and accumulation at more than 3,000 resorts worldwide, plus firsthand reports from fellow skiers and riders, also in real-time. There are live webcams, too, if you don’t believe the official weather forecasters or unofficial skier reports. This app also includes dozens of trail maps, which are all but impossible to read on a tiny hand-held device.
- Available for Apple and Android devices.
EpicMix – This is the official app for the growing network of Vail Resorts destinations, where you can upload photos, track your speed and distance by day or season, and more, all leaning toward social media sharing. You can even download those pricey on-mountain photos by resort photographers, and race – virtually, of course – against Olympic and World Cup champions.
- Available for Apple and Android.
Of course, you can also use resort-specific apps, which include many of these features. Some resorts with their own dedicated FREE apps include these personal favorites where I ski as often as I can:
- Jackson Hole
- Steamboat Ski and Resort
- Park City
- Whistler Blackcomb
Crested Butte’s CB Extreme app uses georeferencing and claims to be the only existing map of Crested Butte’s vast extremes, “Extreme Limits Guide” by long time locals Greg Payne and Sandra Cortner. The old map consisted of aerial photos with trail names added to it. The new one that uses a GPS signal translate into a live position on the photo map within the app, via that power-sucking GPS.
See you on the chairlift or gondola!
This article was posted originally in March 2017 and updated for 2018
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