Whether you’re new to the snow or a bit of a pro, ski and snowboarding apps can be agreat addition to your trip. From daily weather reports, to mapping tools and speed andaltitude trackers there are a whole range of choice to add to your device before you getout on the mountain. But with such an abundance to choose from, here at Neilson, wedecided it was time to separate the wheat from the chaff and supply you with thedefinitive guide to our favourite ski and snowboard apps for this season.
We teamed up with Chemmy Alcott - one of Britain’s greatest alpine ski racers and fourtimes winter Olympian - to put the apps through their paces on the slopes, whilst on a recent trip to Switzerland. She’s given us the lowdown on the pros and cons of each, andinterestingly, tells all on whether the apps made a difference to her time on the snow...
What does it do?
FATMAP is a 3D mapping tool with in-built ski and cycle trails and guides developedalongside some impressive members of the sporting world including Englishmountaineer and Everest regular, Kenton Cool, and member of the British SkiMountaineering team, Misha Gopaul.
The app includes HD maps of the entire globe and allows users to select a difficulty level, terrain and gradient before previewing theirchosen route. Users can locate themselves on the map even when it’s offline, and plot intheir own route, share it with friends, add photos and pinpoint dangerous zones. The app is free to download, or a premium version which allows you to access the maps offline isavailable for $7.99 (£6.08) a month or $49.99 (£38) for the year.
Key features:
Chemmy’s verdict:
“This app was so much fun! I thought a map would flatten the real life enjoyment, but the3D aspect and fluidity of the zoom function really gave a sense of space on the mountainwhich is so hard to get on a phone. It was great for planning freestyle routes, and beingable to download my chosen trail really helped to save battery, while the sharing featureis brilliant, especially if there was an emergency. Although I’m not sure what thepremium version could offer that isn’t already there with the free one.”
Ski Tracks is an award-winning winter sports app for tracking performance on the snow.Available to download for 99p on iOS and Android and compatible on wearable devices such as the AppleWatch, Ski Tracks offers a simple and easy tracking solution with up to 14 hours ofbattery life. Users can monitor their max speed, distance and altitude and compare andcontrast with previous runs or with friends.
“I found Ski Tracks really simple and easy to use, I could see straight away what it wasgoing to track and monitor. I really liked that I could add photos to my favourite parts ofthe run - a nice touch. However, I found that if I completed a certain run multiple times itmade the marker on the map look quite messy where a simple line would look muchneater. Overall, this is a great app to use especially if you’re a beginner or not tooconfident with the more technical apps out there.”
Free to download and recommended by the likes of Men’s Health and The New York Times, Trace Snow is widely recognised as one of the most comprehensive apps for tracking your stats andperformance on the slopes. From anywhere in the world, users can track, compare andshare with their own previous scores and with friends.
With a ‘head to head’ feature, Trace Snow encourages competition and social interactions with friends and fellowskiers on the mountain.
“Trace Snow is like Strava for skiing so I really enjoyed using it. It’s ideal for challengingother people on the mountain to a race or competition and the leaderboard is great fortracking your stats against each other. Even for solo skiers, I’d recommend it for makingnote of your milestones and goals so you can aim to beat your last score. The only issueI had was that it drained my battery quite a bit where it continuously updates for thereal-time reports.”
The Ski and Snow Report is the world’s most downloadedwinter sports app. It includes up to date information on current weather conditions, snowforecasts, and powder alerts for over 2,000 ski resorts. Developed by On the Snow, the app also includes livewebcam updates and picture galleries with weather reports and reviews generated byusers currently on the mountain.
“I found this app to be really useful for researching new locations before you go out,especially for snow depths, weather and stats on the resort itself. It also shows whichlifts are open on different slopes on that day, and you can see other users’ photos of theconditions which gives a good preview of what you can expect. However, there were acouple of occasions where some of the resorts weren’t that efficient at updating theirreport which meant that I actually found Google to be more reliable.”
A final word…
“As an old school skier I’ve never really felt the need for apps, but they definitelyenhanced my experience and I really enjoyed it.”
While Chemmy found all sorts of benefits with the apps, she reminded us, “it’s reallyimportant to never rely on an app for safety. I still make sure I go out with guide becauseyou do still have to have the idea, too. That said, I’ll definitely be using them when I hostgroup skiing events in the future!”
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