# Ski Tracking Apps and Stats



## lukoson

I’m new to the site but have been reading for a few years. Any interest in a section for posting ski stats? I’ve been using the “slopes” app past couple of seasons. you can track using smart phone or Apple Watch. I think there are some other apps too. Just a thought.


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## Harvey

Luke, belated welcome to the forum.

FYI wanted to make sure you knew about this thread:









Ski Day Tracking 2020 - 2021


If you want to track your ski days, post them here.




nyskiblog.com





It could be used for your stats.

I personally have never been into stats beyond how many days and how many powder days I get per season.

But based on chatter I've heard from skiers and riders, I think that is likely, or at least possible that others are into it.

I'm breaking this out into it's own thread. If it gets some traction maybe we'll do something more permanent.


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## Q*bert Jones IV

I just wanted to second Slopes. It is an absolutely fantastic app.


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## lukoson




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## greymoose

I used Trace Snow for the past 5 years and really like it a lot but now they're gone . I went to enter my first ski day in a few weeks ago and found I couldn't upload it to their servers. A little bit of online reading told me that Trace Snow is kaput.

Trace Snow is Dead

Really bummed as I liked to go back and look at those old ski stats.

I'll have to give Slopes a look. Thanks.


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## da-bum

greymoose said:


> I used Trace Snow for the past 5 years and really like it a lot but now they're gone . I went to enter my first ski day in a few weeks ago and found I couldn't upload it to their servers. A little bit of online reading told me that Trace Snow is kaput.
> 
> Trace Snow is Dead
> 
> Really bummed as I liked to go back and look at those old ski stats.
> 
> I'll have to give Slopes a look. Thanks.


I tried using Trace snow on my new phone and couldn't login, so I brought a tablet where I was already logged in, and after recording, it turned out I couldn't upload. I knew they were end of life, but just thought the app was not supported anymore. Since I got an android, Slopes was not an option. I downloaded a free app called Ski Tracker and a paid one called Ski Tracks. I wanted something where I can access the information through browser and app like Trace Snow, but neither seem to be that way, but Ski Tracks also stores the data in their cloud. Ski Tracker is wildly inaccurate in terms of runs and vertical elevation, and Ski Track's display looks like straight out out of DOS, but if you dig a little deeper, it gives useful and graphical information.

I think you can still see your old ski data, and download all your old sessions for safekeeping.


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## Tjf1967

Why don't you guys just use strava? Is their something wrong with it? I have used it for MTB, skiing and running. Seems to work fine.


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## Campgottagopee

I use an app, onx hunt, for hunting. It's the best app I've ever used. It shows property lines, gives the names of the property owners, has satellite view, topo view, and hybrid which is a combo of both. They also have a backcountry app that some may find useful if that's your thang. If it's half as good as the hunting app it's well worth the 20 bucks /year they charge.









onX Backcountry GPS Map App for Navigation, Hiking, Skiing & Backpacking


onX Backcountry, the ultimate GPS navigation app for outdoor pursuits including backpacking, hiking, skiing, and more. Free trial.




www.onxmaps.com


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## da-bum

Tjf1967 said:


> Why don't you guys just use strava? Is their something wrong with it? I have used it for MTB, skiing and running. Seems to work fine.


Next time I go, I will run strava also, in addition to Ski Tracks, Ski Tracker and fitbit that I am already running. I remember it was real lame. I want something that records the true speed I am going. Some apps ramp up the speed real slow, or samples too infrequently where the turns traversing the whole width of the trail becomes a relatively slow run. The only time it probably records accurately is you are straightlining down.

I had big wipeout on a runout at the end of the steeps where my skis dropped into a snow covered ditch and I slid head forward for over a hundred of feet. I went back to the multiple apps to see how fast I was going when it happened. Some app shows that I was still increasing speed even after the point where I fell.


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## Peter Minde

Slopes looks like it's still in development. I track my workouts on Garmin and have a link to Strava. I might play around with Slopes but I can't see frittering away more time on apps.


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## lukoson

Peter Minde said:


> Slopes looks like it's still in development. I track my workouts on Garmin and have a link to Strava. I might play around with Slopes but I can't see frittering away more time on apps.


Not pushing any specific apps but I find slopes to be pretty well tuned and it links with Strava. There is a premium version but the freemium version has plenty. I have an iwatch and you can use the watch and then link everything up. Saves my phones battery. I also think it's pretty accurate. My son used the app on his iphone and everything was pretty much in sync except for speed, of course.


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## Q*bert Jones IV

Tjf1967 said:


> Why don't you guys just use strava? Is their something wrong with it? I have used it for MTB, skiing and running. Seems to work fine.


Yeah, to expand on this a bit, Slopes has *A LOT* more cool stuff than Strava. Like, seriously, a lot. But it can also send just the stuff that Strava uses with one click. (I use Strava too bc I'm a triathlete when I'm not skiing). 


Peter Minde said:


> Slopes looks like it's still in development. I track my workouts on Garmin and have a link to Strava. I might play around with Slopes but I can't see frittering away more time on apps.


Every app is always still in development, if you think about it. But Strava has been fully featured for at least a few years. Their last release added a lot of new stuff including resort maps, weather reports, and crowd-sourced conditions updates for damn near every resort on earth.


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## x10003q

Peter Minde said:


> Slopes looks like it's still in development. I track my workouts on Garmin and have a link to Strava. I might play around with Slopes but I can't see frittering away more time on apps.


Which Garmin are you using?


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## Tjf1967

x10003q said:


> Which Garmin are you using?


Be nice to have a Garmin for multiple sports. My Garmin gps for golf is about as accurate as your going to get. Be nice to pop out one chip and pop in another


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## Peter Minde

x10003q said:


> Which Garmin are you using?


I've got a Forerunner 935. It's my second Garmin, I'm quite pleased. NB I use a chest strap for heart rate monitoring.

@Tjf1967 My Forerunner tracks multiple sports; un sure whether golf is one of them though.


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## G.ski

Campgottagopee said:


> I use an app, onx hunt, for hunting. It's the best app I've ever used. It shows property lines, gives the names of the property owners, has satellite view, topo view, and hybrid which is a combo of both. They also have a backcountry app that some may find useful if that's your thang. If it's half as good as the hunting app it's well worth the 20 bucks /year they charge.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> onX Backcountry GPS Map App for Navigation, Hiking, Skiing & Backpacking
> 
> 
> onX Backcountry, the ultimate GPS navigation app for outdoor pursuits including backpacking, hiking, skiing, and more. Free trial.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.onxmaps.com


That would be great for fishing as well. Always better to ask permission than run from a shotgun.


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## da-bum

Q*bert Jones IV said:


> Yeah, to expand on this a bit, Slopes has *A LOT* more cool stuff than Strava. Like, seriously, a lot. But it can also send just the stuff that Strava uses with one click. (I use Strava too bc I'm a triathlete when I'm not skiing).
> 
> Every app is always still in development, if you think about it. But Strava has been fully featured for at least a few years. Their last release added a lot of new stuff including resort maps, weather reports, and crowd-sourced conditions updates for damn near every resort on earth.


I remember someone's ski stat from Strava and it was recording the lift ride as part of the distance skied. Even right now, when I export the data from my ski app, it is telling me I hold the record on the number of times I went on one of the segment, which is the 'segment' where I am riding up on the lift.

Also, how accurate are the speed calculations, taking into account that a skier is never going in a straight line. I had ones that seem to weigh many sample points, so peak speed is always off, others are irratic, likely due to using raw provided gps data. Trace Snow use to upload the recorded data to their cloud, where the would perform some analysis so the result is more accurate. My peak speed usually drops by a few mph after their analysis.


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## lukoson

Can't really speak to the speed accuracy but I do think that much of the Slopes app is pretty reliable. The number of runs is accurate and the vertical is pretty reliable, both me on my iwatch and my son with his iphone had just about the same vertical feet last weekend. It also seems to do a good job of distinguishing uphill, downhill, and standing still time. I'll race him down Showcase this weekend and will see how close our speeds are - I suppose they may be off in terms of actual speed but would be nice to know if it's consistent. There is a paid version but the free app offers quite a bit.


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## lukoson




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## da-bum

I had to 2 apps running from the same phone, one from my fitbit watch where the gps data was provided by the phone, another Ski Tracks app recording on the phone. Here is the instance where my skis sank in a ditch and I took a long dive just as the headwall was ending, then hiked uphill to reunite with my skis, which were picked up by someone and left on the side. Both roughly with the same starting and ending point.

Fitbit tracks:



speed:




Ski Tracks track:



speed:





The fitbit app seems to smooth out the speed, thus it still shows that I was going 40+ mph after I recovered and was walking up the hill. The Ski Tracks lost GPS signal in the faster section, thus pretty much showed practically no speed until I after I fell, which is where it suddenly jumped in speed.

Plus, as you can see, neither of them tracks the actual path that I skied with any accuracy. I might try to record with the strava app also just to see if the data is more accurate or instantaneously


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## Andy_ROC

Hi all--- I'm new here effective today. Anyway for years I was a Trace Snow user (formerly Alpine Replay) and was sad to see the app go away so abruptly and without warning. At least I didn't buy one of their expensive GPS trackers to stick on my skis.

Anyway I've been looking at apps to replace it. There are many but the one thing that is sorely missing with all of them is a Leaderboard like Trace Snow had. I'd see when friends went skiing and it was fun to track the global vertical leaders and filter by mountain etc. For instance someone named "Liz" had 5.6M feet of Vert last year at Aspen. Crazy! My own mountain, Bristol, had one guy that was 2nd with 4.3M vert, all done at Bristol...insane. *Is it just me or did you Trace users like the leaderboard as well? *Sad that it's gone.

Anyway, this year I'm playing around with 2-3 different ski/boarding specific tracking apps on my phone (android). *Ski Tracks*, *Slopes* and *We Ski and Snowboard*. They all are decent, have pros/cons and support both android and iPhone which is important. They all seem to work well and not kill my battery. Slopes is new to android and still has a few bugs but the UI is nice. We Ski is pretty good as well and not only shows a map and run stats like the others, but gives you a list of each lift you rode and the time each lift ride takes. The other feature on We Ski (which I haven't tried yet) is you can add "Friends" and track them in real time to find them on the mountain if you want. Ski Tracks is kind of dated but honestly it's quite solid and works well. But as I said, all lack a public leaderboard.

Also as a backup I'm running my Fenix 6 Pro linked to Strava, but Garmin/Strava ski stats aren't nearly as rich as the dedicated apps, but at least I know Garmin and/or Strava will be around for years. 

Thought I'd share this info and see what others think.
Andy


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## D.B. Cooper

I use the Fenix 3. The main driver was to see how fast I could go. Top speed thus far is 67 mph. I don't use any phone apps.

I like the multi-use of the Fenix. Use it for golf; includes a scorecard, paddling, etc. I don't know how much I would use the fancier graphics.

The trackback on the Fenix doesn't seem to work too well, or probably user error. Tried it a few times hiking.


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## da-bum

Andy_ROC said:


> Hi all--- I'm new here effective today. Anyway for years I was a Trace Snow user (formerly Alpine Replay) and was sad to see the app go away so abruptly and without warning. At least I didn't buy one of their expensive GPS trackers to stick on my skis.
> 
> Anyway I've been looking at apps to replace it. There are many but the one thing that is sorely missing with all of them is a Leaderboard like Trace Snow had. I'd see when friends went skiing and it was fun to track the global vertical leaders and filter by mountain etc. For instance someone named "Liz" had 5.6M feet of Vert last year at Aspen. Crazy! My own mountain, Bristol, had one guy that was 2nd with 4.3M vert, all done at Bristol...insane. *Is it just me or did you Trace users like the leaderboard as well? *Sad that it's gone.
> 
> Anyway, this year I'm playing around with 2-3 different ski/boarding specific tracking apps on my phone (android). *Ski Tracks*, *Slopes* and *We Ski and Snowboard*. They all are decent, have pros/cons and support both android and iPhone which is important. They all seem to work well and not kill my battery. Slopes is new to android and still has a few bugs but the UI is nice. We Ski is pretty good as well and not only shows a map and run stats like the others, but gives you a list of each lift you rode and the time each lift ride takes. The other feature on We Ski (which I haven't tried yet) is you can add "Friends" and track them in real time to find them on the mountain if you want. Ski Tracks is kind of dated but honestly it's quite solid and works well. But as I said, all lack a public leaderboard.
> 
> Also as a backup I'm running my Fenix 6 Pro linked to Strava, but Garmin/Strava ski stats aren't nearly as rich as the dedicated apps, but at least I know Garmin and/or Strava will be around for years.
> 
> Thought I'd share this info and see what others think.
> Andy


I use to view that leaderboard in Trace for my local mountain Hunter. Ski Tracker supposedly has a learderboard, utilizing Google Play Games Leaderboard. I didn't opt in that feature, and besides, its stats were wildly off.

I tried Ski Tracks, Ski Tracker, fitbit watch and Strava all at the same time. Strava is somewhat off on the number of runs. Fitbit smooths out the speed too much. Ski Tracker is so off in terms of vertical feet and runs that its unusable, plus the data is completely local to the phone, for better or worse, plus they make you watch an ad every time you want to go see you stats. Ski Tracks is the most useful, but looks like a DOS program. It supposedly backs up your data, but I never checked if it works. Whe someone showed me that they were using Ski Tracks, I laughed at what they were using with that dot matrix monochrome looking interface, but now I am using it.

What Trace had was a error correction function once the data was loaded into their cloud. I had some days where it says my max speed was 80+mph, and once uploaded, it either smoothed out those wayward points or dropped it completely and my max speed dropped somewhat. Plus, you can log in via browser to see a much more comprehensive set of stats.


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## lukoson

review of different ski tracking apps









Find Out If You're As Fast As You Think You Are With These 5 Ski-Tracking Apps


When you need to know every bit of data, from vertical feet to how many times you hot-lapped the T-bar, these are apps are for you.




www.skimag.com


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## Andy_ROC

Just wanted to provide an update on this one--- I've continued using the *We Ski and snowboard* app in parallel with Ski Tracks app on my Samsung phone, along with the native ski app on my Garmin Fenix to Strava. I tried the Slopes app for a bit but didn't care for it and was less accurate. I can say I really like the *We Ski* app the best. I also know it also works well on the iPhone and Android. 

The We Ski interface is clean and modern, provides run stats and highlights each run you toggle to on a map. It gives all the usual stats for each run; max speed, avg speed, vert etc. It also gives individual lift stats, like how long each chair ride takes, the vertical and distance as well--- which I found kind of interesting. One other interesting feature is that you can track your "friends" when you are at the same mountain. You can see where they are on a map making it easier to catch up with them. The other thing is the app is very gentle on my phone battery. 

I've been in touch with the developer via email and he's an avid skier in Steamboat. He is very responsive and he quickly fixed one bug I found. He's also been very receptive to ideas and he plans to roll out lift wait times and eventually a leaderboard. I asked him how he plans to fund the app and he said he'd eventually develop some kind of "Freemium" model, where you can get the current features for free and then fee for enhanced features. 

While I found all the ski specific phone apps to provide better stats than those native in my Garmin/Strava, I continue to track on my Garmin as well. Who knows how long specific apps will be around, but I don't think Garmin or Strava will be going away anytime soon. 

So if you've been looking for a Trace replacement, We Ski and Snowboard is looking really good to me.
Hope this helps.


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## lukoson

Nice. I’ve been using slopes but downloaded weski for tomorrow.


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## da-bum

The number of We ski & snowboard downloads are in the hundreds, so I doubt the lift line wait time would be accurate. Also, it require you to sign in via a goog1e or facecrook acct, definite red flag.

No app seem to have the distance and heights of jumps that Trace Snow had. Not sure how accurate it was, saying some of my unintentinal jumps are loooong, but it was fun to see them, and definitely made me take off on more on some high speed jumps.


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## Andy_ROC

Lukson, great. I'll be curious to see what you think.

Da-Bum the jumping thing on Trace was wonky. It would tell me a I had a bunch of jumps and airtime but I don't let my skis leave the ground.

Yes the user community for We Ski is small yet but it's grown a lot from when I first downloaded it. As long as it grows those features become relevant. 

The whole ski tracking community is all fragmented since Trace Snow shutdown without warning. I even reached out to them including their head of marketing to see if they would sell it and I got no response. I'm not sure how they couldn't figure out how to monetize a user community that was >40K strong.

Currently I think the one of the most popular in the US is Ski Tracks but has a very dated DOS looking UI and run by run and lift stats are weak. Plus no user community. The one that has the most downloads is Ski Tracker by EXA and purports to have a leaderboard but I didn't see users in our region nor many in the US. Maybe I didn't give it a chance? Do you have experience using it? 

As for the login on We Ski, I guess it doesn't bother me. It is supposed to be a social app. I use my SSO through google all the time. I'm not on facebook so I have no concern with that.

Keep us updated on anything you find. I'm not married to any particular app other than also tracking on my Fenix 6 pro.


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## da-bum

Andy_ROC, I think Trace thinks any time you are in free-fall, you are in a middle of a jump. Not sure how accurate it is, since I remember it saying I have jumps close to 100', and at 50mph, 100' is over 1.5sec, which I don't think I have ever been close to that. I can't even login to the app to check out the history, and the website's history doesn't have any jump stats. What I did like was its correction from correction of deviant data. Those 80mph spurts that appears during recording of a session disappears once it has been uploaded to its site. I also liked its heat map of the runs overlaid over the trails (on the app only), allowing a visual view of where one is fastest, etc, as opposed to a speed graph vs time that most other apps displays.

I use Ski Tracks as the primary because it is the most accurate, but its interface is arcane, can't swipe from one run to another, making viewing or comparing between runs cumbersome or impossible.

Ski Tracker is really inaccurate, giving me a insane number of runs and total vertical. It also logs every 3 seconds vs 1 second for most of the other apps. I run it just so I have a record of that day in that app, but I rarely view its history because its data is useless, and it wants me to watch an ad, which never shows up and waits forever when I use a phone based vpn. It also seems to use the most battery, based on last week when I was running Ski Tracks, Ski Tracker, Strava and ,my Fitbit watch, which was connected to my phone and getting its GPS info from there.


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## Johnny V.

Andy_ROC said:


> My own mountain, Bristol, had one guy that was 2nd with 4.3M vert, all done at Bristol...insane.


That's Charlie Dickerson. He skis for about 6-6 1/2 hours (according to him any more than that and it's like work!) per day at Bristol and either eats his lunch on the chair or the yurt at the top. Just another Bristol character!


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## Andy_ROC

da-bum said:


> Andy_ROC, I think Trace thinks any time you are in free-fall, you are in a middle of a jump. Not sure how accurate it is, since I remember it saying I have jumps close to 100', and at 50mph, 100' is over 1.5sec, which I don't think I have ever been close to that. I can't even login to the app to check out the history, and the website's history doesn't have any jump stats. What I did like was its correction from correction of deviant data. Those 80mph spurts that appears during recording of a session disappears once it has been uploaded to its site. I also liked its heat map of the runs overlaid over the trails (on the app only), allowing a visual view of where one is fastest, etc, as opposed to a speed graph vs time that most other apps displays.
> 
> I use Ski Tracks as the primary because it is the most accurate, but its interface is arcane, can't swipe from one run to another, making viewing or comparing between runs cumbersome or impossible.
> 
> Ski Tracker is really inaccurate, giving me a insane number of runs and total vertical. It also logs every 3 seconds vs 1 second for most of the other apps. I run it just so I have a record of that day in that app, but I rarely view its history because its data is useless, and it wants me to watch an ad, which never shows up and waits forever when I use a phone based vpn. It also seems to use the most battery, based on last week when I was running Ski Tracks, Ski Tracker, Strava and ,my Fitbit watch, which was connected to my phone and getting its GPS info from there.



Da-bum, you know I forgot about the heat map on Trace, but that was pretty nice.

Agreed Ski Tracks does seem to be very accurate whereas Slopes messed up run counts all the time. We Ski's top speed always matches Ski Tracks for me. At first We Ski distance was too high compared to Garmin and Ski Tracks but he adjusted the distance algorithm and it seems well in line now. My gripe about Garmin, and I have a ticket open with them, is that they don't capture true top speed but more of a top sustained speed.

Thanks for the update on Ski Tracker-- I won't even bother with it.


Johnny V. said:


> That's Charlie Dickerson. He skis for about 6-6 1/2 hours (according to him any more than that and it's like work!) per day at Bristol and either eats his lunch on the chair or the yurt at the top. Just another Bristol character!


Hey Johnny, Yeah "Charlie D" (I didn't know his full name)-- he was number two last year behind a beast of a woman "Liz" whom had over 6M vert at Aspen Highlands. He and I chatted on the chair once a few years ago. Anyway if you talk to Charlie I'd be curious to hear what app he is using now. They all use to compete against each other on Trace and I always enjoyed watching their progress throughout the season. I miss Trace for that reason alone.


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## Johnny V.

I'll ask him next time I see him. The only thing I keep track of is days (although I did check speed on my wife's phone-she uses Snoww).


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## Andy_ROC

They just rolled out a leaderboard on We Ski.... looks very good so far. They just need more users now.
Also has privacy settings to opt in/out.


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## lukoson

My season is over. Mostly gore a few days at Belleayre and couple days at WF.


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## gorgonzola

Today marks 6 years, 278 ski days and 7,963 cycling miles on the new hip!


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## Andy_ROC

Just wanted to make an endorsement for "We Ski and Snowboard" app for android and iPhone. 

I've found this to be absolutely the best ski tracking app I've tried since the abandonment of Trace Snow aka Alpine Replay. 

We Ski tracks and maps your entire ski day. Each run with the usual stats of distance, vert, speed, time, etc. Lift stats as well; vertical, lift names, lift time, lift length and lift wait time. No data connection required until it's time to upload for processing at the end of the day. Also to see lift wait times from crowd sourced data. 

You can trim your runs for example if you forget to turn it off when you drive away from the mountain. 

As long as you have a data connection you can see where your "friends" are on the mountain.

You can export GPX files into a mapping tool to analyze your tracks in greater detail. 

They also have a public leaderboard. 

The app is easy on the battery of my Galaxy S10e and has been super stable with no crashing or missed runs. 

I've found the data vastly more detailed and useful than Strava or Garmin. 

The only vested interest I have with this app is that the more people that use it the better it will be.


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## Brownski

That’s a lot of data


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## Andy_ROC

Brownski said:


> That’s a lot of data


Yes it's a lot of data. I mostly use it as a log so I can track my ski days and runs. But when I was out west I was able to use the map, run and lift detail to review areas I'd been that day and plan areas of the mountain I wanted to get to the next day. 

When the lift broke down at my home mountain when I was on it, I was able to look back and see exactly how long I was dangling there  

The leaderboard was always a fun aspect of TraceSnow-- watching some people getting 4M-6M feet of vert in a season. Glad We Ski added the leaderboard. While chasing vert isn't my thing(nor do I have time) it was always fun watching these leaders during the season.


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## Flatlander420

Does anybody here use a tracking app when they ski?


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## Alfredeneumann

Flatlander420 said:


> Does anybody here use a tracking app when they ski?


I use the free version of Skitracks. I don’t anally save every day (but the day we did the summit to Ski Bowl run was 24 runs, 21miles and almost 23k vf), it’s just nice to know the run count, distance and vertical feet at the end of the day.


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## skisalot

Flatlander420 said:


> Does anybody here use a tracking app when they ski?


Yes, I use Slopes, it’s great - days, vert, max speed, average speed, miles, etc.


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## Dmoss

Flatlander420 said:


> Does anybody here use a tracking app when they ski?


I've used Slopes and Ski Tracks (lite), everyone swears by Slopes by I find the speed the to be off by a decent amount (we tested it on the access road one day) and it told me I did 2500 vert on one lap of Foxlair to Wild Air.


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## not2brite

Flatlander420 said:


> Does anybody here use a tracking app when they ski?


I started using We Ski simply because I was curious. Vertical, distance, and speed all seem to be very consistent over multiple days at same places (8-10 days each @ Catamount Belleayre & Gore) so the accuracy seems to be very good.


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## greymoose

Two years ago, I started using Slopes. There's a free version and a premium version. I liked it so much that I pony'd up for the annual $24.99 premium version. 

Will say this, the Apple version of the app is much better than the Android version though I think they're working on fixing that gap.


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## Flatlander420

I use slopes on Android and generally I like it a lot but its definitely inferior to the apple version which is sad. I got free premium this season because of issues last year so I can't complain. I'm curious how accurate the speed really is


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