This snow season your iPhone’s going to do as much legwork as you when you hit the slopes — no more earbuds-only/unreliable texting duties for him. Because the best mountains are installing innovative new technology that, be it delivered by way of an app or built right in to your mountain pass, will deliver you stats, expert tips, itineraries and more.
Let’s start out with Vail Resorts and their EpicMix Guide, which works at Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Park City, Heavenly, Northstar, Kirkwood, and, of course, Vail. What started as the first chip-in-your-pass technology in the US to track your vertical feet and number of lifts you make in a day (no more inflated numbers to cover for spiked hot chocolate breaks) graduated into a version that’d share your stats on social media. The hills have since plied their Ski and Ride School instructors with spiked hot chocolates and picked their brains for the best runs for any level of difficulty or length of time, so you can best design your day’s plans. There are over 350 options in the latest app, and once you’ve completed yours share it with pics and stats (unless you eat snow).
Heading to another hill — even one that’s abroad (lucky)? There are a few awesome apps that work just about anywhere. Our favorite’s Ski Tracks, and here’s why: for $0.99 this bad boy (in it’s fifth year, last updated this month) offers graphs of altitude and speed unlike most, in addition to tracking your vertical pitch, steepest pitch, lifts, pics and more. There’s a reason ST consistently wins awards and is one of the most popular. The fact it uses GPS means you won’t have to use roaming overseas, and the app’s very battery-friendly for your phone. Download it, son.
Regardless of where you are, it’s important to know what to expect weather-wise. Hence the most downloaded weather app for shredders — OnTheSnow Ski & Snow Report. It isn’t the sexiest app, but it’s free (that’s what we say about the tortilla chips in Mexican restaurants, but hey, we eat them anyway). And it gives first-hand reports from more than 2,000 hills around the world. The best sections are the first hand reports from other skiers and boarders, the webcams (when they work), and the deals section if you haven’t gotten your lift pass by the time you roll up at the bottom of the mountain.
Lastly, and non-app-ly, you know GoPro. You’ve probably got a HERO2 knocking around in your boot bag. But if you can convince the person in charge of the list you’ve been more nice than naughty (you’re a good liar) it’s time to upgrade. This fall GoPro came out with HERO4, and it’s pretty sweet. They say it operates at 2x the performance of the HERO3 (which was already awesome); we’ll save you the technical jargon and tell you that its the same size, only slightly heavier, and takes double the max frames per second in video mode. It also has a Night Photo and Night Lapse functionality your old GP couldn’t handle, as well as Bluetooth.
Happy snow season!
