 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi Folks,
Looking for any fitness tracker recommendations you might have that would be suitable for skiing activities. Planning to do a full season and want to monitor as we go - so want something that is particularly suited to skiing, given that'll be the #1 activity rather than just a holiday one.
One concern I have is that anything with a screen may be susceptible to damage from cold? Not sure if that is valid or not?
Thanks!
D.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@dharnett, The Fenix 6 and onwards have piste maps included for most resorts, as well as high-res hiking maps for entire continents, so they're the most "skiing appropriate I'm aware of. You can select skiing as an exercise activity (which you have to remember to do at the start of each day, it's not tracking this in the background like it does with steps and flights of stairs) and it tracks it very well - depressingly it will show how few minutes you spend actually skiing...
... hence as @under a new name, says, recreational downhill skiing isn't particularly intense exercise.
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@dharnett, I have just finished the season using my Garmin VenuSq, cheap (£120), simple and easy to use.
All the data can be viewed via the Garmin Connect app and exported to a spreadsheet to analyse.
I skied 77 days this season and found that as my technique improved the amount of cardiovascular effort required was greatly reduced. I did more CV exercise with a couple of bike rides and a 5k run during the week at home.
The VenuSq has several ski settings recording lots of useful data.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Thanks folks.
Not really seeing skiing as a way to get fit as such, although I expect there is at least a stamina element that should grow through a season (or at least the early part). More that I'm just curious about how much effort we really put into our skiing, and like @Seahoob see how that changes with technique improvements over time - although I do hope to get more into more challenging stuff and spend more time on moguls and off-piste.
The phone can track the routes/speeds etc so I don't really need a fitness tracker for that, even though chances are we'll get that too assuming the tracker we choose has gps. I'm liking the garmin recommendations so far.
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Fenix 6 etc are all very well, but due to the size of them can be annoying under gloves/sleeves sometimes.
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So would the VenuSq have a lower profile than the Fenix? Definitely a consideration once layers and gloves come into play.
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Fenix 6S (s=small) is a fantastic device, has a built in barometer so has reasonably accurate altitude awareness. I'd recommend one for skiiing. Also has excellent battery life.
I bought mine as an all-rounder as I do a lot of running. It's a little depressing how much exercise you do skiing, but I am doing relatively short days with the family rather than epic all day missions.
It gives a VO2max estimate so will track any improvements in your overall fitness. If I were doing a season I'd also invest in a GoPro or similar to record the good days.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I have a Fenix 6 pro, use it for skiing, some cycling (although I have a separate Garmin on my road bike) hillwalking and for general health metrics. It is useful to check on your resting HR and sleep patterns, for example if you are fighting off a virus your RHR may be up a bit.
It also shows me text messages / football scores etc - but you can turn that stuff off.
I wear it 24/7 (except to give it a run under the tap once a day) and the size is perfect for my (fairly small for a guy) wrists. I found the screen size on the s (small) too wee and the max - while a slightly larger screen, is too big - think Suunto.
Overall, its a brilliant watch, it does everything and more that I thought it would. The ABC element is very accurate, the colour mapping is really fantastic - and battery life is very decent.
You can do routing via Garmin Connect, or third party apps like Outdoor Active and they arrive on the watch almost instantly.
They just brought out a new version - Fenix 7 - which has a touchscreen and costs a fair bit more. I believe it works well, but I would be worried about pressing the wrong thing and pausing etc when messing with sleeve.
My wife has a Fitbit Charge 5, it is a bit slimmer and has some nicer colours !
She loves it - she didnt want all the ABC stuff I have, but it does all the health metrics, as well as tracking steps and calories (if you log that sort of thing).
She is in a competition with one of her pals where they can see each others steps on the app and I have seen her go out to run round the block late at night to "win the day" !!
Ultimately it depends what you want and how you will use it. Some of these watches cost a lot of money, and there isnt any point paying for maps if you wont use them.
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@dharnett, how much effort? Once you're past the "can I stay upright till the end of the slope?" stage, really not very much at all.
Moguls? - somewhat more but very technique dependent.
Powder? - very technique and kit dependent
But generally, not very much at all.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Garmins on sportspursuit.com at the moment.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@dharnett, VenuSq is about the same size as an Apple watch, I had no problem with gloves etc.
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| Quote: |
More that I'm just curious about how much effort we really put into our skiing, and like @Seahoob see how that changes with technique improvements over time
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IME experience surprisingly little effort if judging by HR! And you might be surprised just how much time during a ski day is not actually spent skiing. Generally the better you get the lower HR (although some of this might just be fitness improvements too) and percentage of time skiing downhill get.
If you just want health metrics Fitbit probably fits the bill. If you just want ski stats you can probably just use a phone app. You could piece them together to get an idea. Smart watch is probably the most complete option but also the most expensive.
Lot of suggestions for fenix - it's probably best in category smart watch. However, it's expensive and you may be paying for a lot of stuff you don't really use. I have a coros apex premium which is considerably cheaper and probably gives you all the ski stats you could possibly want (even broken down by individual run) as well as providing an interactive GPS map of your day so you can see where you hit your top speed, or steepest slope etc.
A few things to consider:
- there is a suggestion that smart watches may interfere with avy transceivers. I'm not sure how proven this is, but probably not worth the risk of wearing one when going off-piste.
- watches use optical heart rate monitoring however its not always particularly accurate, even more so for stop start activities like skiing can be. Most of the health metrics and estimate of kcal burned etc. are going to based on HR data so be aware they might not be completely accurate. If you want accurate HR data you would need to buy a chest strap
- some of the fitness metrics estimated by the watch are not always particularly accurate (e.g. vo2 max). So take it all with a pinch of salt, often how you actually feel is a better indicator than what the watch says! (The exception might be elevated HR at rest which can be a signal of incoming illness and perhaps a good opportunity to take it easy).
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You know it makes sense.
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Fenix 6X Pro.
Has both 'Ski' and 'Backcountry Ski' modes: the second measures the effort you put into the ascent as well as the descent.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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The Fenix 7 in all its guises is available.
"there is a suggestion that smart watches may interfere with avy transceivers. I'm not sure how proven this is, but probably not worth the risk of wearing one when going off-piste. "
I'd be curious as to the purported mechanism? Mobile phones one thing (always transmitting) but smart watches? Bluetooth?
All the guides I know seem to have smartwatches ...
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Poster: A snowHead
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With phones it's the screen the causes the interference apparently? I assume watches are the same, but either has to be close to the transceiver.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@under a new name,
"Complex electronic devices consisting of a printed circuit board with various integrated switching circuits cause due to their switching processes in operation a perpetual magnetic field of different intensity. Hans Oested in the early 1819 for example already demonstrated such a phenomenon, when he observed that electric current could deflect a magnetic needle. Based on this discovery it is obvious that any product which consumes electric power creates a perpetual magnetic field – even if this magnetic field is still small." (I'm just copying and pasting from a paper presented at International Snow Science Workshop, Banff, 2014, titled effect of consumer electronics on avalanche transceivers, I really don't have any expertise or knowledge of exactly how it's bad.
In terms of the suggestion smart watches shouldn't be used off piste it's quite widely put out there e.g.
https://www.snowsafe.co.uk/smartphones-interfere-avalanche-transceivers/
https://www.snowsafe.co.uk/smartphones-interfere-avalanche-transceivers/
They don't state any hard evidence or suggest just how likely and to what effect smart watches will affect transceivers. However, I'd rather play it safe and not wear one off piste. Even if the risk is tiny, I'm sure most of us can live without the stats (ok maybe not the Strava guys  )
Edit: some places say if you have to use a smart watch attach it your backpack well away from transceiver. Perhaps a workaround. Although you obviously lose HR data.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@boarder2020, I'm still somewhat unconvinced. Consumer electronics are fairly rigorously controlled in terms of unwanted EM emissions. Plus, modern arvas are, to a degree, digital.
And I'm just thinking of one guide chum who routinely guides with at least one each of iphone, GPS, smart watch ... if he had a serious concern, he wouldn't be doing that.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I use a M-zone tracker for an accurate account of my heart rate and calorie burn. It is via a chest strap but only needs recharged every 3 months.
I make sure I’m connected via the app on my phone as I put my boots on in the morning and then forget about it until the end of day.
Ski Tracks is also switched on at the same time and no problem with battery life on my phone.
I’ve been using this system and tracking it for a few years,apart from 2021  and I find it very interesting how the extreme cold affects calorie burn, fitness at the start and end of season and how much time you spend on lifts.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| GreenDay wrote: |
I have a Fenix 6 pro, use it for skiing, some cycling (although I have a separate Garmin on my road bike) hillwalking and for general health metrics. It is useful to check on your resting HR and sleep patterns, for example if you are fighting off a virus your RHR may be up a bit.
It also shows me text messages / football scores etc - but you can turn that stuff off.
I wear it 24/7 (except to give it a run under the tap once a day) and the size is perfect for my (fairly small for a guy) wrists. I found the screen size on the s (small) too wee and the max - while a slightly larger screen, is too big - think Suunto.
Overall, its a brilliant watch, it does everything and more that I thought it would. The ABC element is very accurate, the colour mapping is really fantastic - and battery life is very decent.
You can do routing via Garmin Connect, or third party apps like Outdoor Active and they arrive on the watch almost instantly.
They just brought out a new version - Fenix 7 - which has a touchscreen and costs a fair bit more. I believe it works well, but I would be worried about pressing the wrong thing and pausing etc when messing with sleeve.
My wife has a Fitbit Charge 5, it is a bit slimmer and has some nicer colours !
She loves it - she didnt want all the ABC stuff I have, but it does all the health metrics, as well as tracking steps and calories (if you log that sort of thing).
She is in a competition with one of her pals where they can see each others steps on the app and I have seen her go out to run round the block late at night to "win the day" !!
Ultimately it depends what you want and how you will use it. Some of these watches cost a lot of money, and there isnt any point paying for maps if you wont use them. |
I also have a 6 Pro, and have similarly small wrists. I must admit I thought it was huge for the first two or three days, being much bigger than my normal watch, but soon got used to it. Not had chance to ski with it yet but it's ideal for running and swimming, and the health data and tracking is interesting.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@narbs, I think I may have been like that, but had switched from an older Fenix which was larger !
Something I forgot to mention was the customisation.
Via Garmin iQ, you can get loads of widgets, apps and watch faces.
I use a watchface called Glance. Highly customisable and very simple.
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@Dr.Snow, don't you have to manually switch between the up and the down?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| boarder2020 wrote: |
- watches use optical heart rate monitoring however its not always particularly accurate, even more so for stop start activities like skiing can be. Most of the health metrics and estimate of kcal burned etc. are going to based on HR data so be aware they might not be completely accurate. If you want accurate HR data you would need to buy a chest strap |
I was curious about this when I got my Fenix 6, so before I linked up my chest strap to the watch I did a test on a longish hilly road bike day - using my Garmin bike computer with chest strap, and the watch on my wrist using optical.
Although the data was not 100% consistent I was surprised at how close the optical results were to the chest strap. There was a little variation at points, only a few bpm here and there, and I couldnt work out if it was simply a timing issue but the overall graph was remarkably close.
In any event, as I say I was pleasantly surprised at the consistency between the devices - while I will continue to use the chest strap and bike computer using the road bike, that is more for the larger mapping screen and cycle specificity rather than any concern over metrics.
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| under a new name wrote: |
| @Dr.Snow, don't you have to manually switch between the up and the down? |
In ski touring mode you can do this via the lap button but not quite sure of the point as it knows when you’re going up and down due to the altitude. I didn’t touch anything when using it in the pics above so it recorded the individual runs by itself
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@BobinCH, yep, manually with lap button. As you say, seems a bit odd ...
I'm just curious as I have my beadies on a 7S to replace my Polar M430 which is functionally perfectly fine but doesn't fit easily under a work shirt. Whereas my bro's 5S seems to be a lot more fitted around the wrist (the M430 has a clumsy strap design.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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In ‘Ski/Snowboard’ mode watch measures vertical descent and stops timer automatically on uplift. In ‘Backcountry Ski’ measures total time and vertical ascent and descent.
@under a new name, @BobinCH,
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You know it makes sense.
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I have the Garmin Venu 2. That one is 42mm so fits ordinary sized wrists without being obtrusively macho massive. OLED, I'd not want the darker displays. It takes me 10 minutes to walk to the pub and by default my watch would get very congratulatory about that, from which I conclude that most people who buy these are probably fatties. You can turn that stuff off, thankfully.
The default snowboard stuff works perfectly at resorts. Helicopters (which tend to descend as well as ascend) confuse it a bit. I think I'll look at how those "activities" are coded as it ought to be easy enough to tell it that any run on which I get over 200km/h on is in fact the helicopter not me. Anyone here looked at creating custom activities at all?
It's very easy to set the "data fields" shown during an activity - eg total runs, cumulative vertical, current altitude. By default the last run's stats are a down-swipe away.
As people said:- You turn it on at the start of the day and just leave it to do everything else.
- HR whilst snowboarding is less than whilst walking in the mountains, it's not an intensive exercise. Well not if you stick to downhill
It works ok with my Concept 2 and also counts lengths, which is just brilliant. You can set it to start automatically (which is why it bothers me walking to the pub), but for snowboarding I generally start it up - it needs a gps signal for obvious reasons. Uses more power when logging that stuff, so best to charge it once a day then; it lasts much longer with just pub walking etc.
It mostly sits at wrist temperature, but I've had it down to minus 15 or so and I'd really not expect any trouble from that.
Last edited by You know it makes sense. on Sat 14-05-22 11:28; edited 1 time in total
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| BobinCH wrote: |
| under a new name wrote: |
| @Dr.Snow, don't you have to manually switch between the up and the down? |
In ski touring mode you can do this via the lap button but not quite sure of the point as it knows when you’re going up and down due to the altitude. I didn’t touch anything when using it in the pics above so it recorded the individual runs by itself |
I suspect it's so the watch changes the metrics shown on screen from uphill relevant stuff to downhill.
Some watches you can press once to end uphill mode, and then once to start downhill mode. Which allows for timing of transition. But is probably more faff than its worth for most people.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Never managed to get my Garmin to play nicely for heli stuff. I just stop and start it for the downhill. I use an iPhone app called flyskyhy to track the flying part. Works really well if you want to see where the heli went, speed, height etc, but does need flight mode to be off on the phone, so need to remember to sort that when riding. It's a bit of a faff.
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FAQ
