 Poster: A snowHead
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Which Suunto do I need to log miles skied? The cheapest to do what I want!! 
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sat 27-10-07 11:31; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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You need a doctorate in nuclear fission to work out how to get it to work properly - the manual is written in a version of English I've never encountered before. I got tired of resetting the altitude cos it was always way off. Tells the time and looks good though - but then so does my diamond encrusted gold Casio. Hopefully someone will come along who has had a better experience.
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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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Bode Swiller, is the compass a nightmare as well ?
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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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Not looking good so far
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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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skimottaret, yes, over-sensitive. Don't completely trust the thing to be telling the truth.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Bode Swiller, i had a few bids on ebay that havent been successful and am now thinking it is a not a wise investment, thanks i think i will give the suunto a miss.
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skimottaret, If you compass is for what I think it's for  .. you need a Silva - to take bearings from the map and so on. Old fashioned but does the job. I have a compass on my altimeter watch - and never rely on it. I always take a my Silva one too
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ski, I got a silva on ebay for 6 quid so sorted on that front but thought for ocassional use the watch compass might be ok....
Main reason i was interested in a suunto was i had heard that an altimeter is a good thing to have for MS course but starting to sound like a lot of money for a little used gadget. Not that that has stopped me in the past 
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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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So is the Suunto worth it or not?I like skimottaret, have lost out on Ebay
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If you want to look like a gnarled ski guide in the bar then a Sunnto is required!
(you have to work on the gnarled bit yourself!)
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I can practise gnarling in the mirror before I go 
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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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Oh yeah, annoying feature number 76... in darkness you need to press the backlight button. Then you have to squint, get the angle just right, try pressing again. Pathetic dull light. Far quicker to ask someone the time.
As for street cred... maybe. The opposite sex look at teeth, hair, skin, eyes, humour and hygiene more than watches, shoes or jeans though. No watch at all is cooler. Spend the money on bright blue contact lenses.
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Looks like its the Brietling from Turkey again then
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You know it makes sense.
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I've got a Nike one. mine has Altimeter, Barometer, Compass, etc. They also do 1 I think with slightly less facilities. Far cheaper, there's a guy selling some on eBay at the moment, think it's the lower spec one but not sure (may not have a compass). I don't use mine for anything serious but it's handy for telling your altitude, accumulated vertical and what the weather might do. Never used the compass.
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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 Suunto Altimax is the one to go for (don't bother with the one with the compass).
You'll see it on the wrists of quite a few UIAGM mountain guides, so must be OK.
Contrary to earlier posts, it's easy to use. The altimeter is excellent, and you can log your day's total ascents, descents & laps- start by pressing the lower left button twice whilst in alti-mode.
It logs for 12hrs, and maintains several logs (deleting the oldest automatically when its memory is full)
The only downside as far as I'm concerned is its a bit bulky. - oh yes, and as jbob says below, the alarm is CR*P
Last edited by Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name: on Sat 27-10-07 15:41; edited 3 times in total
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Poster: A snowHead
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bode swiller said
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I got tired of resetting the altitude cos it was always way off.
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You need to regularly reset your altitude at known altitudes from the map, since as the atmospheric pressure varies during the day, the altitude reading will change correspondingly. (Altitude is just a measure of local atmospheric pressure).
Even jumbo-jets need to keep setting their altimeters to local atmos-pressure when taking off/landing at any airport (that's assuming it's not all electronic these days)
You can also get artificially high altitude (ie lower pressure) readings if it's windy on the summit, since as the air accelerates you get a pressure drop (the drop in pressure is how planes stay in the air, & why you often get cloud forming on the lee side of a mountain)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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geoffers, the observer is about a 1/3 smaller than the altimax and i think if you get the negative face one the back light isnt such an issue.
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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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I bought a suunto with gps etc(the x9i) and its a waste of money. i bought my wife a timex watch which links up with a gps arm band and this works very well. Also downloads to a computer so you can plot your trips.
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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 have an observer, its an excellent altimeter, but like all barometric altimeters needs calibrating every day. The compass also needs regular calibration. The compass function is handy only as a back up to a normal magnetic silva type, which is the best tool for navigation by far. I have never had a problem reading mine but the alarm is very quiet both for waking me up or alerting me to a preset altitude.
The best way to log tracks would be a GPS, if anyone is thinking of getting a garmin vista type get the new "H" models as on the previous models the aerial is very poor and the signal is lost often in all but open ground.
A handy tip is- if when doing your morning calibration, the altitude reading on a barometric altimeter, has gone up overnight, it means the air pressure has dropped and the weather might be about to take a turn for the worst.
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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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I have an S6 which I use occasionally. I fix the altitude each morning and it's close enough for the rest of the day for my purposes. It measures vertical metres skied rather than miles skied, and if you want to be really geeky you can download the data to a laptop each day (I gave up doing this after about three days). These days I tend to wear my regular watch during the evening and a little clip-on watch fixed to my sleeve pocket when I'm skiing. Even though the clip-on watch came from a Christmas cracker it does a perfect job as you don't need to fight past two or three layers of clothing to see what the time is 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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as jbob says ...
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if the altitude reading on a barometric altimeter, has gone up overnight, it means the air pressure has dropped and the weather might be about to take a turn for the worst
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However falling pressure (raising altitude) is not necessarily a precursor to bad weather - more importantly is the rate the pressure is falling. Some useful Barometric trend info here.
Note that at sea level 1mb equates to about 10m of altitude - in the mountains it's nearer 7m per Mb (depending on your altitude)
Just looking at some stats on the web - if you see a drop of 9.9mb/hr run for cover
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| Hurricane Wilma went from 954 mb to 901 mb over a 4 1/2 hour period, a rate of 9.9 mb per hour.The largest 6, 12 and 24 hour pressure drops recorded in the Atlantic are associated with Hurricane Wilma as well. - 54 mb from 0000 to 0600 UTC 19 October, 83 mb from 1800 UTC 18 October to 0600 UTC 19 October, and 97 mb from 1200 UTC 18 October to 1200 UTC 19 October, respectively, are by far the largest in the available records for these periods going back to 1851. |
If you had pressure drops such as these, you would see your altitude raise by 540m / 830m / 970m respectively!!!
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I've got an altimax and really rate it. It enables us to play scores on the doors in the bar at the end of the day by guessing total vert descended. Sad but true.
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It enables us to play scores on the doors in the bar at the end of the day by guessing total vert descended. Sad but true
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... same here SteveSparks
Our other trick is trying to ski the height of Everest (8,848m) in a day 
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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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skimottaret, I have a Suunto copy (from Tchibo) for £30. To be clear, the compass sucks, but the altimeter/barometer work just fine. Wouldn't ski tour without it. No really useful for lift-served, but away from the lifts, knowing how high you are helps tremendously with navigation. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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redrunmarcus, I've got a Vector - my main problem is that the screen scratches really easily and the altimeter does seem to need to be calibrated constantly.
Apart from those niggles it's great, I wear it every day and mine has an ace white writing on a black background.
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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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I have a Vector, too. I think it's a brilliant watch. It's great in boring meetings. I think they look good, the back light is brilliant, no problems. The alarm is a little quiet, but that's my only gripe. Callibration is just part of the deal. It's bid and chunky, so easy to use with gloves on etc.
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