Ski Apps for a Better Time On the Slopes

Craig Agranoff Picks the Best Ski Apps

It’s winter and if you’re a skier, snowboarder, or just like hanging out at the lodge and pretending to be into it, then you know that this season means a lot of things. It means uncertain weather on the mountain, getting lost, and attempting to look impressive while secretly fearing for your life. The good news is that technology is finally catching up to the snow sports and now.. well, there’s an app for that.

Find My Friends
Probably the most useful app for the lodge-dweller and bunny slope skier whose friends are out hitting the big powder and flying down Breakneck Mountain in their zeal to become the first casualty of the winter. This app helps you locate the friends who’re using it as well, helping to keep the group together. Or at least get everyone in the same spot for hot toddies.

Ski and Snow Report
Updated for the new season, this app is top-rated and free ñ two things everyone loves. It gives up-to-the-minute ski and snow conditions for your chosen ski resorts, allowing you to track just one or several resorts at once, just in case you aren’t sure where you’re going until you get there. It gives all the pertinent data you need on conditions at the resort, including recent snowfall, temperatures, snow pack depth, wind gust speeds, and the forecast for the coming week.

SnoWhere
Probably the most highly-recommended app on the list, this one is an emergency beacon that uses your phone as a location device to let your friends know where you are in case of avalanche. It doesn’t require cell phone service to work and the more iPhones there are in the immediate area, the stronger and more accurate the beacon becomes. This is not only a great backup for a regular beacon (which you should always carry), but allows you to communicate when the phones are close enough, giving you peace of mind while they find you and dig you out.

RealSki 2.1
This augmented reality app uses your phone’s camera to show you where you are and what ski runs are available. Think of it as Google Goggles for skiers. Over a hundred ski resorts in North America are included in the app’s library. You can even geotag important spots so you can find them later ñ like your car, which may be buried under 8 feet of snow when you’re done, or where you dropped something off the chair lift, don’t give up on that $800 digital camera just because it plummeted 200 feet down to the slopes.

SkiTracks
Once you’re done skiing, you want to brag to your friends who didn’t come with you. Or at least your Facebook wannabe friends, anyway. This app is less than a buck and shows exactly where you’ve skied via a satellite map. It also tracks distance, speed, altitude, and duration. It’s very much like the apps you’ve seen posts from on your news feed showing where your friends walked or biked, except this one’s for skiing.

Ski Pursuit
Similar to SkiTracks, this Android app records speed, descent, distance, and time on the slopes. You can then chart averages for the day, season, etc.

SkiPhone
A cool little app for Android, this one allows you to use your phone with gloves on. It replaces the touch screen interface with one that works through phone movement. Instead of pointing to icons and selecting, you shake the phone to move a cursor around and then shake in a different direction to select. Great for picture taking and the like when you’re in the cold.

Snow Edge
If you have flaming red, curly hair and several Olympic gold medals, then this is the app for you. This one tracks extreme ski maneuvers, including your speed, turn acceleration, and air time. Yes, it tracks how much time you spend airborne while skiing. If your last name is White, you definitely need this app.