I've been hiking with a surge for more than a year, often on hikes of 15-20 miles and 5000 or so elevation gain, and I've always been impressed with the accuracy on the elevation settings. I know the trails I hike very well, and can compute my elevation gains very precisely. The Surge has always been right there with me. Lately however, particularly on hikes that include significant downhill portions in the middle, the numbers have been skewing very low. On Saturday, I did a 14 mile climb that included, I am certain, a little over 7,000 vertical. The Surge reported the gain at 5900. I then imported my surge data, the very same file Fitbit uses, into strata. There, using Fitbit data, it reported my gain at 7690. It appears to me that the surge has begun largely ignoring the downhill sections, and the resulting subsequent regain of elevation that must occur. I had drops of about 2000 vertical, and later about 600 vertical, in the middle of that hike. The basic elevation change from the trailhead to my summit was about 5,000 feet, so when you figure in those two downhill sections, the 7690 figure is just about accurate. The Surge figure is more than 20% low. Obviously the stored data itself is correct, since strata was able to take it and get a correct calculation. The problem seems to be simply what the surge is reporting when it analyzes itself. Anybody have any thoughts?
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