recording skiing/snowboarding using biking? Vertical drop?

[highjack42]

Hi,

I'm going skiing this week and will take my brand-new surge.

As I organised a little competition with some friends as to who is faster on the slopes, I was wondering whether the surge would be a good fit to measure it.

Unfortunately, there is no skiing mode, so we need to make do with other modes. I read that hiking and walking modes are predominantly step based (i.e., does not record movement in absence of steps) and so, I thought the closest mode available would be biking.

Although I can imagine it works, I was wondering whether the built-in altimeter would kick-in to account for vertical drop while recording speed. If not, accuracy would be highly comprised and as the surge would (I assume) revert to GPS mapping data.

I reckon this question is rather general, but I would appreciate your enlightened input.

Many thanks in advance.

[Rich_Laue]

The altimeter, basically a barometer,  only records up movement not down.

In Bike /run/walk the Surge uses its GPS to record changes in altitude.

They best i could say is to try it.  I would think biking would work for what you want. Many use the Bike to record these changes while mountain bikeing. It would also be fun to see the path taken down the mountain. 

[highjack42]

Thanks a lot rich.

So how is the surge with speed data on the watch itself (ie, not using the mapping data), if it does not account for vertical drops? or does it just ignore it?

I guess I will have to try and compare the Surge readings with a dedicated ski tracking app on my phone.

If anyone has experience with downhill ski and can vouche or warn against the accuracy of the Surge in this context, I'd be grateful.

[Rich_Laue]

Speed and altitude on the Surge will not work while skiing without the GPS. In Bike mode the GPS is turned on by degault, therefore you would be using the GPS

[highjack42]

I understand that GPS is necessary to track movement. I meant that a barometer equipped GPS watch can, theoretically calculate altitude variation on the go by relying on atmospheric pressure (even when the GPS is turned on). I was wondering whether it was also the case for the surge, or if it can only provide you with altitude variation after the facts (i.e., once uploaded on fitbit's servers, using the map/topographic data).

[Rich_Laue]

The barometer is used to measure altitude changes of 10 feet as a floor when gping up, no measurement of altitude change is recordrd while going down. I don't know if this answers your question .

[bbarrera]

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@highjack42 wrote:

I meant that a barometer equipped GPS watch can, theoretically calculate altitude variation on the go by relying on atmospheric pressure (even when the GPS is turned on). I was wondering whether it was also the case for the surge, or if it can only provide you with altitude variation after the facts (i.e., once uploaded on fitbit's servers, using the map/topographic data).

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As I recall, the Surge only displays distance, duration, heart rate, average speed, and calories while its tracking a bike ride. After the ride is completed you need to view elevation and other stuff on web dashboard. So that means you can't review elevation or max speed while on the chair lift, like I can with SkiTracks app on my phone. And it doesn't have a ski mode like other multi-sport devices (VivoactiveHR and Fenix 3). And I don't think you'll get auto-pause or run counting, where auto-pause keeps a running total of time skiing (duration timer pauses when you arrive in the chairlift line, and starts again when you unload at top). Also, I've found (and others on this forum) the elevation graph on the web dashboard to be inaccurate so don't be surprised if things don't look right. You should get floors credit for riding up the lift.

Hope that helps.