Flashby

chadx - I'm leaving here in 30 min to head to the airport and arrive at Big Sky tonight around 8 PM local slope time. I'll be on the slopes tomorrow (Sun) as well as Mon. I'll send you a txt or call and see if you are around and have a chance to meet. I am ready for my first taste of some real time stuff. --Darren

Feel free to post in the Forums on the Phresheez site and the Admin group is more than willing to help and are quick with the replies also.

I did a little research and ended up buying the Surfboard mount (it is billed as a High Impact Sport camera mount). It should do the trick except it can't be moved once mounted so putting it on someone else's board for a few runs is out of the question. Oh well -- will just have to get creative.

What is the recommended option for mounting a GoPro to a Snowboard (using a GoPro mount - not a homemade item)? I see the Suction Cup mount is geared toward cars, airplanes, snowmobiles, and motorcycles but says it is, "... not recommended for surfboards, snowboards or other high-impact sports. Only recommended for non-impact activities." I didn't think snowmobiles and motorcycles were non-impact activities with all the bumps they might hit. Perhaps GoPro means it is not recommended for a snowboarder throwing down tricks and big air jumps but that is not me. The Surfboard mount looks to be the better option but it also means it is a fixed location and can't be moved from the nose to the tail or to someone else's board or ski.

I'm really surprised nobody has mentioned Thorlos socks yet. A friend of mine said he has a 'death-til-us-part' agreement with his Thorlos socks so I just had to try them. The first time I put them on, even at home, I was in love. There is almost no describing the feeling. I use the Mountaineering socks from them though they do have Ski, Snowboard, and Snowshoe socks. Mountaineering seems to hit my foot/leg and boot in all the right spots and I love the extra thick cushion. If you have a snug fit in your boots then maybe the Ski ones will be best. Just give them a try and you'll wonder how you ever survived without them.

eajracing -- I think this is a worthy side-effect of having friends using the same app and can see who is slacking and who is actually performing. Glad to hear this is getting used and making it fun to be out there. The Trophy Case is also fun and allows you to brag as well so ... Game On !

Kevin - Welcome to the forum and thanks for the awesome app (for them ... I have a Droid). Thanks also for your clarifications as that helps me to understand it a bit more as well. I like the feature of the camera from inside the app where it places the photos not only on the map when being replayed but shows the photos during the replay. Great stuff. I look forward to using this app to the hilt in a few weeks when I get to play out West.

Good question and good point. I was testing this out a little more extensively this past weekend just for my own knowledge. I don't know what happens when you make/receive a phone call but if the app doesn't return then you can certainly switch to it or open it again. The app just keep tracking almost disregarding phone use. I've checked/sent email while using the app, txt messages, and checked the web browser. Sometimes the app keeps tracking all along and sometimes it asks if you want to start tracking which obviously I say yes. I have it set to prompt me when I launch the program since I might not want it to track me while I'm at home or work or showing the app to someone but because of that I am not always sure if it was still tracking me or not so when I want to make sure I always tell it to start tracking. The only issue here is when you look at the details in the app for how long it has been tracking it might say 30 minutes though you've been out there for 2 hrs. I usually double-check with the "Last Update" time indicated and if it is within a minute of the current time then I'm good. Also, if you click the "GPS" button in the upper-left then it will have "Pts to Send" and if there are several hundred then it had them queued up to send when it has a signal again. One of the great options with it is the camera. While you are tracking, you can hit the Camera icon and take a photo and it will place it on the map where you took it and a thumbnail of the image and when replaying the run it will pause and display the image taken. It also uploads the photo to your Phresheez profile. Good stuff. Definitely give this app a try then. You can even use it when NOT on the slope like testing the Battery life for a Roadtrip around all day and just let it track for 5 hrs as if you were on the slope. On the first 'tab/screen' of the program there is a "Save Battery" option. Tricks takes several measurements per second, Performance takes a measurement about every second, and Course Tracking is a measurement every few seconds. I'm not sure what Save Battery frequency is. My stock 14-month old 1,400 mAh battery would last about 2.5-4.0 hrs. Cold temps zap it faster than warm temps. I typically carry my wall charger with me and connect it while I'm eating lunch if needed. Last week I bought a 2,800 mAh battery and it lasted 5 hrs only losing 50% life without charging so I will not have issues going forward. I've heard the iPhone gets good life from this app but give it a shot. Very nice. This is more of a passive app (at least for now) as it doesn't upload to your Phresheez profile or your Facebook page until you Share the run. It will keep the updated run on your phone and will also show friends who are nearby if you've connected with them in this app. Well it still tracks you -- but the programmers don't know the difficulty of off-piste and out-of-bounds runs so it will definitely track you but it won't know if it is a Beginner trail or an Expert trail. It is GPS-based so it should still track vertical ft drop or gain, speed, and perhaps slope angle. Give it a shot. Drive around the streets -- those are definitely not digitized and are "out of a ski resort area" but will give you an idea how it works. Where is your home resort?

I'm heading to Montana for my first trip at some insanely huge (to me) slopes and trails and mountains. I'll be at Big Sky/Moonlight Basin for the first part of the week and then resting as little as possible before hitting Bridger Bowl with a friend from Bozeman. I've heard some great stuff about the area and can't wait to experience it myself. I know it is weekday visits but if anyone can make it out I'd be thrilled to meet someone from the board and some tips and advice for a beginning snowboarder/hardbooter.

I just finalized plans for my first trip to Big Sky / Moonlight Basin for Jan 23-25. I'll be dragging a skiing friend with me. I'll look for some more hardbooters while on my trip (chadx, I'll contact you by cell). Plans are Big Sky on Jan 23 & 24 and Moonlight Basin on Jan 25 then head up to Bridger Bowl to play for a few days. Looking forward to an awesome trip and some phenomenal slopes and trails.

Good news -- on the Phresheez forum they indicate there is a sort of "out of bounds" area beyond the Resort trails where the app won't track you ... i.e. on down the road at the local pub and such. Check your tracks again and see if it did capture those points on your way home. A snippet of a post from one of their Admins is below. "Hi, when you're in a resort we clip the points off that aren't in the resort boundaries... it doesn't have anything to do with save battery. We do this not to slap your wrist or anything, but as a convenience so you don't see out of bounds tracks... like your trip back home when you forget to turn off Phresheez."

I'll try to remember this. I'm sure it is dead that day with everyone watching the Super Bowl. I'd like to get out when some other hardbooters are on the slopes and learn as much as I can. I'm still very new to all of this but am gathering up as much as I can as fast as I can. I'm balking at all these young'ins tearing up the fast slopes without a care in the world -- only because I'm not to that level yet. After the trip to Montana in a few weeks I can't wait to come back and show it who's boss. Counting the days.

Well I will be there the latter part of this week (about Feb 9-12) so post up if you can make it or better yet, add the Phresheez app to your smartphone and join the fun (great little app). Nice. I've got a season pass to Seven Springs and am just trying to get the most out of my visit. I know it isn't the biggest place but it lets me make some changes and compare from one week to the next. Last week I changed the bindings from 20/10 (F/R) to 40/30. Felt fine in the Living Room at home and ok on the flat ground off the parking lot. About 5 ft into the run I felt weird and 10 ft in it was too late to stop and hike back up and change it so I went with it. MAN was that different. It felt better but a bit awkward for the non-carving possible that day in those conditions. A half run off the lift to the parking lot and I had to change back to 20/10 for the time (Spring-like conditions and some rain in the morning). Maybe later I can hit some of the Intermediate slopes and carve on them but it was worth testing. Nice. I'm trying to get there after work a few times or drag some new folks out to try out Snowboarding now that I'm hooked. Great little place and with free lift tickets every Tuesday this season it is fun just to go out and work on some things from time to time. Still looking for my first hardbooter this year out on the slopes.

Ok, so you and eajracing need to get together and combine forces. That way you'll remember to start tracking and also quit tracking. I'm 'dschilberg' on there if you want to add me. Most everyone will trump me in their stats but it is fun to see where others go and what they do sometimes.

Don't forget -- you can open the App, press the Camera button (in the app), take a photo, and Upload that to your Phresheez account. When you later replay your run it will pause where you took the photo and display that. Great for capturing the slope before you attack it to show why you had to go so slow on an Intermediate trail or the conditions from the lift at the time. I am trying to remember this and take a photo of the front sign of the resort I'm at and then track all day. It makes it a little more interesting sometimes.

Excellent to hear others using this and enjoying it. I'm glad I found this before I got halfway through this season. More data is nice but I was able to tell in charts/graphs that I improved at my local slopes after a short trip to Vermont. I knew I was better but having some proof other than just guessing that it felt faster is nice sometimes. Yep, nice to track the vertical drop and also see that it is almost always the same as the vertical gain. Sometimes I have to conserve battery and turn it off on lift rides so I end up having almost no vertical gain but I don't care when that happens. Also, on the first 'tab' of the program there is a "Save Battery" option and their new "Course Tracking" option is fantastic. The "Performance" is nice if you have a battery that lasts or a phone that works well. They are still tweaking the program from our input on their forums and that is great to know. I'll definitely add you and will see where you've been riding but you'll dwarf me on numbers. Give me a few weeks to hit Montana and then I can finally compete against you on a few days. I don't have that problem, or didn't, since my battery was only lasting 1.5-2.5 hrs but I've solved that issue. It was the original battery which is now 14 months old and just needed to be replaced. It was also a 1,390 mAh one and I have a 2,800 mAh one now and the first test run on Friday was a solid 5-hr test of tracking all day and only lost 50% battery life so I'm good to go now. There is a way to clip the time in the run and end it at 15:00 rather than let it auto-end at 21:00 when you've already been home for hours. I don't know if there is a way to update your online run with that but maybe it is a future feature. You can also tag something as "Couch" which might be when you're recovering. These folks are great. I'll be sure to send them the link to this thread so they can read for themselves the thrills we are having.

Terryw - where will you be trying this? On their site is a Resort list and if there is an asterisk (*) then it is fully digitized and lots more fun.

It's also a few days off of work -- who would turn that down? It would be fun to ride the slopes in the morning then ride the indoor wave pool Waverunner thing in the afternoon.

It definitely was a whirlwind tour and I don't recommend it to most folks. I had my reasons for doing this though (trying to prep for a trip to Montana in 19 days and only have the small PA hills to ride on so needed something larger to cut my teeth on as well as to hit some powder). Agreed re: getting to know a place but I really was not prepared for so many trails to be closed in mid-Dec. That is what restricted me the most in my options and the conditions also caused some issues. True I have not been through the pass there but I've certainly seen worse areas. I'd be surprised if that is worse than anything in the Colorado Rockies which remain open. Either way, I learned my lesson and Smugglers' Notch will never be easily reached while staying at Stowe and vice versa. I did hear about a secret of taking a lift to the top of Spruce Peak and hiking until accessing Madonna Mountain (essentially the same mountain but different names from the different resorts). I'll save that for another day. I'm hitting Big Sky and it has an official 'combo lift ticket' with Moonlight Basin. That will be fun. Now that I've been to those 4 places I know which one I'll visit next time for several days. Funny thing is I had a lousy experience at Jay Peak but in the latest Ski Magazine they just had a decent article covering their powder. Ha. Can't wait for my next trip up to VT or NH or ME.

I was actually trying to find some tracks from Big Sky so you would be able to relate to the runs, lifts, speeds, slope steepness, etc. but didn't find one at quick glance. I also don't know if I can share someone else's tracks if they haven't listed it as public. Give me a month and I'll have two days of tracks to view.

Thanks, I'm really having some fun playing with that app. They only just digitized my local slopes so I was tracking for 3 weeks getting no real results (% Intermediate trails, % Beginner trails, etc.) but now it works. Here is another track at Seven Springs and the app displays photos you take along the way. I didn't know it did that while replaying the run so didn't do it very much. The track from Hidden Valley has more photos but I was still testing battery settings on my phone for the app. I need to remember to take a photo of the sign at the start of the day instead of the end of the day - then it makes more sense when watching the replay. This location is not yet digitized so it doesn't know as many fun stats about my runs.

You did send your number, yes. With the smartphone you can load an app like Phresheez and track all sorts of fun stuff (and see what other users/friends are close by). Here are some tracks of what I did at Stowe a few weeks back. Fun stuff but really just getting used to it before the Montana trip.

This was my fourth stop in Vermont on the dash-and-crash tour (4 resorts in 3 days) and I had to hit Jay Peak and here on the same day due to some ridiculous idea to close the pass between Stowe and here in October. The resorts are about 5 miles apart but now take the better part of 1 hr to drive. Since I was already on the northern side I decided to hit here on the way back to Stowe from Jay Peak. Not knowing the area, I got a Lift Ticket at the main area and took the chair lift up though nothing indicated it only reaches Beginner trails until you are AT the lift (not at the main area or parking lot). I looked at the map and saw a trail over to the next mountain however at the top I noticed that trail was closed. I got a chance to carve down the Beginner trails (hard to maintain speed on such gentle slopes) and then walk back to the car and drive up to Parking Lot 3 for the only other part of the mountain that was open. This added nearly 45-60 min to my day before I could hit some real slopes and the afternoon light was fading so I missed out on some good runs. The conditions were getting better but I was sadly out of time. Again was disappointed that so many of the slopes were closed and although the conditions and terrain were awesome and I'd do them again -- it is a pain to get here from Stowe but now I know.

This was my third stop in Vermont on the dash-and-crash tour (4 resorts in 3 days). Did not know the layout and it was a bit confusing at the road sign and I ended up going to the rather rural-looking area initially by the Ski Patrol and T-bar line. The Lift Ticket person said I had to go to Customer Service on the other side of the resort to get my pre-purchased lift ticket. Argh. Again, like Sugarbush, this added about half an hour to the start of my day. The 'other' side is the nice, shiny new side so now I know. The conditions were high single digit temps, 20'ish mph winds, and lots of ice and no powder. I was a bit bummed since I was hoping for powder here but I hit it on a bad week (powder the week before and the week after my trip). Still made the most of it and rode my first authentic Black Diamond trail (though accidentally as the Intermediate trail at the top of that lift was closed and this was not indicated until you go to the top -- whoops). I survived it though. Was again disappointed that so many of the slopes were closed although the upper part was shutdown due to high winds I believe so they can't be blamed for that.

This was my second stop in Vermont on the dash-and-crash tour (4 resorts in 3 days). Had rain the previous 16-24 hrs of my arrival and only a portion of the mountain was open but still did what I could. Discovered my new favorite trail, Upper Jester. Got some pics and video. Again was disappointed that so many of the slopes were closed. Ticket office couldn't find my pre-purchased lift ticket and the Manager was out so that delayed my start by almost 30 min.