Ski app problems

I wrote to Garmin support two weeks ago - unfortunately they didn't respond.

I have two separate issues with the Ski app on the Descent MK1:
1. The auto-lap feature is completely wrong - it shows that I made 2 to 3 times more runs than I really made (f.ex I made 10 runs and the Activity shows 30 shorter ones). I rarely stop during a run and I ski down the slope in one go - so it's strange that it gets confused like that. I also catch the watch registering a run while I'm on the lift and going up. This is the primary function I use for skiing and it's irritating that it's not working properly.
2. I get unrealistically high speeds - more than 100km/h, sometimes even 200 or 300 km/h are displayed as top speeds in my activity. In reality I rarely go over 60-70 km/h. I tried with 3D Speed On and Off - there is no difference
Both of these issues were not present on my previous Fenix 3 (non-HR) watch, that was used in the same way on the same ski resorts, pistes and lifts.

Any ideas?

0 Garmin-Heath over 5 years ago

Glatzial Please reach out to Garmin's Support Teams so that we can get some files and extra information from you to allow us to look into this more.

0 rolfsg over 5 years ago

Just to confirm this issue reported by Glatzial. I didn't see this on my previous Fenix3HR. Enclosed a screenshot of a last Sunday ski run under perfect blue sky.

- speed on the chair lift raises from 15 to 50 km/h on the way up. It should be constant at about 25km/h
- lots of peaking on the downhill run

This happens on every run, every time, so something is definitly wrong with how the MK1 deal with GPS data at skiing. I trust this leads into the other issues like wrong altitude display, inaccurate number of runs, etc
ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1459540.jpg

0 MarcinB over 5 years ago

I have exactly the same issue. Especially frustrated when I know I did 10 runs but the the log show 20 runs!!! I lost confidence in the accuracy of the Ski activity and starting to doubt everything else this watch does...

0 Glatzial over 5 years ago

Garmin-Heath Hi, thanks for the replay. I wrote to the support on the 11th Feb - almost 20 business days ago - and apart from a Confirmation of email submission I didn't get anything. Today I sent a new ticket from a different email.

0 MarcinB over 5 years ago

I also have an open case with Garmin Support but getting no resolution other than the recommendation to replace the watch for the 3rd time.

Curious about all others, in my case I also have erroneous elevation reading showing with time my elevation constantly increasing while I ski the same slope. See attached example image. The hill max elevation was 3,200 ft, which was reflected correctly during first two runs, anything after was gradually increasing and skewing the elevation value. Do others see the same?ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1462579.jpg

0 rolfsg over 5 years ago

I am afraid there are loads of problems in the Ski mode:

Speed peaking -> you find a sample in my previous post
Altitude peaking -> enclosed a screenshot of a straight downhill run, data however shows a 50m climb
Fading Altitude -> enclosed a screenshot of 3 runs on the same chairlift, the altitude increases 50m after every ride
Wrong Altitude -> on this chairlift the valley station is at 1780m - the upper station at 2210m!
Chairlift rides not recorded -> GPS seems to be on standby on the chairlift rides and wakes up after recognising a downhill ride, due to this delay the first part of the downhill run is not recorded

Settings:

GPS: GPS&GLONASS
3D Speed & Distance : On
Autocalibration : On

I will change these settings for my skiing day tomorrow and see if that makes any difference.

0 Glatzial over 5 years ago

Funny thing is that I never experienced this with my Fenix 3 nonHR. A friend however had the Fenix 3 HR and had the same issues like the Descent and they gradually disappeared during the years. Now he also has only super speed as an issue. We often ski together and joke about who will break the sound barrier first. He is very close with top speed at 1000km/h.
Also on the Descent I think I have no elevation issues while BC skiing - so it must be a Ski app problem.
Garmin support replied today that I should take the matters to my home country distributor - I did, but I have no idea what a distributor can do beside opening the same ticket from their side or eventually replacing my watch (something that I'm not entirely sure I want). Garmin support is getting worse by the year.

0 rolfsg over 5 years ago

After some more testing and checking previous activities I can exclude a general issue with altitude measurement. A recent MTB run did provide accurate and consistent altitude information. Also the Fenix 3HS I used until last spring did provide accurate altitude recordings in the skiing app. Here a screenshots of the same skiing area for reference.

Yesterday I have modified following settings for skiing:

GPS: GPS
3D Speed & Distance : Off
Autocalibration : On (1st half of the day) / Off (2nd half of the day)

Altitude recording is a complete mess ! I manually calibrated the altitude at arrival on the mountaintop and left Autocalibration on, some runs later, at the same spot the altitude was 250m higher. So I recalibrate the unit and set Auto calibration off, now the altitude faded 850m off!! All these jittering and peaks during the runs, I guess these peaks are causing the too high run count.

The good news, disabling the 3D speed and distance solved the too high speed issue. Speeds have now been correct.

IMHO, a problem of how the MK1 deals with altitude in the ski app.

0 Garmin-Heath over 5 years ago

Can you please contact support and provide them with your data and activity files so we can look into this?

0 MarcinB over 5 years ago

Garmin-Heath I have provided logs to the support team from two different Descent devices exhibiting same ski app issues, looks like more and more users report the same trouble, please prioritize and resolve.