I’m creating this thread to centralize all the various bugs and issues related to these similar mountaineering activities in the hopes that Garmin engineers will work with us experienced riders to fix them and make them truly useful and more functional. And hopefully quickly as the ski season has just begun ! Please contribute to this thread, upvote it, and keep it alive and visible so that Garmin makes fixing these activities a PRIORITY.
Scroll down to TLDR for the list of bugs.
Backcountry Skiing
In France, backcountry skiing often includes a section with a gondola ride. Or tram, or train. I’m thinking Chamonix, Aiguille du midi, Grands-Montets etc. Backcountry activities should include the option to Auto-pause gondola rides and not include the added vertical to the ascents.
Example : I start in the village of Argentiere 1200m and take the gondola up to the Bochard station at 2800m, I ski back down to the intermediary station (1980m) , and do this once or twice to warm up. Then I take the gondola back up a third time but this time only ski down 100m, then put on my skins and climb up to the Grands Montets peak at 3250m. I ski down to the mid station and repeat this gondola/skin combo a few times, but on my last descent from the top of Grands Montets I ski all the way down to the village at 1250m. Then If I’m really motivated I may take the gondola up once more to to the mid station to do a final run back down to the village. None of these gondola rides up should be included in my vertical ascent. But if I have to manually pause the activity there’s a good chance I’ll forget to pause or unpause it. It should be SET and FORGET.
On the way up to Grands Montets, I cross a mountain pass with a hut that everyone uses as an intermediary reference point (it’s a useful gauge to see how you’re doing). In Auto Tracking mode, clicking the lap button adds a lap. So ideally i’d hit the lap button when I pass the hut to see my split time, which I do see on the watch face - but this data gets lost and you don’t see it in the Garmin Connect app afterwards. Under the “Splits” tab, you see the ascent|transition|descents only. None of the manually pressed laps during the activity.
In real world conditions, I’m often skiing with my friends. We’re laughing and joking on the gondola ride up, it’s cold and i have gloves on and a thick jacket. If I have to pause the activity to avoid counting the gondola ride up, there’s a good chance I’ll forget to start it again up top. It’s also a pain in the ass to take off gloves, unvelcro my jacket sleeve to unpause the watch. Also when transitioning, it’s often cold and windy and you want to get the skins on as quickly as possible - and often forget to start the activity. Then when you get to the top, you have a sandwich, some hot tea, , talk trash with your buddies have a swig of some strong local beverage (génépi anyone?) , before taking off again and forgetting to start the watch. This is why why auto-detect everything is so useful. I just want to set it and forget it.
When I get back home, I just want to see the total distance I climbed, how fast I ascended (MAX VERTICAL SPEED), my AVERAGE VERTICAL SPEED, my TOP SPEED on the way down, and the total distance I skied down. I want to see these values for the activity as a whole, and for each separate split (Ascent Descent). The LAST thing I want is to spend more time trying to figure out what Garmin tried calculating than the actual time spent doing the activity !
In auto tracking mode , the lap button triggers a lap, but this lap doesn’t get displayed anywhere.
Descents always shows hundreds of meters of vertical ASCENT, I assume this is a bug ?
When you hit pause in MANUAL TRACKING mode, then scroll down and tap “lap”, it changes from ascend to descend and remains in pause mode. BUT the screen no longer displays a red ring around the menu which is a bit confusing when you’re on the mountain and in a rush. If you then tap “resume later” the red ring is still NOT visible.
TLDR
So to recap :
Ascent vertical should include physical climbing only, no vertical should be added from any gondola ride up.
Descent vertical should include ANY and ALL skiing regardless of how you got to the top. Skiing is skiing.
Manual laps should be saved in the activity and visible in Garmin Connect. Vertical ascent speed should also be calculated per lap. These manual laps should be calculated relative to the current ascent or descent : so the first time you hit the lap button the elapsed time will be calculated based on the time the ascent started. The second manual lap relative to the first etc.. These manual laps could have a separate tab in GC, or be included in the Splits Tab with a stopwatch icon and lap number (1,2,3..)
Average and Maximum vertical ascent speeds should be visible for the activity as a whole and per ascent. These metrics should be visible in Garmin Connect and in the activity on the watch. The “Stats” tab should include the average and maximum vertical speeds for the activity as a whole, while the “Splits” tab should show these metrics per ascent /descent.
The splits numbering sequence in GC is also confusing. Ascending and descending should probably have their own sequence. So ascent 1 followed by descent 1 in the order they were done. You could conceivably have multiple descents before an ascent if you are taking a gondola ride. Maybe the gondola ride could be shown in orange as an ascent without the vertical being calculated in the stats.
There should be no large vertical ascent data, during a Descent with no climbing, in the splits tab - bug ?
When set to MANUAL TRACKING, the red pause ring should be visible after tapping “lap” on the pause screen, same after “resume later”. Bug?
Skiing and snowboarding activities should not count gondola rides as separate laps. Or else at least give you the option not to include them with a toggle.
Hopefully we can get these issues sorted out quickly - Thanks to every who contributes to this thread and please help keep it alive until the problems are fixed !
