load values for ski touring

if the load is 30. Maybe the watch didn't get the correct heart rates from the wrist. In my case i have much higher loads while using chest strap than with watch optical sensor. As values from the watch are pretty low / non-existant.

There is heart rates data - there always is. Here is the tour https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/10700124466 and the comparing run https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/10711827814.

Sorry i mis read and thought of "classic" ski where during fast descents and movements watch don't get HR correctly but that's not your case. Indeed for 6 hour activity the load of 30 is very strange. 

One has to keep in mind that ”load” relates to heart only. Not muscular strain. And during such a long session you do get quite a few recovery phases for your heart, as the HR is not continuously high. This is good for your heart as it allows you to be out for an extensive time. But of course the muscular load is much higher. But unfortunately it is not included in the load metrics (as far as I understand).

The longer you maintain a high, steady HR, the higher the load. But everytime your HR goes down, the load do not increase (your heart recovers). I have the same experience. Two days ago, my wife and I did a three hour session on skis. Not as much altitude as you, but almost twice the total distance. We did slow down when needed, and of course the HR did go down during decents. My load was ca 40. Afterwards (at home) I did shift to skate skiis to go get the car that we had parked at the start of our tracks. While skiing to the car I kept a steady state higher HR. This gave me twice the load (80) in thirty minutes.

A high load is really a strain on the heart, so I keep track of it. And equally I think of a low load during long session - be it hiking, skiing, trailrunning, biking - as a proof of my heart being in good shape, allowing me to do what I like for a long time without getting a too high strain on my heart.

This said, I am quite tired in my body (muscles) as I write this.

Best regards.

I did not see this 'heart only" reference anywhere. The page is called "Load" with "Exercise Load" and "Acute load" as subpages. The help page for Training Load says is:

A measure of your effort. that is calculated based on recent load scores. It takes into account exercise duration and intensity".

For acute Training Load it says:

It is based on excess post-exercise oxygen consumption - EPOC. The longer or more intense the activity, the higher the score.

It might be ok for  1200 meters of difference over 6 hours.
I did a skitour (also at ~2500m) last weekend with 10km in distance, 1400m difference in height in just under 3h and got a training load of 162.

In comparison to my running workout days before, where I did repeated runs with high pace where I got a training load of 215.
In this workout the summed up distance was 9km with 5:30min/km.

Seems ok for me. Also I would go with the suggestion that the skitour was as half as exhausting than the running wokrout.

Optical HR is bricked for ski touring and XC skiing and has been for the entire season. Garmin knows about it and for some reason will not fix it. Load is based on HR. The watch is on average recording HR about 60bpm lower than it should be.

While I read a lot about this here, I'm not sure.
If I look at my tour last week, I had ~150bpm in the first section (no way it could be to low and I could have had 210bpm), after our break i had ~100-110 bpm ... yeah possible, I could have had 160-170bpm, but unlikely due to the fact my partner felt ill and we went on slower after our break.

Yes I‘m having the same problem. Just came back from three days of ski touring with 1200 meters of ascenting each day and Garmin gave me a load of 11 for each day, haha. 

Garmin Connect IQ

Please fix this…Garmin should also consider muscular activities in order to rate your activity, not only the heart rate

I did a ski tour at the local ski hill. Climbed over 1500 feet in 45 minutes and then skied down fast. 3.17 miles all in 58 minutes. Felt like I was really pushing as hard as I could. Avg HR 106 and Max HR 134. Seems like it is a little low to me but maybe I'm wrong. 

Load of 13. It feels very disappointing to me for overall training benefit compared to a 30 minute trail run with way less elevation and my own gauge of how tiring it feels.

Maybe we're just missing something...