App your way to better skiing – Best ski apps on the Marketplace and Nokia Store
Here’s our five top apps for Windows Phone, MeeGo and Symbian platforms, including instant weather reports, piste and resort conditions and virtual ski school videos.
All are available from Windows Marketplace and or the Nokia Store.
The North Face Snow Report
This quality app, available on Windows and Symbian, comes equipped with up-to-date information based on your current location. It comes preset with five of the most popular ski locations in Europe, but you can add your own destinations by pressing the handy bold red + button.
With your location selected, it presents you with a summary report of the condition of the resort, weather, quality of the slopes and trail maps of the area. The best feature of the app is tracking your day’s progress according to the condition of the slopes.
Use it to plan exactly how many layers you will need. This app has saved me bringing three sets of thermals!
Ski School for Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced
New from Elatemedia is a cracking lesson tool for Symbian phones, it provides educational videos for all ability levels. Three separate apps are available: beginner, intermediate and advanced. As I have not been near a slope for six years, I chose advanced, because I’m that good!
The videos guide you step-by-step through the motions of how you should conduct turns properly, teaching you the basics, or reiterating them again if you just need a gentle reminder of technique. Darren Turner is your instructor, and makes everything instantly understandable.
Watch it in your chalet the night before you hit the slopes and get a head start.
A free Ski School ‘Lite’ addition is also available for Lumia: have a taster here.
SkiersApp
Available on Lumia, SkiersApp is the ultimate tool for braggers. It tracks your downhill skiing statistics on the go, so you can compete with your mates to see who was the fastest and who experienced the highest G-forces!
Top features include:
– Speed (including your maximum speed)
– Height changes
– G-force
– Running time and distance
My favourite feature is the sharing of ski runs, marked by Nokia Maps GPS. Upload your favourite runs straight to Facebook and Twitter, immediately after finishing one. You can also chat with Facebook friends direct from the slopes, with Skreeky, and update them on your most graceful tumble.
Ski Guide
Only for the Nokia N9, the Ski Guide is an ideal tool to display the nearest ski resorts in a clear and concise way. It links with slope webcams so you can view the condition of slopes and updates with live information regarding the condition of lifts and current snow conditions.
When launched, the application tracks the users location via GPS and displays the nearest ski resorts that are open or closed at the time. More in-depth resort facilities and services information can then be viewed, so if you are after the closest hot chocolate to you, look no further.
Skiinfo
Exclusively for Symbian, Skiinfo is the perfect tool for instant bite size information on the weather, slope conditions and service updates within your resort. It saves automatically and you can add your own resort, saving it instantly to your most recent list.
If it means the difference between bringing a face mask, hat and scarf, or just your sunglasses, this app will save the day if the weather takes a turn for the worse.
See my live ski post.
30 top apps for Lumia smartphones.