# Garmin Forerunner for Skiing?



## Lev (Oct 12, 2004)

Yes, I know this is a bike forum. With that said, has anyone used their Forerunner 305 for skiing? I'm looking into one of these for running/biking training, and was curious if it's the do everything GPS for all outdoor sports. In other words, can I use it to track vertical feet on a ski day? And if so, does anyone have any feedback on the quality for this usage?

Thanks,
DL


----------



## Park2 (Jan 4, 2007)

The 305 does NOT have a barometric altimeter so that will limit you a bit, you'll need a good lock at all times and that might be slightly difficult when inside your ski clothes. I ski all the time with my 76CS and/or old Vista, they make great record keepers. You can't keep maps in a FR305 so that makes it not a do everything unit for me (I'm directionally challenged).


----------



## linklemming (Jun 4, 2007)

I use a garmin 301 for skiing and it works great. I attach it to one of the shoulder straps of my camelback and have never had a problem with reception. I use it more for logging (view results back home on the pc) than anything else as I dont believe it has functions for things like total elevation gain etc..... It is humbling to see how fast you really go vs what you think

I also use a suunto watch (ok Im a geek) and it does provide barometric based info. I like it much better for skiing as it easily shows total elevation gain/loss but it doesnt show things like speed.

Gary


----------



## Pete Gurney (Jun 18, 2006)

I use my Garmin for xc skiing, and I think it does a pretty good job. I also have an account with MotionBased that I download the data too. This is a great way to get all the various numbers you might be looking for: elev. gains, speed data, mapping, etc. I find I get better reception in the winter due to the lack of leaves. They make an elastic strap for the unit so that you can strap it on over your sleeves.


----------



## Playdeep (Mar 18, 2005)

hmmm why do all the garmins seem to have poor visual readouts and 1980's lcds? I have owned several and they never are as nice as the phone (for my pocket pc) or car ones. I wanted to get this watch for riding too but i do want a map readout since half the reason i am getting one is the trails can be hard to find in southern Utah. Is there a watch with a map display ? Even if it is a bigger watch ?


----------



## CxAgent2 (Oct 24, 2007)

Lev said:


> Yes, I know this is a bike forum. With that said, has anyone used their Forerunner 305 for skiing? I'm looking into one of these for running/biking training, and was curious if it's the do everything GPS for all outdoor sports. In other words, can I use it to track vertical feet on a ski day? And if so, does anyone have any feedback on the quality for this usage?
> 
> Thanks,
> DL


I use a Garmin eTrex (low end) and the wife uses a Foretrex (not ForeRUNNER). We use them for snow skiing and windsurfing. They work great for tracking route, total miles, max speed etc. We lose the lock occasionally and get some weird points on both units sometimes. Those need to be manually edited out of the track log. Note both of these units allow me to down load the track to a computer file for later review. Does the Forerunner? I don't know for sure.

I am finding that neither work very well for mtn biking. I think the tree cover is too dense where I like to ride.

Most of the time we are recording tracks to look at later. If you spend the time to set waypoints, they can be useful for navigation on trails. I don't think any GPS will work well for recording total elevation change for a day of skiing. We get +/- 30 foot elevation errors standing by the water on the beach. Those errors could add up to a lot of error by the end of the day. Topofusion software handles elevation better by looking up elevation from lat/long coordinates.


----------



## Park2 (Jan 4, 2007)

I believe neither the eTrex nor the Forewhatsit have barometric elevation and for that reason Motion Based has some sort of correction algorithm I read about. They say to use it with non-baro units but NOT to use it with barometric GPS' (eTrex Vista, 76S, 60S, etc. - (the 'S' means sensors, mag compass and baro alt)).

Baro units give much better altitude info, but to account for weather pressure changes you have to first get them calibrated, either by letting them run for 10-15 minutes until they auto cal or by manually typing in the current elevation. I've done lots of rides where I see a huge change in altitude when I first start out on a flat area as the unit self calibrates.


----------



## trailville (Jul 24, 2006)

I use a cheap Foretrex 101 for XC skiing to track distance, average speed, and keep me from getting lost. I don't think it tracks total altitude gain and the max speed feature is really quirky in the woods though it works pretty well on a long open downhill. .


----------

