Suitability of GT31 for skiing

In theory a if you set a waypoint, it should be within a meter or so, but I've never done it to check. I keep meaning to brush up on it's navigation functions, but in all these years haven't got around to it.
Be interesting to here how you got on.

Should be no problem in that area for satellite reception, as you are above the treeline. Tree canopy can affect signal strength. Cold doesn't seem to bother my GT11.
If you mark waypoints as you go, navigation back to that point is quite straightforward and accurate to within 1 metre. I use my GPS for geocaching as well, (But practice waypoints at home beforehand)

I used my GT-31's for downhill skiing for a couple of years before my iPhone took over.

I was mostly interested in tracking my runs and speeds. It worked very well as long as I wore it with a clear view of the sky on top of clothing. Inside my helmet like I use for sailing was best but upper arm band was good too.

This was at a time when I still had the prototype GT-35 and with 5hz tracks you could actually see your turns on the track map. No so with 1hz. :-(

I didn't notice any lack of performance with the cold but I charged it every night. If you need it you could try taking a USB battery charge pack to boost it up after a couple of days.

I have not had much experience with the waypoints but have used it a few times to mark a good fishing spot. It seemed quite good enough to get me back to the same place.

I hope you get great snow and weather!

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sboardcrazy said..

sailquik said..
I used my GT-31's for downhill skiing for a couple of years before my iPhone took over.

I was mostly interested in tracking my runs and speeds. It worked very well as long as I wore it with a clear view of the sky on top of clothing. Inside my helmet like I use for sailing was best but upper arm band was good too.

This was at a time when I still had the prototype GT-35 and with 5hz tracks you could actually see your turns on the track map. No so with 1hz. :-(

I didn't notice any lack of performance with the cold but I charged it every night. If you need it you could try taking a USB battery charge pack to boost it up after a couple of days.

I have not had much experience with the waypoints but have used it a few times to mark a good fishing spot. It seemed quite good enough to get me back to the same place.

I hope you get great snow and weather!

Thanks for the feedback.
Got a foot problem at the moment.I get burning toes/ sole of my feet after an hour and have to stop to take the boot off and massage my foot.
It's going to be a pain in the butt! I might have to ski with the beginner groups who do shorter trips...
Oh well time to go inside and do chiro stretches to hope for a miracle and a fix to the foot problem.
After lunch I'm going to put my old skis on and trudge around the paddock and see how the body copes..

howdy
i use 'Ski Tracks', it is just awesome...have a look - its from playstore and costs less than $10 from memory.
Re your feet......can be many causes to this but a few pop to mind from my experience.
1. Boot is to narrow
2. Buckle 1 & 2 are too tight (counting from the toe). Buckle 3 and your slap strap are the most important to be firm provided you are in a properley fitted boot.
3. Remember your feet will change from season to season, and also the temperature does impact the size/volume of your foot, so warmer weather can make your boot fit poorly.

Hope this helps - pm if you have any q's or i havent explained clearly.

My quals:
Boot fitter
CSIA 3
APSI 2

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sboardcrazy said..
Thanks will have a look.
Re feet I had the problem 2 years ago but got by. I haven't been doing any decent bushwalks since then ( too much sailboarding / sailing) so I thought it had gone away. Chiro says it's caused by my R knee turning in and not being centred over my foot. She's given me exercises that I am doing and its helping but doubt it will clear it by the time I go.
I used to have my own skis etc but had 10 years off due to RSI and they are ancient these days so I will have to hire.
I think last time I got boots half a size larger to accommodate 2 pairs of socks etc?
What is the slap strap?
My older boots ( on now for paddock bashing) are leather with some plastic clampdown straps on the top / ankle to tighten ( Arkos prob c 2000 models) .The modern XC boots are much more like downhill ones - plastic etc..

Ahh - the chiro has pointed out some interested things.

I apologise for not reading your original post properley - I was thinking about Telemark boots...i know little for xc.

So the info below is applied to telemark or downhill - you can be the judge as to whether it will work on xc.
You may have to look at 'cant' this is the angle at which your leg meets your foot. Some boots have adjustment for it otherwise you can pack out between the liner and the shell, dont use anything spongy, rubber sheeting is a good permanent solutino (i used to use trail maps as an 'on the go' canting solution, ive stuffed up to half a dozen maps in there to get the correct cant). the aim is to get the ski sitting flat on the snow when you are standing neutrally.

2 pairs of socks***no no no, please no. This causes all sorts of funky movements with you feet. Can also cause (contrary to popular belief) rubbing/chaffing. It also makes your feet colder as it forms a layers for your sweat to get caught in and then it gets real cold. Your bot liner is designed to wick away moisture to keep your feet warm and toasty.

Ahhh, new XC boots eh?

I have no doubt that they have improved quite a lot!

The last time I bought some touring boots was about 8 years ago and I have not used them much since. The ones I got are Alpina 2500BC. The previous ones I have kept are Alpina 2000BC and my wife Debbi loves them. Both are NNNBC binding system (excellent for touring and XC Downhill) and have plastic sole, leather boot with plastic cuff. They are quite light and give excellent ankle support for Telemarking. The new boot has a more substantial cuff and is probably a but too stiff for lengthy touring without loosening the cuff. The Older boots are fantastic for touring and when I go for a slide around the snow guns, and they is the ones I usually take.

The point about this is that it would be possible to adjust the cant on the cuffs with a bit of ski-room engineering. Although I need maximum cant on my downhill boot and have adjusted the cant on my Telemark boot (Plastic Garmont), I have not felt the need to adjust the touring boots.

I use the touring boots on quite old Karhu XCD GT with moulded grip base, or Asnes Nansen Mountain with Klister base waxes. Both are completely outdated by newer and better skis but they still work for my occasional forays into the back hills, which is really only when the spring corn is near perfect.

Here is a pic of the latest Alpina XC touring boot with plastic cuff:



I have no idea what you can hire but last time I was up in Jinbabyne I saw Light 3 pin tele boots in Paddy Pallin for hire. But that was a few years ago.

Wow! Nice hire gear! Big difference in those skis to the older skinny stuff. I might have to look into that myself!

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AUS1111 said..

sailquik said..
I used my GT-31's for downhill skiing for a couple of years before my iPhone took over.

How fast did you go? I hit 84.7kmh on a snowboard and 87.8kmh on skis, but I've seen people on skis go past me like I am standing still.

My seven year old did 70kmh on skis, but that was mainly because he hadn't really learned how to turn yet and the slope got unexpectedly steepish. I couldn't catch him. The poor little bloke was terrified! Thankfully there was a long flat run out at the end and he eventually skidded to a halt.

Another question for you Andrew, since you're the tech guru; would the speed calculated by GT31 or the iPhone take into account the slope, or is it just the lateral speed?

whoa ! Thats impressive! Wouldn't want to come off on ice at that speed..
With XCD I don't get up much speed as I do teles to keep the speed under control. Generally dont do runs unless the snow is deep or spring so stacks aren't as bad but I've had some longslides and had to self arrest to prevent going for the rest of the km into the valley..
It will be interesting to see my speeds although most of the days seem uphill.. and I think they'll be pretty pathetic compared to downhillers.
I've always wanted to strap one on and take the horse for a gallop. He's a Tb but never raced and he's b fast! Scares the hell out of me..think I've got too old and lost my nerve to try it.He'd probably drop dead of a heart attack these days anyway ( 22 ).

Paddock bashing trying to get a bit fitter. Occasionally you can get a bit of a downhill glide going on wet grass..

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AUS1111 said..

sailquik said..
I used my GT-31's for downhill skiing for a couple of years before my iPhone took over.

How fast did you go? I hit 84.7kmh on a snowboard and 87.8kmh on skis, but I've seen people on skis go past me like I am standing still.

My seven year old did 70kmh on skis, but that was mainly because he hadn't really learned how to turn yet and the slope got unexpectedly steepish. I couldn't catch him. The poor little bloke was terrified! Thankfully there was a long flat run out at the end and he eventually skidded to a halt.

Another question for you Andrew, since you're the tech guru; would the speed calculated by GT31 or the iPhone take into account the slope, or is it just the lateral speed?

Downhill ski's: peak speed just over 100kmh one morning!

Got to the top of Black Snake at 7.30am one morning and it was perfectly groomed and empty.

I had my GT-31 on and could not resist it. I straight lined it in a tuck. All was going well until about 2/3rd of the way down Blue Snake I stood up and had to think about slowing down! That was the scary part as I struggled to keep my skis from chattering on the icy slope as I put the brakes on! I can tell you though that 100k's is bloody fast! I recon my eyes were watering inside my goggles!! Maybe it wasn't the wind..... lol

I managed to stop before the end of the run thank goodness!

I rather think that was pretty accurate, as the speed graph was smooth and a normal looking curve, but I have seen a lot of pretty ridiculous speeds that were clearly errors on my iPhone. It has told me I went over 90-100kmh quite a few times when clearly I have not gone anywhere near it. Normal skiing speeds for me range from 20-50K kmh up to a max of about 75-80 kmh on the groomed runs or open powder slopes where I can really let it go.

My speeds on the snowboard and telemark ski's are much lower.

I remember doing a bit of research at the time (more than 5yrs ago) and I think I set the GPS speed to 3D, (stretching the memory now and I may be getting confused with the GT-11). I think we normally have 3D speed off in the GT-11/31 because it increases accuracy for known constant altitude as it always is on the water (within a meter or two anyhow ) I will have a look at some settings when I have a GPS handy.

I would assume that the iPhone Hotham App (by Resorts Tapped) has 3D speed turned on. There is no way to know what errors it has though as we can't get a speed graph out of that App. If you find a Phone ski App that has a speed graph (or can download the tracks to your computer) you can at least see if the speeds look realistic and spike free.

Mm cant sounds interesting.. 100kms!! whoa a wipeout at that speed would be epic!
They used to do grass skiing at Mulbring ( HV ) 80's/90's? I assume because grass is harder to land on than snow that maybe deterred people? Insurance would kill it these days..
Paddock bashing is interesting when one ski slips on a wet piece of wood and the other doesn't..

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boardboy said..

sboardcrazy said..
Mm cant sounds interesting.. 100kms!! whoa a wipeout at that speed would be epic!

epic is one word to describe it. I wiped at over 100kmh in a downhill race in Canada, the result, 3 breaks and 5 fractures. It actually didn't hurt that much, but my season was well and truly over.

I have been going through my old GPS files trying to find the best speed run session, so far without any luck. (Old GPS files are scattered all over backup hard drives! argggh!)

Anyhow, I came across this. It is a short session using the Prototype 5hz GT-35. What is interesting is the the turns are well defined and pretty accurate, unlike those I get @ 1hz from the normal GPS.

It also shows the common speeds when just cruising and carving. I definitely ski Alpine skis much faster!

Edit: If you right click and 'view image' you can make it full screen and zoom in a bit.