How do I track my ski days with GPS?

How do I track my ski days with GPS?

The GPS tracker lives in your student dashboard. Open /dashboard, go to the GPS section, give your session a name (for example, "Morzine — Tuesday") and tap Start. Your phone's GPS records your route from that moment until you tap Stop.

What gets recorded

• Route — every waypoint on the mountain, drawn as a line on the map
• Distance — total kilometres covered across the session
• Vertical — total metres descended (and ascended, for the lift rides)
• Max speed and average speed
• Altitude — summit and base of each run
• Duration — total session time
• Waypoint count — how many data points the tracker captured

Battery-aware tracking

Tracking at full resolution drains a battery fast. The tracker has a few modes that balance accuracy against battery life:

• High accuracy — captures a waypoint every few seconds. Best for a single day where you want every detail.
• Balanced — less frequent waypoints, still accurate enough for a clear route. Recommended for most people.
• Battery saver — longer intervals between waypoints. Use on cold days or when your battery is already low.

The tracker can also adjust automatically based on your phone's battery level and charge state.

Working offline

Signal drops on mountains — it's normal. When you lose connection, the tracker keeps working and buffers waypoints locally on your phone using IndexedDB. When you're back online, the buffered data syncs automatically — usually within a few seconds of reconnecting. A small indicator in the tracker shows how many waypoints are waiting to sync, so you know nothing's been lost.

Keep the app open while tracking for best results. If you need to close it, the service worker can continue tracking in the background for short periods, but all-day background tracking isn't guaranteed — phones manage background apps aggressively to save battery.

After the session

Once you tap Stop, a session summary appears with your stats and the route drawn on a map. You can replay it, compare it with another session, export it, or share it. See the other articles in GPS Tracking for each.

Tracking is opt-in

GPS tracking is OFF by default — you have to switch it on before it records anything. Your location data belongs to you, and you control how long it's kept. See how to control your GPS privacy [blocked].