Garmin Connect IQ · Ski & snowboard
Every run.
Measured
to the metre.
Your Garmin counts your runs. Ski & Snowboard App tells you what they were like. The app picks out runs, lifts and stops on its own, and after every run it shows a card: time, distance, vertical, top speed and steepness — rated like a blue, red or black piste. Nothing to press in gloves.
Free trial: 2 trial days · Then €5 once · No subscription
What it adds
Garmin counts your runs. Ski & Snowboard App tells you what they were like.
The ski profile on a Garmin watch detects runs on its own and gives you their count, distance and speed. Ski & Snowboard App adds what we kept looking for on the mountain: it splits the day into runs, lifts and stops, and rates every run on its own.
The watch's ski profile
- Automatic run detection
- Run count
- Distance and top speed
- Vertical descent
- Heart rate and calories
- Sync to Garmin Connect
Ski & Snowboard App adds
- Average and maximum steepness of every run
- A slope rating: like a blue, red or black
- Lifts and stops counted apart, with lift vertical
- A run card before you reach the top
- Temperature, wind and forecast on the watch
- Your own screens and 43 data fields
How it works
Start it once at the bottom. That's all the handling.
There's nothing to press between runs. No LAP at the top, no pausing in the lift queue, no tidying the file when you get home.
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Reads the mountain
Barometer, GPS and speed together tell a chairlift from a run. Steadily up is a lift, down is a run — slow, careful descents over an icy pitch included. The app watches all of it and decides for you.
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Splits the day as you ski
A run ends only at the lift. Stopping halfway down — for the view, for friends, for lunch — doesn't split the run, and the standing time doesn't drag its average down. Lifts, queues and stops are collected separately.
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Saves a ski activity
The activity lands in Garmin Connect as resort skiing or snowboarding — you pick in the settings — with the extra Ski & Snowboard App fields inside. It syncs on to Strava like any other.
It's hardest where GPS fades: enclosed gondolas, tunnels and dense forest. That's why you try the app for free at your own resort first.
On your wrist
The numbers you actually want, while you're still on the mountain.
A glance on the way down, an easy read on the chair. When you get on the lift, the watch shows the card for the run you just finished. Fields are configurable, so every screen shows what you care about.
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38.4km
Run distance
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68.2km/h
Top speed
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-6080m
Vertical descent
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16
Runs
Runs 8
- Run count
- Current run time
- Run distance and vertical
- Current, average and top speed
- Run steepness: average and maximum
- Slope rating: like a blue, red or black
- Steepest run of the day
- Calories on runs
Lifts 5
- Lift count
- Current lift time
- Lift vertical
- Total lift time and distance
- Time stopped
Whole day 6
- Total distance
- Time on the slopes
- Ascent and descent of the day
- Average and top speed
- Heart rate: current, average, maximum
- Calories
Watch and conditions 8
- Temperature and feels-like
- Wind
- Forecast for the next hours
- Altitude, lowest and highest
- Pressure trend
- GPS signal quality
- Battery in percent and in hours
- Heart-rate zone and ten-minute graph
After the last run
A ski day in numbers: runs, time on the slopes, vertical.
An example of a full resort day, the way it lands in Garmin Connect. Illustrative figures, not from a saved activity.
Runs
16
Time on runs
1:12:00
Lift rides
16
Time on lifts
2:00:00
Run distance
38.4km
Average run time
4:30
Top speed
68.2km/h
Vertical descent
6080m
Lift distance
25.6km
Steepest run
41%
Total distance
65.1km
Total time
5:12:40
Steepest run of the day: 41 % — "like a black". The rating takes the steepest 150-metre stretch of the run: up to 30 % like a blue, up to 40 % like a red, above that like a black. We set these thresholds by comparing more than 4,000 runs with the official difficulty of the pistes. The app knows the steepness, not the name of the piste — hence "like".
Where it goes
Straight to Connect. Straight on to Strava.
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Your watch
One ordinary ski activity (resort skiing or snowboarding) with the Ski & Snowboard App fields inside. Nothing to export, nothing to upload.
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Garmin Connect
The activity saves like any other day on skis, so it shows up in your calendar, totals and training load. Runs, lifts and the steepest run of the day sit in the Connect IQ section under the stats.
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Strava
Because the file is a standard activity, your existing Garmin–Strava link carries it over unchanged. Kudos and stats work as usual.
- 7screen layouts
- 43data fields
- 3main screens: run, lift, stop
- 8languages
Your way
Build the screens you want to look at.
On the watch while you ride the chair, or on your phone. Pick a layout and drop any field into any slot.
Click a layout, then a field to swap it.
Compatibility
Garmin watches the app runs on.
Watches
- epix Pro (Gen 2) 42 / 47 / 51 mm
- epix (Gen 2) 47 mm
- fēnix E 47 mm
- fēnix 8 AMOLED 43 / 47 / 51 mm
- fēnix 8 Solar 47 / 51 mm
- fēnix 8 Pro 47 / 51 mm · MicroLED
- fēnix 9 43 / 47 mm
- fēnix 9 Pro 43 / 47 / 51 mm
- fēnix 9 Pro Solar 47 / 51 mm
- fēnix 7 7S · 7 · 7X
- fēnix 7 Pro 7S Pro · 7 Pro · 7X Pro · Pro Solar · Pro No Wi-Fi
- fēnix 6 Pro 6S Pro · 6 Pro · 6X Pro · Sapphire · Pro Solar · Dual Power
- Enduro 2 · 3
- tactix 7 · 7 AMOLED · 8 47 / 51 mm
- quatix 6 · 6X
- D2 Mach 1 Pro · Air X15
- Forerunner 955 · 955 Solar · 965 · 970
- Venu 3 3 · 3S
- Venu 4 41 / 45 mm
- Venu X1 41 mm
- vívoactive 4 4 · 4S
The app is built for every model on this list and passes its tests in Garmin's simulator. A barometer is required — it is how the app recognises a lift. Connect IQ picks the right build for your watch, and the layout adapts to its screen — there's nothing to choose when you download.
Your watch isn't listed? Tell us which model you ski with and it goes on the list.
Trial and price
Try it on your own mountain. Then pay once.
Free to try
2 trial days
Each trial day is 24 hours from the moment you start it on the watch. Install in October, ski in February — nothing expires while the app waits on your watch for the trip.
Get the appFull version
€5
One payment, for good. No renewal, no subscription, no features held back for a higher tier.
Buy the full versionPaid once. Updates included.
From download to full version
- Install free from the Connect IQ Store
- Ski two trial days, each one started on the watch
- Buy an unlock code here once the trial is over
- Paste the code into the app settings in Connect IQ
- Full version unlocked on the watch
Questions
Frequently asked questions.
Do I have to press anything between runs?
No. Start the activity at the bottom of the first run or at the first lift, and stop it when your day is done. Everything in between is detected.
How is this different from the ski profile on my watch?
Garmin's ski profile counts runs, distance and speed well. Ski & Snowboard App adds the steepness of every run with a slope rating, lifts counted apart with their vertical, stops, a run card on the chair, a weather screen and your own screens with 43 fields. They are two separate apps — you pick one for the day.
How does the app know how steep the slope was?
From barometric altitude and GPS distance, measured only while you're moving. Maximum steepness is the steepest 150-metre stretch of the run; the "like a blue / red / black" rating uses thresholds of 30 % and 40 %, set by comparing more than 4,000 runs with the official piste difficulty. It is an estimate from your run, not the resort map — hence "like".
What if I stop halfway down?
The run goes on. Only a lift ends it, so stopping for the view, for friends or for lunch never splits a run in two. Standing time counts as stopped, not as run time.
Does it work for snowboarding?
Yes. Choose ski or snowboard in the settings and the activity is saved in Garmin Connect as that sport. Run and lift detection works the same way.
Which lifts does it recognise?
Chairlifts, gondolas, T-bars and button lifts — by their steady climb. Enclosed gondolas and tunnels, where GPS fades, are the hardest. The app is in beta: this winter we are checking it on every kind of lift, and the trial lets you check your own resort.
Does the activity still count towards training load?
Yes. It saves as a standard ski activity, so Garmin treats it like any other.
How does the trial work?
You get two trial days. Each lasts 24 hours from the moment you start it on the watch (Settings, then Licence, then START), so installing in autumn and skiing in February costs you nothing. Starting a trial day needs a connected phone once; skiing doesn't.
Is there a subscription?
No. One payment, one licence, yours for good.
Which languages does the app itself speak?
The app speaks English, Polish, German, French, Italian, Czech, Slovak and Spanish. It follows the watch language by default, or you can pick one in the settings.
Count your runs.
Know your slopes.
Free on the Connect IQ Store. Two trial days to make up your mind.
Get it on Connect IQ