Peak Practice

Can gadgets help turn you into a ski supremo? Say hello to the most cutting-edge tech you need for the slopes

- Angela Nicholson

I like to think I’m a reasonably good skier for someone who only spends two weeks of the year on the slopes, but there’s plenty of GoPro footage that suggests the opposite. Over the years I’ve had quite a few lessons, but it’s an expensive business. So when I was asked if I wanted to try Carv, a digital ski trainer that gives real-time coaching turn-by-turn, I was in the loft in a flash, hauling down my ski gear. A couple of days later, I headed off to Hintertux in Austria to meet Jamie Grant, Carv’s co-creator.

We arrived in darkness, so it wasn’t until the next morning that I got my first glimpse of the Hintertux glacier and it started to dawn on me that there might be quite a bit of ice. As I tried to put aside all thoughts of Bambi, Jamie introduced me to Carv £229, getcarv.com), my ski instructor for the day. Each unit is made up two physical parts, an insole that goes in your ski boot beneath the liner, and a tracker that clips on the back of your boot and is connected to the insole via a cable. Of course we’re not talking Odor Eaters here – the insoles each have 48 pressure sensors and nine movement sensors. It’s the trackers that house the battery and connect by Bluetooth to your iPhone (Android compatibility coming soon) to relay your skiing performance to the Carv app. Your phone also provides the GPS data so the app can identify which lift or piste you’re on and your earbuds let you hear Carv’s advice.

The setup procedure is pretty straightforward: it’s just a case of firing up the app, following the instructions and pairing the phone and trackers. Once the boots are on your feet, you need to lift each boot in turn to calibrate the pressure sensors. Then all you need to do is pop in your earbuds and set Carv running.