LOCALadk Magazine
Issue link: https://localadkmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1531798
LOCALadk 45 as a teaching tool. Carv forces you to concentrate on your weaknesses. I never even thought about edge angles before. Now if I go to Whiteface alone, I'll get on an easy or interme- diate slope and work on this skill. It makes learning en- joyable, a game in which I compete against myself. Can I increase my edge angles? Improve my turn shape? Up my Ski IQ? If I'm with a friend or just want to have fun, I'll turn off the audio and review the stats afterward. I do have a few caveats. As its name suggests, Carv teaches one kind of turn, a swooping, graceful arc. I don't find this to be an especially useful turn in the backcountry, where I prefer to ski, or on moguls or in glades at the resort. But I figure if I can improve my carving it will help my overall skiing. I'm curious to see how Carv 2 assesses turns on varied terrain. Last year Carv enhanced its algorithms to take into account terrain and snow conditions. Sure enough, when I skied MacKenzie and Wilderness, two black diamonds at Whiteface, it designated the trails as "extreme ungroomed snow." That's quite remarkable. I thought this bode well for assessing my performance in the backcountry. In this, I was disappointed. When I tested Carv on a backcountry outing, it misidentified my location as "Slide 7" — the app's name for the Plac- id Slide on Whiteface Mountain. In fact, I was in the woods several miles away. What's more, the app didn't track my progress uphill or on the flats. If you ski mainly at one resort, check with the com- pany to make sure it's in Carv's database. When I used Carv at Mount Pisgah in Saranac Lake, the app again misidentified my location as Slide 7. However, it still monitored my lift rides and turns. It's surprising that the app doesn't track your prog- ress wherever you go. Other GPS apps do this. Why can't Carv? A customer-service representative tells me that this capability may be added. In the meantime, I'll continue to enjoy the app at Whiteface and work on those edge angles. t Above: The C ARV App monitors tons of data about your edge angles and turn shape, allowing skiers to fine tune their skills.