5 Tech Tips to Crush Your Next European Ski Vacation

By Published On: August 7th, 2015Comments Off on 5 Tech Tips to Crush Your Next European Ski Vacation

Nothing blows a trip to the Alps like the instant unplug from 21st century technology — at least for those of us who are almost always connected in the digital age. International roaming data plans? Pricey. Free Wi-Fi? Often shoddy, even at four-star hotels.

As a general rule of thumb, widespread technology advancements in the mountain villages of Central Europe can lag behind North America by nearly a decade.

But if you’ve got the funds to be a fan, in person, at World Cup races in Schladming, Zagreb or St. Moritz this season, we’ve got the fixes you need to stay dialed in with work, news, or entertainment.

Follow these five tips, and instead of flipping out, you’ll be flipping open a frosty can of Goesser while watching Marcel Hirscher and Lara Gut carve down the hill.

Stay Connected

That calling plan from your domestic wireless carrier? It’ll gouge your wallet faster than a three-card Monte street hustler in Geneva — and you can’t rely on having quality Internet access in a hotel either. So pick up a pocket-sized mobile hotspot and drop in a pre-paid multinational data SIM card (options abound, but Keepgo’s 1-gigabyte cards and hotspots work in 64 countries) to keep the data stream running at a fixed price.

If you’re going abroad only once or twice a year, buying your own hotspot is a bit of an investment. You’re better off renting through a service like XCom Global, which, on the day before travel, will deliver a hotspot to you by mail for unlimited usage on up to 10 devices in 40-plus European countries for just $14.95 per day. When you’re back in the U.S., simply mail the hotspot back in a prepaid FedEx envelope. The staff at Ski Racing has relied on these devices for reporting from Switzerland to Bulgaria and everywhere in between.

Never Pay To Communicate

Facetime
With your hotspot fired up and your smartphone connected, there’s no reason to pay long-distance charges for bragging to friends and family back home about your White Circus getaway. If you have an iPhone (or iPad or Mac), then you’re a fool not to take advantage of the FaceTime video and audio features. Plus, while connected through your hotspot, iMessages to folks back home take minimal data usage, so text away. For the iPhone-less, setting up Skype and WhatsApp accounts before the trip is your best bet for audio and video calls (Skype) and international texting (WhatsApp).

Find Cooler Lodging

Airbnb

With Booking.com and Trivago.com, everyone can feel like a travel agent. But trust us and try Airbnb, which will hook you up with anything from a spare room to an entire chalet. We’re not guaranteeing you’ll wind up in the company’s Courchevel cable car for the night (it was a limited contest promotion, anyway), but the French Alps become practically affordable via a variety of Airbnb hosts. With listings in 190 countries, there’s no reason not to at least browse what’s out there before resorting to a pension or hotel reservation.

Really Know the Weather

Snow-Forecast

Your particular elevation in the Alps can mean a temperate day of rain — or a frigid day of blower pow. Ditch whatever weather app you rely on back home, and become familiar with Snow-forecast.com and Bergfex.com. You’ll find predicted snowfall maps broken down by contour lines to a 6-day forecast at nearly every resort worldwide available at three different elevation bands (town, mid-mountain, and summit).

Navigate the Mountain

iTrailMap

Long gone are the days of scrabbling for a torn trail map in your pocket. You’re already carrying your smartphone, so why not store all the trail maps you’ll need on a single device? Download the free iTrailMap app (there’s a paid 3D version available as well if you’re into that kind of thing) and never get lost again between two interconnecting Austrian ski villages. Once you load the maps, you can pull them up anytime without a Wi-Fi or cellular connection — saving money, pocket space and the trees of the globe you’re trotting around.

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About the Author: C.J. Feehan

Christine J. Feehan is a USSA Level 300 coach who spent more than a decade training athletes at U.S. ski academies - Burke, Sugar Bowl, and Killington - before serving as Editor in Chief at Ski Racing Media through 2017. She worked for the FIS on the World Cup tour for three years and then settled into her current home in Oslo, Norway.