Getting started with Slopes on iPhone
Getting Set Up
When you first download Slopes, you'll be guided through some initial onboarding steps to help you get the most out of Slopes from the very first day.
This includes:
- Getting ready to record by enabling permissions before you hit the mountain
- Creating a free Slopes account
- Setting up location sharing
- Adding friends so you can use location sharing and compare stats
- Making a start on the Logbook by planning your next trip
If you've got an Apple Watch and want to use it with Slopes, we'd suggest also checking out Getting started with Slopes on Apple Watch to get set up with the Watch app.
Starting a Recording
When you're ready to record your first day, just head over to the Record tab and tap on your sport to start recording - it's as easy as that!
Besides skiing and snowboarding, Slopes supports a bunch of other winter sports such as mono-skiing, snowbiking, splitboarding and more. If you hike or skin uphill, you can also set your activity type to backcountry which will add the uphill segments to Apple Health, including speed and elevation gain.
If you don't see your sport initially, tap on More Activities to find it. Then after you pick it once, like Apple's native Workout app, it'll move that sport to the top.
As long as you have cell reception at some point during recording, Slopes will automatically detect what resort you're at. If you're offline when you start recording, it'll auto-retry again throughout the day in case you get reception later, for example when you take a lunch break.
If you don't get cell reception all day, if it's a resort that you've been to before then Slopes can still pick up the resort using the local cached data from the last time you recorded there.
Otherwise, when you're back online later, Slopes will auto-tag the resort when your activity hits our server and gets saved to your Slopes account.
During Recording
From the Record tab you can manage recording (pause/resume/end), see where your friends are, search the map, share your location, check out your live stats and more.
Viewing your Recording
Once you end the activity, your recording will be saved to the Logbook where you can look back on the day. From here you can also make edits, export, compare against friends and share your stats to social media.
App Settings
To manage settings for Slopes, go to the Account tab. From here you can:
- Edit your profile
- Purchase a Slopes Premium pass
- Change the app icon
- Edit photo, measurement unit, live activity, theme and font size settings
- Enable integrations with Strava and Garmin
- Get help and support
- Much more!
A Few Tips
- Slopes needs (good) GPS signal to record your activity. We'd recommend waiting around 10 seconds or so to let your device get a good GPS fix (you'll see a strength indicator on the Record tab), but if you're having trouble, check out our GPS Tips .
- Use the Find Me feature, and tag your friends in your recordings. Location sharing makes it much easier to meet up with people, and tagging each other as "Rode With" adds to the fun when you replay your day.
- Slopes is really good at detecting lifts and runs, but sometimes it might mess things up if the run wasn't tall/long enough, there was an issue with GPS signal or if you rode downhill on a lift. You can fix up these inaccuracies with the Timeline Editor. This also super useful if you forget to stop recording and drive away, accidentally recording a long "run" on the highway.
- The beauty of Slopes is that you can start recording, then put your phone away and forget about it. The app records in the background and automatically detects runs vs lifts throughout the day so you don't have to pause when you're getting on and off lifts. However if you're taking a decent-length break like going for lunch we would suggest pausing to stop using GPS and save battery life. We'd also recommend pausing if you're taking any shuttles at a resort as Slopes may mistake that for a lift or a run.