Popular Ski App Slopes Adds Apple Watch Ultra Action Button Support

Slopes is not a cheap app, so even though my family has been skiing every year, I hesitated. But after trying it out, I can see why it is regarded as the gold standard. At $30-50/year, it is very expensive. I wish the developer would offer discount for loyal subscribers.

Even at the high end of $50 a year, that’s 4 bucks a month. You think that’s a lot? How much do you think it costs to develop applications? SMH

Where I am in the United States, I have a half-dozen ski resorts within a 3 hour drive, one as close as 45 minutes away. From December to April, they're swarmed with *tens of thousands* of people from all over Colorado, and the world. The main interstate highway out of Denver heading west into the mountains is a parking lot every Friday heading out of town and every Sunday heading back into town. Winter sports, including skiing, is one of the main draws of living in state with 58 peaks over 14,000 feet and uncountable mountains over 10,000.

Like scuba diving, which Apple has targeted heavily with the Ultra, skiing requires training and a lot of expensive, specialized equipment. Both of which you'd think would be natural barriers to a lot of people picking up the sport. And yet... they're both incredibly popular. So a specialized app for skiers doesn't surprise me in the least, any more so than Apple's fancy bespoke scuba app does.

But the typical ski season is only 4 months long.