This morning's board
These cards aren't a mockup. They're reading the same feeds the app reads, right now: SNOTEL telemetry, NWS forecasts, WSDOT pass reports, NWAC danger ratings.
connecting to stations…
What it does
Everything is on one screen. There's no feed to scroll and nothing to come back for.
Every number says when it was fetched, and marks itself stale after 90 minutes.
When a feed goes down, you get a link to the source instead of an old number.
On the board
Snow depth
Base depth and 24-hour new snow from the SNOTEL station on each mountain, with the NWS forecast for the next 24 hours next to it.
Pass reports
WSDOT conditions, restrictions and chain requirements for I-90, US 2, SR 410 and SR 542, with advisories flagged.
Avalanche danger
NWAC's rating for the zone each mountain sits in, linked to their full forecast. I don't interpret it; that's their job, and they're good at it.
Storm alerts
Set a threshold. If tomorrow's forecast crosses it, your phone tells you at whatever hour you pick. The check runs on the phone itself, so there's no server watching your mountains.
Share cardsPRO
An image of today's card with the snow number big, for the group chat that needs convincing.
Record your day
Tap Record (from version 1.1). Runs, lifts, vertical and speed are worked out on the phone, and runs are named from the trail map at the four mountains, wherever the map has a name for them. The track never leaves your iPhone: there is no PowDay server to send it to. Today is free; the season's logbook, replay and the stats card are part of Pro.
Works with no signal
The last good data is cached on the phone and comes up instantly offline. The timestamps tell you how old it is.
Why I built this
I'm Tom. I live in Seattle and I ski Crystal, mostly.
The problem was never a shortage of information. It was that at 5am I'd have five tabs open — NWAC for the avalanche forecast, WSDOT for the pass, a SNOTEL page that looks like it was built in 1998, the resort's own snow report, and whatever the NWS had to say — and after all that I still couldn't answer the one question I actually had, which was which of these am I driving to.
So PowDay puts those sources on one screen and then gets out of the way. It won't tell you where to go. I'm not a forecaster, and the people who are already write it up better than I could; you'll find them below. What it does is show you the numbers, say where each one came from and when, and hand you the link when you want the rest.
That's the whole app. If a number is missing, it says so rather than guessing.
Trail maps
Trails and lifts for all four areas, graded and named, with the terrain shaded underneath so you can see the shape of the hill. Tap a run for its vertical, length, average pitch and which way it faces. It’s a community map drawn by OpenStreetMap contributors rather than the resort’s own, so some terrain isn’t on it.
Trail lines © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Difficulty ratings are contributors’ classifications. Shaded relief, pitch, aspect and vertical are computed from USGS 3DEP elevation data (public domain).
Pricing
Two mountains are free, forever. The other two are a one-time $4.99. It isn't a subscription; charging monthly rent for something you look at for ten seconds felt wrong.
- 2 mountains of your choice
- Storm alerts at your hour
- Record your day: runs, vertical, speed
- Live snow · pass · avalanche
- Freshness stamps & offline cache
- Apple Maps drive-out
- All mountains on the board
- Share cards for the group chat
- Season logbook, replay and the stats card (from version 1.1)
- Everything in Free
Get PowDay
PowDay is on the App Store for iPhone. Two mountains are free; if you have a question, or something looks wrong on a card, email me.
Questions
Is PowDay affiliated with the resorts?
No. Crystal Mountain, Stevens Pass, The Summit at Snoqualmie and Mt. Baker are their own companies, and I don't speak for any of them. PowDay links out to their official pages for lifts, cams and parking, and shows public agency data about the mountains they sit on.
Where do the numbers come from?
Snow depth and station temperature come from USDA SNOTEL automated telemetry. Forecast snowfall comes from NWS gridpoint forecasts. Road status comes from the WSDOT Traveler API. Avalanche danger comes from NWAC via the National Avalanche Center's public feed. Every card stamps when each number was fetched.
Why don't you write forecasts or avalanche summaries?
Because I'm not a forecaster, and pretending otherwise is how people get hurt. The rating you see is NWAC's, linked straight to their full forecast. For the actual analysis, read them, or OpenSnow.
What do you collect about me?
Nothing. There are no accounts, no analytics SDK and no location upload; directions hand off to Apple Maps. Your mountains, your settings and any day you record live on your phone and never leave it. The privacy policy is short because there's very little to say.
Does recording send my location anywhere?
No. Recording reads GPS and the barometer on the phone while you ride and saves the day in the app's own container on your iPhone. There is no PowDay server to receive it, and the code that records cannot reach the network at all; a test fails the build if that changes. If you turn on Save days to Apple Health in Settings, each finished day is also written to Health as a workout, and nothing is read back.
What about Android, or a widget?
iPhone first. A lock-screen widget is built and ships in the first release, because glancing at a number is exactly what a lock screen is for. It shows the numbers the app last fetched, with the time it fetched them — it never goes and checks on its own, so it can’t quietly disagree with the app. Android depends entirely on how many people ask.