Downhill Skiing with the Casio Pro Trek at Grand Targhee Ski Resort

While much of the West is pining for snow, the deities have been relatively kind to a select few resorts, and Wyoming’s Grand Targhee Ski Resort is among them. Located on the west side of the Tetons, Targhee is a nice break from the bustle of Jackson Hole, and it often catches snow systems that miss the east side. This winter may not be the epic season that last year proved to be, but there is enough to keep you busy if you're in the right spot. And, with the Shoshone lift serving an array of green runs, terrain parks, and themed obstacle courses, Targhee is a great choice for families. We took advantage of a little recent snowfall to head up to the mountain and test the Casio Pro Trek Smart’s ability to track at speed along with its downhill skiing mode, which is one of several sport tracking modes that Casio has built into this high-end smartwatch model.

The Casio Pro Trek Smart is a large watch, obviously, but this isn’t a bad thing. The watch is light and wears well in spite of its size, and the large watch face is perfect for reading statistics and information in an active environment. In fact, the band is large enough for this watch to be worn outside of a jacket for easy reference, and the watch’s water resistance would allow for this if so desired. Different watch faces are available through the Android Wear app (which has some functionality, albeit limited, on iOS). We chose to alternate between the Altitude face, which clearly displays the highs and lows of the day, and the Traveler face, which shows the wearer’s location on a portion of a map and allows you to access a full map interface with just a tap. 

It is the ski mode, however, that keeps track of the day’s statistics in terms of maximum speed, distance covered, and total elevation gained and lost. We took the watch higher on the mountain for longer and faster runs, setting up personal bests on our runs and then trying to improve on them. The watch didn’t miss a beat in terms of tracking and mapping our runs; for Android users, the watch can even remind the wearer to take a break after a certain number of runs via a notification and map out the locations of other skiers in a group. After our lunch break we decided to stay a little lower and take a few laps in the themed obstacle area, which is a fun way for younger (and older) skiers to build some skills in a low-key environment. The Casio Pro Trek Smart dutifully tracked our data lap after lap; we finished the day with a full set of runs all over the mountain. Best of all, Casio makes it easy to share the day’s information by directly uploading your file into Google Drive, which is ideal when you’re toasting the end of a good day with a few friends.