Cross-country ski training · iPhone · Winter 2026/27
Ski your fastest winter.
Skibuddy is the training app built for cross-country skiing. It times every lap of your loop, reads your technique from your phone's motion sensors and records the snow with every session, so you can see how much faster you get over the winter.
iPhone · English, norsk, svenska, suomi · One launch email, no spam
Techniques Skibuddy recognizes as you ski
- Classic
- Diagonal Stride
- Double Poling
- Herringbone
- Skate
- V1 (Offset)
- V2 (One Skate)
- V2 Alt (Two Skate)
- Downhill
- Downhill Tuck
The problem
Running trackers measure distance and pace. Your skiing also depends on the course, the snow, your technique and your skis.
Your watch splits mid-climb
Your watch beeps the kilometer halfway up the stadium hill, then compares a climb with a descent and calls it pace.
Three loops blur into one
Ski the 3.63 twice, then the 5.42, and your watch turns the session into one long average. You lose the laps you actually skied.
Pace ignores the snow
A 4:30 kilometer on glazed tracks can be an easy morning. In fresh powder it can be a race effort. Your watch shows the same 4:30 for both.
How a running tracker and Skibuddy record the same ski session
- Laps
- A running tracker: A split every kilometer, often partway up a climb
- Skibuddy: A lap every time you pass the point where you started
- Climbs
- A running tracker: Mixed into the kilometer splits
- Skibuddy: Every climb found after the session and timed rep by rep
- Technique
- A running tracker: One activity type for the whole session
- Skibuddy: Classic or skate, and which technique you used where
- Metrics
- A running tracker: Pace and heart rate
- Skibuddy: Pace and heart rate, plus stride rate, glide per stroke and left/right balance
- Snow
- A running tracker: Not recorded
- Skibuddy: The snow conditions on every session, next to every time
- Skis
- A running tracker: Not recorded
- Skibuddy: Which skis and wax you used, ranked by glide
- During the session
- A running tracker: Take a glove off to check your phone
- Skibuddy: Lap times spoken out loud and shown on the Lock Screen and Apple Watch
| In the session | A running tracker | Skibuddy |
|---|---|---|
| Laps | A split every kilometer, often partway up a climb | A lap every time you pass the point where you started |
| Climbs | Mixed into the kilometer splits | Every climb found after the session and timed rep by rep |
| Technique | One activity type for the whole session | Classic or skate, and which technique you used where |
| Metrics | Pace and heart rate | Pace and heart rate, plus stride rate, glide per stroke and left/right balance |
| Snow | Not recorded | The snow conditions on every session, next to every time |
| Skis | Not recorded | Which skis and wax you used, ranked by glide |
| During the session | Take a glove off to check your phone | Lap times spoken out loud and shown on the Lock Screen and Apple Watch |
What Skibuddy records
Know why a session was fast or slow.
Every time on a ski trail comes from four things at once: the course, how you skied it, what the snow was doing and what was under your feet. Skibuddy records all four with every session, so you can see which one moved.
Your loops
Skibuddy laps your loops at the gate, keeps a history for every route and times every climb rep by rep.
Read more →Your skiing
Skibuddy reads technique, stride rate, glide and balance from your phone's motion sensors, and heart rate from any Bluetooth strap.
Read more →The snow
Skibuddy records one of eight snow conditions with every session, and its Smart Coach reads your glide against your own average.
Read more →Your skis
Skibuddy records the skis and wax of every session and ranks your setups by glide for snow like today's.
Read more →
Automatic laps
Get lap times on any loop you ski, of any length.
Press Start where your loop begins and Skibuddy sets the lap gate there. Every time you pass it again in the same direction, Skibuddy closes the lap, even when you mix the 3.63 and the 5.42 from the same stadium. Ski the course again next week and Skibuddy adds the session to that route's history, with your best and your gap to it on every row.
- See each lap against your last lap, your best and your average as it closes
- Switch on Short Loop Mode for stadium sprints under 400 m
- Move the lap gate to where you stand at any point in the session
Climbs
Get every climb timed automatically and compared with your best.
After every session Skibuddy finds the climbs in your trace: 25 meters of gain or more at an average grade of 4% or steeper. Ski the same hill five times and Skibuddy lines up every rep with your best and your average. Mark a checkpoint at the top of the stadium hill once, and Skibuddy splits every later session there.
Climbs and checkpoints →
Technique
See your technique, glide and balance, not just your pace.
Put your phone in a chest or jacket pocket and Skibuddy reads your skiing from the phone's motion sensors: the technique as you change it, from double poling to V2, your stride rate, the glide you get from every stroke and how evenly you push left and right.
- See your technique named live, from diagonal stride to the downhill tuck
- Measure your glide in meters per stroke cycle
- Catch a left or right lean outside 45 to 55%
Snow conditions
Compare every time with the snow it was skied on.
Skibuddy puts one of eight snow conditions on every session and shows it next to every time in the route's history, so you can compare a glazed Tuesday with a glazed Thursday. The Smart Coach reads your glide against your own average for the technique and tells you when the snow ran fast or slow.
Snow and Smart Coach →
Wax room
Find your fastest skis and wax for today's snow.
Pick the skis and wax when you save a session. Skibuddy ranks every setup by the glide it gave you against your own average, so before a race you can see which pair and which wax ran best in snow like today's.
- Add every pair once, with its technique and grind
- Record the glide wax and, for classic, the kick wax
- Count the sessions and kilometers on every pair
During the session
Keep your phone in your pocket. Keep your gloves on.
Skibuddy speaks every lap out loud, through your earbuds or the phone's speaker: the time, the gap to your average and your average heart rate. It keeps the timer, distance, pace, heart rate and your last lap on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, so you never unlock the phone. On the lit track, Skibuddy's pure-black screen shows only the big numbers, and with an Apple Watch paired, lap times and heart rate sit on your wrist.
- Hear your laps and balance cues in English, Norwegian, Swedish or Finnish
- Glance at lap times and heart rate on your Apple Watch
- Switch to a pure-black screen on OLED iPhones
Skibuddy follows your iPhone between light and dark, and so does this site. Switch between Spring crust and Polar night at the top of the page.
Live session →
Lap 2 completed in 21 minutes, 52 seconds. 27 seconds faster than average. Average heart rate 165.
Session replay
Replay every meter of every session.
Back at the car, drag through the session and Skibuddy moves you along the map. It overlays elevation, heart rate, cadence and balance on one chart, colors the route by the metric you choose and lays out your time in five heart-rate zones. Skibuddy also charts weekly distance and elevation, so you can watch the season build.
The debrief →
Coaches and clubs
Plan your athletes' week and follow every session.
Clubs, training groups and coaches work in the same app as their skiers. Coaches plan sessions for their athletes and follow the week at a glance, clubs approve their members, and Skibuddy puts every shared session in the team feed with its laps, zones and technique. Skibuddy notifies each skier of likes and comments in their own language.
The details
Use Skibuddy with Apple Health, any heart-rate strap and your language.
Apple Health
Skibuddy saves every session to Apple Health as a cross-country skiing workout with the route and heart rate.
Any heart-rate strap
Skibuddy pairs with any standard Bluetooth chest strap once and reconnects it at every start, even in the background.
Four languages
Skibuddy speaks English, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish in the app, in its spoken announcements and on the Lock Screen.
Kilometers or miles
Skibuddy shows distance and pace in kilometers or miles, whichever you choose.
Your choice of audience
Skibuddy shares each session as Private, Connections & Clubs or Public, as you choose. Connections & Clubs means your coaches, the athletes you coach and your clubmates.
Session themes
Skibuddy files each session under the theme you pick: Intervals, Race, Recovery, Technique, Testing or a long distance ski.
What's next
Help train the next version of technique recognition.
Today Skibuddy recognizes technique with published rules. Skiers who switch on Help improve technique recognition label their technique as they ski, and those labels will train the next version.
Trained technique recognition isn't in the app yet. The labeling is: switch it on in Settings.
- Next
Technique that learns
Skibuddy trains the next version of technique recognition on the sessions skiers label.
First-snow cohort
Test Skibuddy with your group this winter.
Skibuddy is opening a first-snow TestFlight cohort for coaches, clubs, training groups and trail managers. Bring the skiers and the trail, and help measure the loops on real snow.
Apply to the cohort- A TestFlight build before the App Store release
- Your club's feed and roster from the first session
- Snow conditions on every session from day one
- Direct input on what ships in the launch build
Questions
Questions skiers ask.
Which phones and sensors does it work with?
Skibuddy runs on iPhone and records with the phone in a chest or jacket pocket, so you don't need a watch. Pair any standard Bluetooth heart-rate chest strap for the full session. With an Apple Watch, Skibuddy also shows lap times and heart rate on your wrist, and it saves every session to Apple Health.
Where should the phone go?
In a chest or jacket pocket, Skibuddy measures everything: technique, stride rate, glide and left/right balance. In a pants pocket Skibuddy still measures stride rate but switches balance off, because your legs swing too much to read it.
Does it work at my trail?
Any loop, anywhere. Skibuddy sets the lap gate where you press Start, and every session of a kilometer or more becomes a route with its own history. No trail database required.
Does it handle several loops in one session?
Yes, as long as you ski them through the same start gate in the same direction. Ski the 3.63 twice and the 5.42 once from the stadium and Skibuddy closes each loop as its own lap and never laps an out-and-back. Skibuddy numbers the laps in order.
Classic, skate or both?
Both. You declare classic, skate or mixed at the start, and Skibuddy recognizes the technique within it as you ski, from diagonal stride and double poling to V1 and V2. The Smart Coach compares each session only with earlier sessions in the same technique.
Can my club or team join early?
Yes. Skibuddy is running a first-snow TestFlight cohort for coaches, clubs, training groups and trail managers. Apply on the cohort page.
When does it launch?
Skibuddy launches this winter, in time for the first groomed weekends. Everyone on the waitlist gets an invite before the public release.
What will it cost?
Tracking is free during early access. Pricing will be announced at launch, and recording your sessions will stay free.
Get Skibuddy before the first groomed weekend.
Join the waitlist and get your invite as soon as Skibuddy opens.