What Is Barometric Altimeter?

Hi, seems like this blog is the official blog from Garmin ! Anyway, the 910XT seems to be almost the perfect watch for ultra mountain racing …

… True that the barometer is an expected and nice feature. It is actually the reason why i purchased the Garmin foretrex 401. Unfortunately, the calibration of the barometer is working very bad and the cumulated elevation data are completely inaccurate and it seems garmin never corrected this !

So my question is, how differently is barometer implemented in the 910xt? No need to have a barometer if it is not correctly used. Besides, there is no mention anywhere from cumulated elevation as available data. Is it something that the 910xt will provide right from the beginning (or will we have to wait for a firmware update?)

Don’t get me wrong, i love what you guys are doing but even if it is rather the exception, some of your products are a shame (Foretrex 401 is the example that comes to my mind). It seems this product is the one i need but be honnest with people that really need this feature, if barometer is not working properly, the 310 XT is probably a far better choice for us, mountain runners!

Best regards,
Basile

Hey, sorry for thinking this was an official blog! i was actually mistaken by the domain name !

Anyway, as i said, i hope Garmin has come up with a product that work as it is supposed to because on the paper, this come close to the device i’m looking for and i’m really thinking about getting this one. Overall, my message on barometer is that it is not necessarily better than a GPS if the software behind is crap. If you have a good line of sight with the sky, gps is pretty accurate for what pertains to altitude (5-6 meter precision). of course if you are in a canyon this won’t be much of an help

For some users, accurate data after the competition is not enough. Cumulated elevation is really helpful to know what efforts remains to be done and how to use the energy you have. Just to give an example, during my last competition, i was supposed to have 24,000 meters of positive elevation at the end. My foretrex 401, with a barometer indicated 33,000 meters and it had an altimeter and when i watched it the altitude was relatively correct so obviously Garmin is doing something (very) wrong !

if like me this data is important to you, maybe wait to be sure everything is going well with elevation. Otherwise, you’ll find brand new Forerunner 310XT for around 200 Euros on ebay !

Thanks for sharing information on this devices
Regards,
Basile