[Piste-Monkey]

I bought the Metron about 2 years ago and have used in on several ski-ing trips religiously, setting log-books for each morning and afternoon series of ascents and descents.

I know excatly what you mean by fluctuating accuracy. On one particular day, when I did about 25,000 ft cumulative skied descents, it showed 6000 ft greater descent than I manually calculated I had actually done.

The official Suunto site says to manually recalibrate the reference altitude daily or whenever setting out for another session, to account for weather changes altering the barometric pressure. And to use any map or other ref. (Not that easy when you're off piste at 11,000 ft to find a sign or map ref!)

Using the "Difference" mode can help calculate the offset, but as you say, 100% accuracy probably won't be available without GPS.

I don't think this is a Sunnto specific problem (they do seem to be the best in the world for sports instruments) and I read on a sky-diving site, that sky divers have the same altimeter fluctuation problems which could mean ground level is plus or minus 500ft depending on atmospheric pressure changes. Not something you'd want to get wrong when deciding when to pull the cord I guess!

Looks like Suunto have just released two new GPS enabed models, plus one new ski-specific model the S6 which includes an inclinometer to help calc descent speeds. Great! - If only they put GPS in it as well.

If you find out a way to use the Metron for more precise alt measurement I'd love to know. I think for next season I'll opt for the S6 as it also seems to have better granularity of measurement than the Metron (1m vs 3m altitude differnce).

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