# Questions riders ask > Short, direct answers to the questions riders ask most about Snowcat, each linked to the page that explains it. Canonical: https://getsnowcat.app/help/faq/ ## Page facts - Status: Written for Snowcat 1.6.28, the App Store build. - Plan: Not plan-specific - Checked against the app: October 27, 2026 - Part of: Snowcat Help, https://getsnowcat.app/help/ ## Liftie’s rating and run numbers ### Is Liftie’s rating a personalized run-fit score? If not, what is it? No. It is how hard the run is, measured from the terrain, on one scale at every mountain. Every rider sees the same rating. A read for how you ride is a separate Max feature, Liftie’s read on a run or lift. See [Liftie’s rating](https://getsnowcat.app/help/liftie-rating/). ### Does Liftie’s rating use current snow, conditions or waits? It uses today’s conditions, not crowds or waits. The measured rating is adjusted each day for fresh powder, hard ice, flat light, grooming and strong wind, by at most two bands, and the card names the reason, for example “Normally Black+, changed due to hard ice”. See [how today’s conditions change it](https://getsnowcat.app/help/liftie-rating/#daily-change). ### Is the steepest pitch measured over a defined window? What window? Yes. On rated runs, “Steepest 150 ft” is the steepest sustained stretch of 150 vertical feet, measured on 1 m lidar. On runs without a rating, “Steepest point” is the steepest single map segment longer than 16 ft, on 30 m satellite terrain. See [Run numbers](https://getsnowcat.app/help/run-numbers/#steepest). ### Is each run’s grooming shown now, or only used elsewhere? Both. A run’s page has a Groomed tile, Yes or No, and a run groomed today also gets a little easier in Liftie’s rating. Grooming comes from the resort’s report, read once a day at 6:30 AM, so later changes show the next morning. ### Do I get a clear sign when terrain data is missing? Yes. The slope chart says “No elevation for this run yet” instead of drawing a guess, and a run without a measured rating says “Liftie rating not mapped yet” and uses the resort’s color. ### Is the official trail difficulty kept separate from Liftie’s rating? Yes. The resort’s difficulty has its own card on the run page, next to Liftie’s. The rating sheet says how the two compare, such as “Harder than the resort’s Blue”. Terrain types such as glades or chutes appear only as reasons for Liftie’s rating, not as labels of their own. ## Directions ### Does snowboard routing avoid flats in the current build? Only in Max’s “Recommended” route. It avoids flat ground, a stretch averaging under 6°, when your profile says Snowboard at level 1 to 3 or you turned on “Flat cat tracks are hard for me”. Fastest and Easiest are the same for skiers and snowboarders, and travel times are not slowed for snowboarders. See [Directions](https://getsnowcat.app/help/directions/#snowboard). ### Does navigation use lift closures and the wait expected when I arrive? It uses lift status, not run closures, and the current hour’s wait, not the wait at arrival. A route rides only lifts reported running in the last 30 minutes. Snowcat doesn’t know whether a run is open, so every route says to follow the resort’s signs and closures. Times are planned at a strong rider’s pace, so they are optimistic. See [How travel time is worked out](https://getsnowcat.app/help/directions/#travel-time). ### Do routes from a start I pick work without sending my GPS location? Yes. Pick a start, such as the top of a lift, and no location is sent. When you start from GPS, your position goes to the routing server to plan the route and is not stored. ### Can I use slope charts and routes offline? Mostly. The slope chart and every way down from a lift come from the map package, so they work without signal once the resort is saved with Keep offline, a Pro feature. A new route needs signal, but a route you already loaded keeps working. ## Waits and cameras ### Can I tell camera-influenced waits from model-only waits? Not yet. Every wait is an estimate from a simulation of the mountain, labeled Estimated or Forecast. Webcam head counts pull the simulated crowd toward what the cameras see, but no card says whether a camera fed a particular lift’s number. See [Lift waits](https://getsnowcat.app/help/lift-waits/#source). ### Is there a lift-by-lift webcam coverage list? In the app, yes: the Cameras screen lists each camera and the lifts it covers. A public list on this site is part of the per-mountain figures that are still to come. See [What’s live where](https://getsnowcat.app/help/resorts/#figures). ### Are any wait-time accuracy statistics available yet? No. The current forecast has not been scored yet this season. Scoring starts once the launch resorts open, and the Trust Center will show it. See [How accurate it is](https://getsnowcat.app/help/lift-waits/#accuracy) for what will be published. ### Is there a feature coverage table for each mountain? Not yet. [What’s live where](https://getsnowcat.app/help/resorts/) lists what works the same at every mountain and what differs. A table per mountain, generated from the map packages, is still to come. ## Plans and release ### Are Liftie’s rating, run details and the slope chart free, Pro or Max? Free. Liftie’s rating, every run’s numbers and the slope chart are free for every rider. Every way down from a lift and step-by-step directions need Pro. Liftie’s read on a run, for how you ride, needs Max. See [Plans](https://getsnowcat.app/help/plans/). ### When is Snowcat on the App Store? Snowcat has been on the App Store since November 6, 2026. Some earlier material gave a later date; November 6, 2026 is the release date. ### Does Snowcat have an Apple Watch app or ride tracking? **[TestFlight]** Both are in the TestFlight beta only, behind Settings › Experimental. They are not in the App Store app yet. See [What’s coming](https://getsnowcat.app/help/whats-coming/).