How to actually talk to your friends on the mountain
Everyone has lost their group on a mountain. Someone drops into the trees, someone else takes the wrong cat track, and twenty minutes later you are all waiting at different lifts until somebody finally makes a call. Here is an honest comparison of every way to stay in contact while you ride, and the issues with each.
Texting and phone calls
The default, because everyone already has a phone.
Where it fails: You have to stop, take a glove off, and get your phone out — and mountain signal is unreliable in exactly the places you get separated. It is also strictly after the fact. You find out where someone went once you have already lost them, not while it is happening.
Walkie talkies
Handheld radios, usually clipped to a jacket strap. They work with no phone signal at all, which is their real advantage, and the mountain-specific ones are built tough and glove-friendly.
Where they fail: Push-to-talk means a hand on the radio, which means a hand off your poles. Range claims assume clear line of sight, and trees, ridges and terrain cut it down hard. Everyone in the group has to own one and have it on the same channel. And you are broadcasting — anyone else on that channel hears you.
Helmet intercoms
Bluetooth units that mount to a helmet and connect riders directly, borrowed from the motorcycle world. Sound quality is good and they are genuinely hands-free once connected.
Where they fail: Group pairing is fiddly, and the further apart you get the more the connection drops — which, again, is precisely when you need it. They are among the more expensive options, and they only talk to other units from the same maker, so your whole crew has to buy in.
App-based voice chat
A live voice channel over mobile data, like a party chat in a game. No extra radio hardware, and it works at any distance as long as everyone has signal.
Where it fails: It depends on data coverage, and it usually depends on your phone being reachable — which puts you back to taking a glove off, unless something else is handling the controls for you.
What we are building
Off Piste combines the last two. The app runs a live voice channel so your group can talk mid-run without stopping, and Maestro, our wrist-worn gesture controller, handles the controls so you never touch your phone to use it. A double tap from the wrist sends a voice message to the group. Gloves stay on, eyes stay on the run.
The app also tracks where everyone has been, so if someone does drop into the trees you can see the line they took rather than guess.
Where it falls down, honestly: it needs mobile data, so a genuinely remote backcountry zone with no coverage is a job for a radio, not for us. If you are touring somewhere with no signal at all, buy a walkie talkie.
So which should you pick?
- Backcountry, no signal, safety-critical — walkie talkies. Nothing else works without coverage.
- A pair of you who always ride together — helmet intercoms, if you are both willing to buy matching units.
- A group riding a resort with normal coverage — app-based voice chat is cheaper, easier to join, and scales past two people.
Maestro, coming winter 2026/27
Maestro is a wrist-worn gesture controller for hands-free music and voice chat while skiing and snowboarding. Join the community for 15% off your first order, early access at launch, and a say in what we build next.