Vertical 2 feedback from using it during Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc race
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This is very helpful feedback, and I hope the folks at Suunto will read it. Thanks.
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However, the watch had crashed twice during the race, which is completely unacceptable! The first time - after 5 hours as I was entering Les Contamines aid station. I suspect the crash was triggered by waypoint notification. The second time - after another 22 hours as I was approaching Champex-Lac aid station but still had a few hundred meters to go. This time I suspect the crash was triggered by receiving a phone text message notification as a family member texted me.
This is very serious, especially considering that Suunto is the main sponsor of UTMB and so many elite athletes are using Suunto watches during the race.
Having a watch crash during an event like UTMB, particularly after many hours of racing, is probably one of the best ways to damage the brand’s reputation on a very large stage. -
However, the watch had crashed twice during the race, which is completely unacceptable! The first time - after 5 hours as I was entering Les Contamines aid station. I suspect the crash was triggered by waypoint notification. The second time - after another 22 hours as I was approaching Champex-Lac aid station but still had a few hundred meters to go. This time I suspect the crash was triggered by receiving a phone text message notification as a family member texted me.
So sad. My Vertical 2 is in repair servise because of restarts. Unfortunately, I don’t trust it right now. I took out my old Garmin.
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I never experienced (or noticed) a crash with my Race S. Does the watch automatically restart and continue the activity after the crash?
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@Gunnar I’ve also never experienced any crashes on my 2023 Vertical 1. I’m actually happy with how stable they are, and I’m not even sure if I want any more updates… The Enduro 3, on the other hand, crashed a lot while saving activities and mapping. These technologies in general are just black magic.
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Also, I’d really like to have a rest timer feature with an ability to track time spent at an aid station or other stops without pausing the watch. The goal is to be aware of the time spent at the stop but without losing any of the metrics. I know that most people would simply pause their watch in a similar situation and that would display the paused time. However pausing during a race is not an acceptable solution because the elapsed time must continue going the entire time.
Are you using a custom sport mode? Usually what I do is create a custom sport mode and I add the “total time” data field. This keeps going even if the activity is paused.
On the general topic, it looks like a similar situation to when the Vertical 1 was launched - lots of crashes and issues. I got mine almost 2 years later and it works properly, with just one crash a long time ago. Even though there are lots of embarrassing bugs, it doesn’t crash any more.
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Is using laps an option? That would mean you cannot have autolap for every 1k (or so), but every lap is either a run from aid station to aid station or time spend at a aid station.
Yes, I turned auto-lap off and used one of the data screens to track manual laps, including time spent at aid stations.
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Are you using a custom sport mode? Usually what I do is create a custom sport mode and I add the “total time” data field. This keeps going even if the activity is paused.
I don’t think 3rd part platforms like Strava would understand that, would they? More likely then not there will be gaps in the exported FIT file. Also, with pausing, the main risk is to forget to unpause when leaving aid station. Essentially, what I want is an ability to track rest time while continuing to collect all other metrics and tracking GPS positions. Ideally this would be engaged by pressing the lap button as Garmin does it and recorded in activity as a lap. Furthermore, the rest timer could automatically disengage when users starts moving again. Garmin has this feature - essentially what I described - in their “Ultra Run” activity. In Garmin you can see rests as laps, and they are even maked in the app UI as rest intervals.
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I never experienced (or noticed) a crash with my Race S. Does the watch automatically restart and continue the activity after the crash?
The watch automatically restarts and saves the data collected prior to the crash. However the previous activity isn’t continued. I ended up having 3 separate activities recorded from the race. Furthermore, all of them got auto-uploaded to Strava before I could do anything (such as stitch them together in a 3rd part tool), and my Strava followers have already given me kudos and commented on separate activities. So now I am sort of stuck with not having a single complete 170 km race record on Strava, which makes me a bit sad.
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@sky-runner I always put my Strava activities on private at first to let me the time to accept or reject in those case of issues (activities splitted, gps errors, etc)… Because as you said, it is sad to remove an activity that has already some comments on it from your friends.
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@sky-runner Hotfix 2.56.28 (31/08/2026)
Suunto has just released a FW hotfix - Vertical 2 and Race 2.
This update mainly improves firmware stability and fixes several crash issues. It also fixes an issue where pool swimming distance and duration could be displayed incorrectly in certain scenarios.
This is a staged update - so maybe not everyone will get it on the first day.
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S sky-runner referenced this topic
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