Timing in the mountains with no signal: what to prepare

Offline timing means the app records passings locally on the phone and sends them to the server as soon as signal comes back — so a dropped connection doesn't affect the timing itself. What you do need to manage yourself is the phone's battery life, since more remote checkpoints often have no way to recharge.

Before the event, consider a power bank — over a multi-hour timing session with NFC or an active RFID pairing, it's the difference between a phone that lasts until the finish and one that dies an hour before the last participant. Running GPS navigation or a live stream on the same phone drains the battery even faster — if you can, use two separate devices for timing and for broadcasting.

Also set a clear backup plan in case the phone at a checkpoint fails completely — a paper start list and a pen can be typed into the app by hand after the race, and it's the one safety net that works with no electronics at all. With multiple checkpoints on the course (e.g. start and finish tracked separately, or a split partway through), we recommend always checking beforehand that the clocks on both devices show the same time — the app measures times from its own offset rather than directly off system time, but a significant difference between devices can still skew splits.

Finally, if the course runs out of signal range for the whole day, plan your sync moment in advance — a brief stop in coverage (e.g. the parking lot at the start) right after timing is enough to get results online the same day, rather than only once you're home in the evening.