In my experience, the statistics of interest during a backcountry ski are rarely current speed and distance travelled. Much more interesting are total elevation gained and current elevation, with gain being more important usually. Heart rate -is- usually interesting. (I personally find these statements are true for much of hiking, as well, though I can see distance travelled being more interesting while hiking.)
A typical use is to look at the elevation gained and divide by the time passed to get an understanding of vertical gain per hour. This is common in the vertical-oriented sports. This information tells a climber what their expected arrival at the high point is, which is important for turn-around calculations, etc. I can't gain the necessary data with Strava, so I typically start Gaia on my phone which I then use to perform these calculations.
