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supranihilest wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 8:50 am
Let's see how deep I can quote myself over the years.
supranihilest wrote: ↑Mon Aug 23, 2021 9:58 pm
Copied from another post asking a similar question:
supranihilest wrote: ↑Fri May 14, 2021 9:38 am
For peak bagging I use... Drumroll please... Peakbagger. Yep.
Free
Offline topo map downloads
Daily low-res and weekly high-res satellite photos
Find peak waypoints easily and save them offline
Trip reports and GPX tracks easily downloadable (if one is available for a particular peak)
Peaks available worldwide, not just in US
Syncs to Lists of John for LoJers
Spanish Peaks overview with tracks I downloaded right from the app. I can also download GPX from LoJ/All Trails/Hiking Project/anywhere that has GPX tracks and import them to Peakbagger.
West Spanish Peak overview.
West Spanish Peak GPX closeup for fine detail.
Want to know where you are on a track, or where a spot on a track is? You can find that out.
Track details.
Selection of peaks and tracks I've saved offline.
High-level overview of Boulder and Jefferson counties with dozens of tracks I've saved.
I don't trust an app on my phone not to kill the battery, plus what happens if I drop my phone on a rock and destroy the thing, so I also use a GPS watch (Garmin Fenix 5 edit: Fenix 7 as of 2023) for ~20-24 hour battery life and breadcrumb trail, and a Garmin inReach for connectivity to the outside world (friends and family can watch live on an online map) and texting, plus multi-day battery life. Never had to use the SOS on my inReach but it's available if need be.
If you're only going to get one, single device I'd recommend an inReach since it has damn near every feature you could want, but the drawback is that it's not cheap.
Again - free, offline maps and GPX imports. The rest is just icing on the cake.
Third mention of it being free just for fun. And another mention of it doing everything all the other apps do. While still being free. Did I mention that it's free? And that it finds peaks for you? Free peak finding is pretty cool.
Caltopo for planning, although, sometimes they're showing trails that don't exist, or not showing trails that exist.
I use Peakbagger hiking though. Occasionally, I'll export a planned route in Caltopo into Peakbagger if it's super complicated. Am following others gpxes a lot more than I used to. One thing I used to do all the time and never do any more is manually enter lat-long points into a GPS.
Am starting to get really bad about not having a physical map, pretty much all my route finding is on the phone now.
I use Caltopo for all planning and tracking now that Gaia / Outside has embraced enshittification. Among many other issues, Gaia's offline maps became extremely unreliable.
They all seem to have deficiencies, including Caltopo. One thing I miss in the Caltopo mobile app, that is present in competitors, is being able to view an elevation profile and have it track along with a point on the route. Useful for quickly determining distance to a summit or remaining elevation to climb on a route.
As far as editing and resampling of gpx routes for sharing with others or trip reports, what do people use? I've been using gpx.studio but I'd love to know about other options out there.
rmcpherson wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 2:46 pm
I use Caltopo for all planning and tracking now that Gaia / Outside has embraced enshittification. Among many other issues, Gaia's offline maps became extremely unreliable.
They all seem to have deficiencies, including Caltopo. One thing I miss in the Caltopo mobile app, that is present in competitors, is being able to view an elevation profile and have it track along with a point on the route. Useful for quickly determining distance to a summit or remaining elevation to climb on a route.
As far as editing and resampling of gpx routes for sharing with others or trip reports, what do people use? I've been using gpx.studio but I'd love to know about other options out there.
CalTopo does do this. It is easy. It takes just a few seconds. You can't/don't want this "useful" (your words) information by waiting a few seconds? I used this feature just yesterday on Stewart Peak. Also, I have a paid subscription to CalTopo to use maps offline and it works perfectly! I have never had an issue.
Mike
"There's a feeling I get when I look to the West and my spirit is crying for leaving" Led Zeppelin
rmcpherson wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 2:46 pm
I use Caltopo for all planning and tracking now that Gaia / Outside has embraced enshittification. Among many other issues, Gaia's offline maps became extremely unreliable.
They all seem to have deficiencies, including Caltopo. One thing I miss in the Caltopo mobile app, that is present in competitors, is being able to view an elevation profile and have it track along with a point on the route. Useful for quickly determining distance to a summit or remaining elevation to climb on a route.
As far as editing and resampling of gpx routes for sharing with others or trip reports, what do people use? I've been using gpx.studio but I'd love to know about other options out there.
CalTopo does do this. It is easy. It takes just a few seconds. You can't/don't want this "useful" (your words) information by waiting a few seconds? I used this feature just yesterday on Stewart Peak. Also, I have a paid subscription to CalTopo to use maps offline and it works perfectly! I have never had an issue.
Mike
Peakbagger (free) does offline maps (free) and live tracking elevation profile to a track you may be following (free). Peakbagger (it's free) and all of its features are free (free).
rmcpherson wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 2:46 pm
I use Caltopo for all planning and tracking now that Gaia / Outside has embraced enshittification. Among many other issues, Gaia's offline maps became extremely unreliable.
They all seem to have deficiencies, including Caltopo. One thing I miss in the Caltopo mobile app, that is present in competitors, is being able to view an elevation profile and have it track along with a point on the route. Useful for quickly determining distance to a summit or remaining elevation to climb on a route.
As far as editing and resampling of gpx routes for sharing with others or trip reports, what do people use? I've been using gpx.studio but I'd love to know about other options out there.
CalTopo does do this. It is easy. It takes just a few seconds. You can't/don't want this "useful" (your words) information by waiting a few seconds? I used this feature just yesterday on Stewart Peak. Also, I have a paid subscription to CalTopo to use maps offline and it works perfectly! I have never had an issue.
Mike
That’s awesome. How do I do this for a gpx track in the CalTopo app?
My offline maps issues were with Gaia, not CalTopo.
rmcpherson wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 2:46 pm
I use Caltopo for all planning and tracking now that Gaia / Outside has embraced enshittification. Among many other issues, Gaia's offline maps became extremely unreliable.
They all seem to have deficiencies, including Caltopo. One thing I miss in the Caltopo mobile app, that is present in competitors, is being able to view an elevation profile and have it track along with a point on the route. Useful for quickly determining distance to a summit or remaining elevation to climb on a route.
As far as editing and resampling of gpx routes for sharing with others or trip reports, what do people use? I've been using gpx.studio but I'd love to know about other options out there.
CalTopo does do this. It is easy. It takes just a few seconds. You can't/don't want this "useful" (your words) information by waiting a few seconds? I used this feature just yesterday on Stewart Peak. Also, I have a paid subscription to CalTopo to use maps offline and it works perfectly! I have never had an issue.
Mike
That’s awesome. How do I do this for a gpx track in the CalTopo app?
My offline maps issues were with Gaia, not CalTopo.
Using your finger, press the line/track you are using/following. Of course be sure you have downloaded the map for offline use (this feature does require a subscription) After you have done this (press the track line) you will get a menu. It will give you the name of your track and other menu options. Press on Profile. Slide you finger along this Profile box until the dot on the map aligns with your locator (the blue arrow and dot) that shows where you are.
CalTopo has a very good Help FAQ online to walk you through his better if my instructions are not detailed enough.
Mike
"There's a feeling I get when I look to the West and my spirit is crying for leaving" Led Zeppelin
supranihilest wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 3:36 pm
Peakbagger (free) does offline maps (free) and live tracking elevation profile to a track you may be following (free). Peakbagger (it's free) and all of its features are free (free).
Wait, so how much does Peakbagger cost altogether? Having a little trouble adding up all those numbers...
GAIA tip - I noticed a while back they replaced the delete button for offline maps with an archive button. At first it seemed to do the same thing but I was increasingly having trouble downloading offline maps to my phone.
Then I finally logged into GAIA via my PC and clicked on Offline Maps there and found a dozen or so previously "archived" maps.
Once I deleted those (with a popup warning they would be deleted from the mobile version of the program as well), I was able to download new offline maps on my phone almost instantaneously.
I used to use Gaia, but after Outside bought it the developers of Gaia left and started working on a clone called Goat Maps. Not sure what the story is there, but Goat Maps is close to parity with Gaia and being improved quickly.
