Digital on the move - tilt maps on your smartphone

Orientation in the terrain

First of all, I would like to point out that a smartphone is not a substitute for dealing with the topic of orientation, but can only support us in this. Anyone who has learned their first steps in the terrain with a map and compass will appreciate their independence from power sockets or cell phone reception as well as the clarity of a good topographical map. Nevertheless, the linking of the exact location determined by GPS with the display of a map is definitely a great benefit for us ski tourers.

We know from avalanche science that the slope gradient is one of the most important factors in avalanche events. Therefore, assessing the steepness of the terrain around us is very important. There are now very good maps on which the slope gradient is superimposed in multi-colored representation. This provides us with good assistance, but of course our own assessment is always the final responsible consequence.

Tools

Openslopemap

The developers of Openslopemap process the freely accessible digital terrain models and use them to generate a map with the most important slope gradients for winter sports, contour lines, shading and an Openstreetmap layer. These maps are freely available on the internet and can be viewed online or downloaded from the project page. To view the map offline, however, you also need a map app on your smartphone.

Map app

A confusing number of free, paid and subscription apps means we are spoilt for choice. Since Openslopemap offers the maps for 2 applications as a direct download, I will focus on these two apps here: Oruxmap and Locus, with a focus on Locus due to its faster map display. Both have their advantages and disadvantages and depending on the problem, sometimes one app works better than the other. An older version of Oruxmap can be downloaded free of charge from the project page, the latest version is currently available in the Playstore for €4.19. Locus offers the free version for free, while the much more comprehensive and ad-free Pro version currently costs €9.90.

Smartphone

Since no special computing capacity is required for map processing, older Android smartphones should also provide sufficient processor power. Unfortunately, it is currently not possible to install Oruxmap or Locus on iOS. In addition, Openslopemap does not offer any maps that can be installed directly on the iPhone. It is therefore always necessary to transfer maps to the iPhone via the PC.

In contrast to computing power, the memory requirements for offline maps should not be neglected. For the method shown in the first part, for example, at least 1.8 GB of memory must be available for the state of Tyrol in low resolution.

A brief introduction to Locus

Now let's take a look at a few basic functions in the Locus Free version:

We've already seen the settings menu with the 3 stripes. Here we find all the functions, the Locus Store, which can be used to purchase map material, and the very extensive settings, which can be used to change practically all modules of the interface as required. A search function, access to satellite data and the option to integrate additional quick commands complete the top menu bar.

The blue tab at the bottom left gives us quick access to various map contents.

The bottom menu bar contains 5 fields with the following options:

• The crosshairs center the map display directly on the determined viewpoint.

• By selecting the arrow, we can either rotate the map with our line of sight or at least display the line of sight on the map.

• Zoom out/in. This also works via a "pinch to zoom" gesture on the screen, or the smartphone's volume buttons can be configured as zoom buttons in the settings menu.

• The padlock gives us access to various locks. This means that the smartphone can also be transported with the display switched on.

Now, to answer the first question mentioned at the beginning: Where am I? a quick glance at the smartphone should be enough!

--> Continue on the next page with an explanation of overlay maps for slope inclination.

Part 2: Overlay maps

Do you already have your own maps and want to give them an upgrade in the form of colored slopes? The map material used in the Openslopemap is too colorful for you and you sometimes lose the overview? The resolution of the Classic Openslopemap is too low for you? No problem, map overlay is the solution here.

This simply displays different map material overlaid in different layers. Unfortunately, Locus Maps only offers this function from the Pro version onwards. However, the cost of the Pro version is quite manageable at a one-off €9.90 and, in addition to the overlay function, Locus Maps Pro also offers a few features that we ski tourers like: a dashboard, offline elevation data and unlimited track recording. Of course, overlaying maps also works with Orux Maps. A guide to Orux can be found here.

Before we get down to business, let's start with some dry theory. If you lose interest in the following paragraph after just a few words, you can easily skip to the practical part.

Elevation data

The Openslopemap does not calculate the coloring of the slope gradient from the contour lines of the classic maps, but uses terrain models created using LIDAR (laser scan data). On the homepage we also find different download links for different resolutions. As a high resolution requires a large amount of memory, we must of course be guided by the free memory space of the smartphone. However, as the overlay data requires less memory than the classic map, this should not be a problem with modern smartphones.

Installation instructions overlay

But let's get started!

As in the first part, here's another note: large data packages are required, so if you don't have unlimited data volume, it's better to make sure you have Wi-Fi activated. First, we buy the Pro version of Locus Maps in the Android Play Store and carry out the installation process. Now we switch back to the browser on our smartphone and go to the Openandomaps download page. Here we first find the link to the different render themes. We need one of these, as otherwise our map cannot be displayed correctly, e.g. contour lines etc. are missing. I use the Elevate 4 theme also used by the Openandromaps programmers.

While Locus is installing the theme, we can already proceed to the map download. We select the "+", e.g. for Alps to select the entire Alps, and click again on the installation link for Locus. And once again, please note that the developers of Openandromap are also happy to receive a little recognition for their work!

Now we find the base map on our smartphone and we can download the slope inclination layer from the Openslopemap homepage in a similar way. To do this, we call up the page in the browser again: www.openslopemap.org/download. Here we can download the slope inclination maps for the entire Alps. As mentioned above, the underlying data is not completely available in a resolution of 10x10 meters. Slope inclination overlays for Tyrol, Salzburg, Vorarlberg and South Tyrol are also available individually in the highest possible resolution.

Finally, we need to activate both maps. To do this, we select the Openandromap as the base map as shown in the first part. Now we select the symbol with the two rectangles (overlay of maps) in the functions and apply one of the downloaded Openslopemap overlays as an offline map. The transparency can now be changed as desired.

Voila also answers the second question: Where are the dangers lurking? The smartphone should now be able to provide us with good assistance.

--> Part 3 on the next page contains instructions on importing and creating GPS tracks

Part 3: Importing and creating GPS tracks

We now have very good starting material for moving around in open terrain. But of course, a ski tour has to be planned first. We can find various online and offline tools on the internet for this. Currently, the website skitourenguru.ch has a particularly unique selling point: all tours available there are linked to the local avalanche report and a specific risk level is calculated for the respective tour. The skitours-paradise homepage also offers a similar function, but here only the danger level is displayed with the "Author's subjective assessment of the avalanche danger level at which the tour should not be attempted". Of course, we can also consider any other source, the only important thing is that it has a GPX export. It should be noted here that although many planning tools integrate slope gradient maps, these are often still based on SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) data, which only offers a resolution of 30x30 meters. In addition, the color representation of the slope inclination is not standardized and each app can color the inclinations as it sees fit. Therefore, it is best to check the imported track on our map app, so we can be sure which terrain model the slopes are based on and which color represents the respective slope.

Tips and tricks

We can not only use the track import to display pre-drawn paths, it is also suitable for marking special areas that are not yet shown separately on the base map. I am particularly interested in wildlife rest areas. Here those of Tyrol. We can practice our sport in a more nature-friendly way by leaving the animals their retreat!

This should also answer our last question: Where do I want to go? sufficiently and we can even answer the additional question: Where am I not allowed to go?.

An overview article on common "All in One" map apps, which generally work with a subscription payment model, will follow soon.