Craft, Tricks and Gear : FATMAP App.
With the never ending technological advancements, the outdoor sector has been hit with some pretty amazing innovations. Wether it’s the equipment technology or the smart tech for desktops and phones, we’ve been hearing about a lot of new tools to use during our adventures. We’ve been going through some of the best reviewed apps for Outdoor adventure seeking professionals.
After having many discussion on this topic, it came to our attention that the most commun issue was the phone battery usage of the apps; It seems obvious that you really don’t want to be out of phone battery when your at the top of a Mountain, in the middle of the Forest or going down the river in your raft. With that in mind our researches brought us to FATMAP.
While nothing can take the place of local knowledge, nor on-mountain personal micro terrain management, FATMAP pretty well does everything else.
FATMAP is an outdoor adventure platform and high-resolution 3D map for both web and mobile (iOS and Android). It’s reasonably new to the market of map apps, but over the last couple of years has gained massive traction and is now receiving a lot of attention for its pretty incredible 3D maps that include resorts across North America and Europe.
Phone battery usage used to be a problem when recording routes but now with a separate Fatmap App this is no longer an issue and you can record activities, which are then transferred over the main Fatmap maps, post-adventure, so you can retrace your steps and/or share your adventures on social media.
On the downside, preparing your tracks and planing your routes can only be done on your desktop you have to take your glove off to use it, fine in Spring, but a pain in the arse in Winter You can only prepare your paths/tracks on your desktop.
The maps that are fluid, well presented and look great, you can drag and zoom around the mountains, tap on a run or a lift to get a drop down of information, tap again to go back to the map. The app is easy to use. Although it is free from the AppStore, having the premium version, you can look up more information about the mountain you’re riding, see the best lines to take off-piste, check out gradients before you drop in and even see potential risk zones for avalanches or crevasses.of your maps and features offline so topo maps and live information directly on the map.
A little hint – If you sign up to their mailing list you can be in with the chance of winning a years free subscription to premium features!
Here’s a link to what the Maps on the App looks like : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seS5hPpR8ss
During our research we came across a few other Apps that you may now or have an interest in. Please find the links bellow, for each of the 3 App that we felt were the most pertinent; Crystal Ski Explorer app, Ski Tracks, SkiLynx.