CalTopo Pro/Desktop

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espressoself
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CalTopo Pro/Desktop

Post by espressoself »

I am a big fan of CalTopo and use it pretty extensively for trip planning and am wondering if it is worth the upgrade from the free version to Pro or Desktop. Can anyone here who has a subscription chime in?

For reference, I pay for Gaia Premium already and use that while on the trail, but for researching and drawing routes, I typically import into Gaia from CalTopo. I'm wondering if the added functionality and layers are worth the extra $50-100/year or if it is mostly redundant with Gaia Premium.

Thanks!
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supranihilest
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Re: CalTopo Pro/Desktop

Post by supranihilest »

Pay nothing and use Caltopo free version for planning and Peakbagger for mobile.

Adding another layer of quotation to this post...
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
Image
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.

Image
West Spanish Peak overview.

Image
West Spanish Peak GPX closeup for fine detail.

Image
Want to know where you are on a track, or where a spot on a track is? You can find that out.

Image
Track details.

ImageImage
Selection of peaks and tracks I've saved offline.

Image
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.
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Re: CalTopo Pro/Desktop

Post by cardgenius »

I pay for Gaia GPS Premium and from the friends I've talked to that pay for CalTopo Pro, theyre quite similar. The big difference is the CalTopo Desktop for $100/year. That one gives you the desktop site in app form for full offline use on your MacBook or Windows Laptop. That way if you're on the road with no internet connection, you can still access the desktop for route planning and all that. I don't believe Gaia GPS has anything similar.

+1 for Peakbagger! The mobile app is pretty good for being free while the desktop site is a bit difficult to use at first but gets easier over time.
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Re: CalTopo Pro/Desktop

Post by Boggy B »

I don't know anything about Gaia or Peakbagger, but I've been using Caltopo for a long time. So long I'm on the "Basic (Legacy)" plan, which is possibly equivalent to the Mobile plan ($20/y).

I'm too lazy to use two things. They got me when they made Google satellite imagery a paid feature--I need to toggle between satellite and topo for planning, and whatever they use for the free "Global imagery" layer is poor.

The features/tools I use most often are the LiDAR slope angle shading (literally changed my life, I've not once pointlessly walked up a drainage looking for ice since), custom DEM shading layers, viewshed analysis, and sun exposure. Not sure if/which of those are free or paid.

I switched to a dumb smartphone for camera/GPS so I also use the offline maps and sync tracks to/from it.

My dream job is to work for Caltopo. Then I'd save $200 every decade.
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Re: CalTopo Pro/Desktop

Post by espressoself »

supranihilest wrote: Fri May 26, 2023 9:53 am Pay nothing and use Caltopo free version for planning and Peakbagger for mobile.
[...]
cardgenius wrote: Fri May 26, 2023 10:31 am I pay for Gaia GPS Premium and from the friends I've talked to that pay for CalTopo Pro, theyre quite similar. The big difference is the CalTopo Desktop for $100/year. That one gives you the desktop site in app form for full offline use on your MacBook or Windows Laptop. That way if you're on the road with no internet connection, you can still access the desktop for route planning and all that. I don't believe Gaia GPS has anything similar.

+1 for Peakbagger! The mobile app is pretty good for being free while the desktop site is a bit difficult to use at first but gets easier over time.
Amazing recommendation, I had no idea about the Peakbagger app. I've used the browser version minimally (I typically just use LoJ), but I just created an account and downloaded the app.

Thanks for the suggestion!
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Re: CalTopo Pro/Desktop

Post by supranihilest »

cardgenius wrote: Fri May 26, 2023 10:31 am+1 for Peakbagger! The mobile app is pretty good for being free while the desktop site is a bit difficult to use at first but gets easier over time.
Yeah, unfortunately the Peakbagger website is something straight out of the early 90s. It works but it's not particularly user friendly. I just like that Peakbagger is completely free, including offline map downloads, and their high res satellite photos are the Google ones that Boggy mentioned. Daily and weekly are MODIS and Sentinel, respectively, and the weekly photos are high enough resolution that they're great for finding snow lines that are in this time of year. I don't use the advanced features of Caltopo like he does so the free version works fine for me.
Last edited by supranihilest on Fri May 26, 2023 10:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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espressoself
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Re: CalTopo Pro/Desktop

Post by espressoself »

Boggy B wrote: Fri May 26, 2023 10:31 am The features/tools I use most often are the LiDAR slope angle shading (literally changed my life, I've not once pointlessly walked up a drainage looking for ice since), custom DEM shading layers, viewshed analysis, and sun exposure. Not sure if/which of those are free or paid.
These are in the free version and are some of the main reasons I use CalTopo for planning. Honestly, I sometimes can't believe how much is available for free on CalTopo. The things that were tempting me about the paid versions are the Parcel Data layer (which Gaia already has, but it would be nice to not have to flip back and forth) and the live satellites that I can overlay with the planned route (useful in determining how much snow might still be left).
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Re: CalTopo Pro/Desktop

Post by supranihilest »

espressoself wrote: Fri May 26, 2023 10:44 am
Boggy B wrote: Fri May 26, 2023 10:31 am The features/tools I use most often are the LiDAR slope angle shading (literally changed my life, I've not once pointlessly walked up a drainage looking for ice since), custom DEM shading layers, viewshed analysis, and sun exposure. Not sure if/which of those are free or paid.
These are in the free version and are some of the main reasons I use CalTopo for planning. Honestly, I sometimes can't believe how much is available for free on CalTopo. The things that were tempting me about the paid versions are the Parcel Data layer (which Gaia already has, but it would be nice to not have to flip back and forth) and the live satellites that I can overlay with the planned route (useful in determining how much snow might still be left).
Does the public lands layer (available in both Caltopo and Peakbagger) not work well enough? I get by using that, works enough for peakbagging at least. Other hiking uses it might not be sufficient.

For overlaying satellite pics, here's a screenshot from the Peakbagger app of Potosi peak with a track of the standard route and the weekly satellite layer. Good enough to show the north couloir is still in and can obviously be used for other peaks.
Screenshot_20230526_104636_Peakbagger.jpg
Screenshot_20230526_104636_Peakbagger.jpg (63.21 KiB) Viewed 2954 times
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Re: CalTopo Pro/Desktop

Post by Boggy B »

Umm, sweet. I've been using OnX Hunt for that but I hate that you can't disable 3D rendering which bogs down their app horribly.
I just canceled my OnX subscription and will upgrade to Caltopo Pro when that expires.

The ownership info is useful when you want to try to get permission before trespassing. You can search public county assessor records if they're online, but it's inconvenient enough I was paying for OnX.
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Re: CalTopo Pro/Desktop

Post by supranihilest »

Boggy B wrote: Fri May 26, 2023 10:55 am The ownership info is useful when you want to try to get permission before trespassing. You can search public county assessor records if they're online, but it's inconvenient enough I was paying for OnX.
Makes sense. I can only think of one time where I asked and wasn't denied so I don't bother anymore, I just try to be sneaky. :twisted:
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Re: CalTopo Pro/Desktop

Post by randalmartin »

Also worth noting that CalTopo has a mobile application as well. Like the OP said, I have both Gaia and Caltopo Premium. If I could only have one, it would be Caltopo. It's far better at trip planning and honestly once I am in the field all I really need is a offline map with my route shown.

It's been a while since I upgraded to CalTopo Premium but the main benefit was a few extra map layers and access to realtime weather data from Snotel, Stream Flows etc... That actually is mostly relevant at this time of year through June when I am monitoring snow pack for specific locations.
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Re: CalTopo Pro/Desktop

Post by jsf80238 »

I pay $50/year for CalTopo.
I'm not exactly sure which features I use which I could get for free.
My feeling is so long as CalTopo is not part of some soulless corporation (https://caltopo.com/about/who-we-are) I don't mind paying for it, kind of like 14ers.com.
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