Google map for Air Quality Index (AQI)

For trip planning during summer fire season in the western United States, it’s good to check if your planned adventure is maybe in an area with unhealthy levels of smoke. Here's a quick way to find out.

Do a Google search for “AQI map”

This should show a link to a Google map with the familiar interface, and a nice legend at the bottom, with specific readings at different locations.

Be sure and zoom in on the map to see more detail for your area.

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Example screen grab from August 2023, zoomed out view of the Pacific Northwest.

Zoomed in view of Central Oregon. Notice the increased detail of different areas.

CalTopo pro tip - Custom terrain shading

CalTopo, the BEST desktop mapping tool for backcountry travelers, has a very cool, seldom used feature: custom overlays of various combinations of slope angle, aspect, elevation and canopy cover. The interface can take some practice, but once you get the hang of it, it’s easy and powerful.

(This is based on what cartographers call a “Digital Elevation Model”, or DEM. In simple terms, it’s a three dimensional model of the world used in digital mapping.)

If you'd like to follow along and try this yourself, create a free CalTopo account, which lets you access a majority of the mapping tools. If after trying DEM shading you think this software is terrific, please consider an annual subscription (starting at $20) to support the small team of developers making this great tool available, hint hint.

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Here's how to use CalTopo DEM shading.

Are you doing some off-trail travel want to avoid areas that are excessively steep? Check out the example in the photo above: all slopes between 35 and 90° get a color.

Backcountry skiers can really get some benefit from this tool, so that's the example we’ll use from now on; the Wallowa mountains in northeastern Oregon, a popular place for ski touring. There are several yurts and huts that can be reserved for winter adventures. (I’ve never been, but I’ve heard great things about it.)

If you want to follow along and use the same area I am, here are the coordinates of the ski hut. Copy paste these into the CalTopo search box.

45.2037, -117.0938

First, let’s add shaded relief to the default base layer of MapBuilder Topo. It already has a little, but let's add a bit more so we can more easily see ridges, gullies, aspect, and terrain features.

From the “Map Layers” menu in the top right, click “Stack Base Layer”.

From that drop-down menu, click “Shaded Relief”.

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Play with the slider bar to adjust the opacity between zero to 100% . As you slide the bar to the right, you should see increased shading added on to your base map. I like something in between about 30 and 40%. Use what looks good to you.

Shaded relief is extremely cool, and it's a nice thing to add almost all of your maps!

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Excellent, we have our base map with extra shaded relief. Let's add some custom DEM shading.

Say we’re headed in to the hut for a few days of skiing, and we’re interested in slopes that are north facing. Here’s how to show that in a custom DEM overlay. 

Zoom in to your area of interest. Choose the “Add” button from the top left corner.

From the drop-down menu, select “DEM shading”

Here's where the magic happens: “Add a New Rule” to generate your overlay. 

1. Check the box next to “Aspect”, and select “NW 315” to “NE 45” from the dropdown menu.

2. Click the Color box and set the color to red for both NW 315 and NE 45. 

3. Add a descriptive name in the top left corner, here, “N aspect”.

4. In the “Overlay?” box, select, “No, Base Layer” from the drop down menu.

5. Click “Add Rule” to generate the code CalTopo needs to make your map.

6. Click “Save to Account”.

7. Finally, click “Save”.

Voilà! You should now see an overlay on your map showing all north-ish slopes colored red.

Notice that because we chose “Base Layer” in the previous step, our named overlay has been added as an overlay, sort of like tracing paper, over the top of the base map. You can see this at the top of the menu on the right side.

Ouch, that red is hard on the eyes! In the top right corner, use the slider bar to set the opacity to a lower level. I like something between about 30 and 40%. That's easier to look at, and lets you see underlying map features.

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Because you clicked “Save to Account”, this custom overlay is saved. This is slick, because you can use this overlay on any future map without recreating the rule. Here's how to find it.

Click the orange “Your Data” button in the top right corner.

Then, click the “Your Layers” tab. You should see the layer called “N Aspect”.

To use any saved custom DEM shading in the future, open a map, select “Stack Base Layer” from the top right side, and click the drop down menu. You should see your saved layers under “Your Layers”.

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Okay, are you getting the hang of this? Nice!

Let's make another overlay, this time for slopes between 20 and 40°.

As before, click the ”Add” button in the top left corner, select “DEM Shading”, and put the following into the “Add a New Rule” box.

That should generate a map looking something like this: all slopes between 20 and 40 degrees.

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Maybe you're looking for flat places to camp?

No problem. Make a custom layer showing all areas with slopes between 0° and 5°.

Here’s the resulting map, showing flat areas with 50% opacity.

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Let's make an overlay that shows a specific aspect AND slope.

Say you want to ski in the following terrain:

• north facing slope

• slope angle between 20 and 40°

Here’s the rule that generates an overlay for that.

That rule generates this map: north facing aspect with slope angles between 20 and 40°.

Schweeeet, looks like there's some great terrain very close to the hut.

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Create an elevation gradient DEM overlay

You can also use a pair of colors to create a gradient between a single condition, here elevation.

Let's make a gradient DEM shading with these elevations and colors:

• Terrain between 5,000 and 7,000 feet, light green to green

• Terrain between 7000 and 10,000 feet, green to purple

First, we make a rule for elevation 5K to 7K, and use the color picker to select light green to green. Click “Add Rule”, and the code is generated.

Next, create a second rule: change elevations from 7K to 10 K, change the colors from green to purple, and click “Add Rule”. Notice a second rule is added as a new line in the “Rules” box.

You can do this for as many different categories as you want. For example, if you wanted to show slope angle between 25 to 30, 30 to 33, 33-36, etc, keep adding rules and changing the colors.

The elevation gradient overlay looks like this. Nice! It looks even better on a big screen, give it a try!

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So, that's a pretty detailed tutorial of custom DEM shading in CalTopo. Play with it, save your overviews, and, as suggested before, please consider a modest subscription (starts at $20 annually) to support the development team making this great tool available.

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If you made it this far, here's a small bonus. Yes there's international coverage!

Here's a portion of the classic Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt, with that 20% to 35% slope shading added.

Weather overlay maps in CalTopo and Gaia GPS

• How much snow or rain is in the forecast?

• Where can I go hiking this weekend where it might be dry?

• I‘m a powder skier looking for the heaviest new snowfall, where should I go?

• I need to make a long drive; which route might have the least amount of snow?

The superb desktop mapping tools CalTopo and GaiaGPS have a very helpful overlays that that gives a color-coded big picture, and the option to take a closer look at a detailed forecast.

(While CalTopo includes this handy feature for free, I highly recommend subscribing to CalTopo to support the small team of developers that make this superb tool available, hint hint. For Gaia users, this feature is for Premium level subscribers.)

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CalTopo

Zoom into your area of interest, here the northern Oregon Cascades near Portland. From the right sidebar menu under Forecasts, check “Weather Shading” and choose “48hr Snowfall” from the drop-down menu. (For today we’re interested in snowfall, but you can also choose low / high temperatures, rain, and wind speed / gust.)

Here I'm using Open Street Map as a base layer (selected from the top right corner menu). It doesn’t have contours, so it draws a bit faster if you're looking at a large area. You can choose any base map you like. To show some topography, check out the “TF Outdoors” map layer.

The legend is along the bottom. Light blue > purple > gray = increasing amounts of snow.

If you zoom in, you'll see some numbers. This is the estimated snowfall in inches for the next 48 hours. (Data are based on the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast grids, which are about 2.5 km square.)

Yep, that's up to 30 inches of new snow on Mount Hood in the next 48 hours!

Need more details? Right click anywhere on the map, and choose “NOAA Forecast” to get a point forecast for that location.

This opens up a new browser tab, and gives you a detailed forecast from the National Weather Service for that location.

Finally, if you're planning a long winter drive and wondering which route to take to avoid snow, zoom out for a regional view.

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GaiaGPS

Gaia offers a similar feature. You can change the opacity of the overlay with the slider bar (here about 70%).

You can choose between 24 hour, 48 hour, and 72 hour overlays. Find them under the “Feature/Weather Overlays” menu. This overlay is available for Premium subscribers.

Photo is a screen grab of a spring storm in Colorado, in late April, 2022.

Weekly hi-res satellite imagery in CalTopo

A common question for backcountry users: How much snow is on the ground, right now, at a given location?

• Is the trailhead snowed in?

• Is my intended campsite under snow, or is there some exposed ground?

• Are there some snow patches available for drinking water on the ridge climb I want to try?

• Can I still get a few more runs in, or is backcountry ski season really over?

• Is the brush filled valley you need to cross still covered with snow, making it much easier?

• How does the snow level at a certain location compare from year to year at the same time?

Yes, you can look at snow depth models, as we cover in this article, but often seeing the snow level directly is really helpful, especially when you can overlay track and waypoints of your intended route over the top.

Well, as usual, CalTopo has you covered.

For subscribers at the “Pro” level ($50 a year) CalTopo, the best backcountry mapping software, now offers weekly, high resolution satellite imagery. This can be a very useful tool for trip planning, because you can see current snow levels in the satellite imagery overlaid on a base map, along with a GPX track and waypoints.

Bonus, you can print this, which you can’t easily do with the Google satellite imagery in CalTopo.

Summer 2021 update: imagery now is available six or more times a month rather than weekly, so sometimes you get imagery on a five day cycle, even better!

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Other options . . .

Before we take a closer look at CalTopo, note that there are some other ways to view recent satellite imagery.

Gaia GPS has a map layer they call “FreshSat”. This is available for a premium level subscription of around $40 a year. This works pretty well, but the resolution does not seem to be as good as the CalTopo layer, and you can only see the most recent imagery, instead of the historical imagery that CalTopo offers. But, if you already have a Gaia Premium subscription, give that a try and see how it works for you.

You can also look at the Sentinel satellite imagery, which is basically free, but the user interface has a bit of a learning curve. If you want to explore this tool, use the link above.

What about Google? Google does offer wonderful high resolution satellite images, but as of summer 2021, it's definitely not on a weekly basis. Depending on where you’re looking, updates can be many months apart. So, if you're looking for current snow coverage, Google is probably not going to work.

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Let’s look at a few examples in CalTopo, here of Mt. Adams Washington.

Here’s the default “MapBuilder Topo” layer in CalTopo, along with the GPX track of the climbing route, shown in red, with waypoints added for the trailhead, camp and summit.

(Tip: it's helpful to have a track like this and a few waypoints, because if you change the opacity of the underlying map, the opacity of your tracks and waypoints stays nicely visible. More on that below.)

From the Map Layers menu in the top right, you can choose “Sentinel Weekly”. (If you don’t have the Pro level subscription, these options are grayed out.)

From the “Sentinel Weekly” drop-down menu, you can look at historical imagery back to 2017.

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A great feature of CalTopo: stacking one map layer on top of another and then changing the opacity. Here’s the MapBuilder Topo layer stacked on top of the satellite imagery, with the topo layer set to 33% opacity. This lets you see both the snow line and the underlying roads, trails, contours, etc.

Notice that the red GPX track showing the route and the waypoints remain at full brightness and easy to see, regardless of what level you set the opacity.

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Yes, this weekly satellite imagery does cost $50 a year. Is it worth it? If you spend a lot of time in the backcountry, and want the most recent imagery to help plan your trip, probably yes.

Fortunately, there are other CalTopo subscription options. While it doesn't offer weekly imagery, many people find the $20 subscription to be a good balance of features and cost. Even the free version of CalTopo gives you a lot, but I encourage you to subscribe at some level to support the small team who makes this wonderful tool available. Software developers have to eat too!

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Here's a sequence of (pretty much) monthly images of Mt. Adams in spring-summer 2020. Getting cloud-free images in the Pacific Northwest can be difficult, so the images are not all 30 days apart, but you get the general idea. Again, notice the approximate 30% opacity of the underlying map, which shows trails and roads and contours.

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Finally, here's a sequence from Mt. Shasta in Northern California in July, 2017-2021. This helps answers the question of what's the snow level like this year compared to previous years? Short answer, 2021 is dry!

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And hey, if you're stuck with me for this long, here's a little YouTube composite of the Mt. Adams imagery. Enjoy!

CalTopo - See crevasses on the new MapBuilder Topo layer

If you’re new to CalTopo and want to learn the basics, get started with this video. (Disclaimer, it's mine.)

Sidenote: CalTopo offers a lot of free mapping resources, but I recommend you support their fine work and get even more goodies with a modest annual subscription.

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CalTopo, my favorite backcountry mapping software, recently added a cool new feature to their default MapBuilder Topo map layer that can be helpful for alpine trip planning: LiDAR elevation model data.

(For the folks who appreciate spelled out acronyms, LiDAR stands for “Light Detecting And Ranging”.) High resolution LiDAR imagery can create extremely detailed and accurate elevation models of the earth.

Why is this cool? You can see crevasses! Check out the examples below of Mt. Baker in the Washington Cascades.

The first image is a previous iteration of MapBuilder Topo. Certainly a nice enough map, but no indication of where crevasses might be. (The purple line is the popular Coleman-Deming Glacier climbing route.)

Now, let's have a look at the same area and map layer, but with LIDAR digital elevation data added. WHOA! Check out those crevasses! Can you see why the the Coleman-Deming route goes where it does? It misses most of the big ones.

The crevasses are even more impressive zoom in a bit more. Here's some detail from the upper part of the route.

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Now, this added LiDAR imagery comes with a BIG disclaimer. As every alpine climber hopefully knows, crevasses can change on almost a daily basis. The image represented on this map layer is a one time snapshot, and you should be not rely on it for fool-proof crevasse avoidance.

On the other hand, crevasses often tend to form in pretty much the same place year after year, so imagery like this can be helpful for general purpose route planning.

Keep in mind the old cartographers saying, “the map is not the territory”. Meaning, pay attention to what's really on the ground in front of you, not your GPS screen, track, or high-tech imagery like this.

CalTopo pro tip: Travel Time and Travel Plan

CalTopo, the best backcountry mapping desktop tool, keeps getting better. CalTopo recently (autumn 2020) rolled out a very cool feature(s), “Travel Time” & “Travel Plan”. Let's learn how to use ‘em!

(If you’re new to CalTopo, get started with this tutorial video.)

CalTopo has four subscription levels: Free, Basic, Pro, and Desktop. I recommend the Basic for most users, but if you want the Trip Planning feature, you need the Pro or Desktop. See more details on the subscription levels here.

For this example, we’ll use a backcountry ski circumnavigation tour of Mt. Hood in Oregon.

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The “Travel Time” feature is available for all subscriber levels. If you draw a line (right click on the map > New > Line, or use an imported GPX track), click on the line, and select Travel Time, you’ll see an estimation of travel time for that line. This time is estimated using the “Munter Method”, which considers distance, elevation gain/loss and travel mode. It’s a rough estimation, but can be a good starting point. (Learn more about the Munter Method here.)

(And, because I know you're wondering, yes, it’s same person who popularized the Munter hitch, Swiss guide Werner Munter! Thanks for both of these, Werner!)

A good way to test the accuracy of the Travel Time estimate is to draw a line covering a familiar hike or climb, and test the predicted time with your normal hiking time. For example, I did a test drive of the standard south side route on Mt. Hood. CalTopo predicted a travel time of 5.4 hours on foot, which is pretty much spot on with the standard 5 hours that's typical for a fairly fit climber.

Of course, alpine travel times can be extremely variable depending on fitness, snow depth, amount of crevasse negotiation, etc. This is a baseline for general trip planning, not the Holy Grail.

First, draw in your route or, in this case import a GPX track.

(Sidenote: AlpineSavvy has GPX tracks for more than 70 of the most popular climbing routes in the Pacific Northwest available for free download, you can get them here.)

Right click on the line, select Travel Time, and you should get a box that looks like the one below.

The Travel Time is moderately helpful. But for Pro level subscribers or higher ($50+ a year), you get another big level of Awesomeness, the Travel Plan. With this, you can add marker points along your track, click “Travel Plan”, and then get a table of very helpful route information between each point. Here's how to do that.

First, add some marker points (aka waypoints).

• Right click on the line on your map, map, choose New > Marker. The marker points need to be pretty much on the line that you drew or imported.

• It's good to add marker points that break up the route into reasonable sections. In this case, that’s significant ridge crossings or entering/exiting large glacier areas.

• It’s helpful to give the marker points a common name, and then a number. This helps keep them organized in your GPS app, as well as letting you quickly see where the next one is sequentially when on your trip.

Additional cool feature: You can include Travel Plan break times by typing “30 min” (or whatever time you like) in the marker label field or marker comment field. Click the marker and choose edit to access the comment field. Example below.

Now, you can click the track, click Travel Time, then click Travel Plan.

Travel Plan creates a table like this. For each waypoint, it shows the latitude longitude coordinates in decimal degrees and the elevation. From one point to another, it shows vertical gain or loss, distance, true north bearing, estimated time, and cumulative time.

A few notes . . .

• If your pace is significantly faster or slower than what the Travel Plan predicts, you can adjust this in the Travel Mode “Custom” drop down box.

• You can print this out, take a screenshot, or save as a PDF (helpful if you want to share it with other people on your team.)

• For a longer trip or multi day outing, you can create a single travel plan that covers multiple lines / tracks. That’s more advanced than I want to cover here; learn how on the CalTopo training website.

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So . . . why is the CalTopo Travel Plan cool?

1. Backcountry travelers have been making travel plans like this for years. But, it required extremely exacting work of counting contour lines, measuring distances with the map scale bar, and some math that many people found to be about as enjoyable as chewing on tinfoil. Caltopo does the same with just a few clicks, and saves huge amounts of time and tedium.

2. Because you know distance and bearing between marker points, it helps you keep your GPS phone app mostly in your pocket, and follow a compass bearing (compasses, remember those?) and general terrain between points. In alpine terrain, it's usually easier to navigate to a specific waypoint, taking the path of least resistance, then try to stay precisely on top of a GPX track. Doing this helps save your phone battery, and increases your situational awareness, because you're paying attention to the landscape around you and not staring at a GPS track on your phone screen.

3. It lets you have a better sense of your pace and what a realistic turnaround time or a bail out point might be. Rather than having one strict turnaround time for a particular point of your trip, you can compare each leg with the estimated time to get a more detailed sense of your overall pace.

4. Related to the previous reason, it lets you share a solid travel time with an emergency contact person at home. Many unnecessary rescues are initiated because a hiker underestimated their travel time. This tool can give you a more realistic estimate, which you can hopefully share with your contact person, maybe sparing them needless worrying and even calling for an unneeded rescue.

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Finally, if you want to get fancy and have some time on your hands, you can export the GPX track from CalTopo as a KML file, and then open the KML in Google Earth. If you do a fly around, it looks something like this. (Of course, this ski tour is more fun with more snow.) Enjoy!

"Summit flattening" in Google Earth

Google Earth (“GE”) is a wonderful tool for trip planning. However, there's a rather annoying bug for alpine climbers - mountain tops that are especially pointy can sometimes appear much flatter than they are in real life. This can make a technically difficult summit appear to be just a casual walk up, which could obviously get you in trouble if that's the only navigation tool you’re using. Let's look at an example.

Here is a photo of Mt. Thielsen in southern Oregon, a popular route. This view, from the Pacific Crest Trail, clearly shows the dramatic and steeply pointed summit block. (The route goes up the right skyline.)

image: Wikipedia, By Claytontullos - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

And, here's what the summit block looks like close up.

Definitely not a casual walk up. Most people use ropes and rappel. What’s not shown is the thousand or so foot drop just behind the guy in the red shirt.

image: adamschneider, https://www.oregonhikers.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16436

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Here's a topographic map that shows the true steepness.

image: Caltopo, US Forest Service 2013, 25% shaded relief

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Let's compare that with a few screen grabs from Google Earth of Mt. Thielsen.

Wait, what happened to the pointy summit? Looks like a casual stroll to the top!

More of a close-up . . .

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Here’s a view from the increasingly-excellent-if-slightly-expensive mapping software Fatmap. Fatmap uses a different 3D terrain model than Google Earth, and the summit appears much as it does in real life.

image: fatmap

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However, Google Earth doesn’t “flatten” every pointy peak. Here's a final example, the iconic Matterhorn Near Zermatt, Switzerland - looks perfect!

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So, a good rule of thumb: If you’re climbing something steep but it doesn't look that way on Google Earth, always check other photos and topographic maps to make sure you have a true understanding of the terrain.

Making a GPX track file in Google Earth

What a great time to be a backcountry navigator! The bounty of amazing and free navigation resources has never been better. If you know the basics of how to use a few of them, there's not much excuse to get lost anymore. I’m a huge fan of CalTopo mapping software to do at home trip planning, and this usually includes creating GPX files to use on my phone in the field.

However, there can be times when creating a track with the 3-D viewing aspect of Google Earth (called GE from here on) can be helpful. However, I’ll be honest here: While GE is great for viewing, the drawing tools can take some getting used to. I mostly prefer to use CalTopo (especially the Google satellite imagery map layer, which is identical to what you get in GE) whenever I can. But, for times when you want to look at smaller terrain features, such as which of several ridges or gullies might be the easiest to go up, GE can be the winner. So, here's a tutorial on how to draw waypoints and tracks in Google Earth. It might sound a bit complicated if you haven't done it before, but if you're reasonably computer savvy you'll get the hang of it in a few minutes.

Notes on terms: Google Earth refers to a single point as a “placemark”, and a line as a “path”. We’ll use those terms from now on.

I'm doing this in Google Earth Pro, which I recommend. It's free and has a few different features than the browser based version of GE.

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Short version: Make a folder in GE for your trip. Draw placemarks and paths in GE. Right click on the folder, save as KML file. Open CalTopo, import KML file, check it, export as GPX file, done.

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Long version: Let's go through it step-by-step. For this example, we’ll use the Leuthold Couloir route on Mt. Hood, Oregon USA.

Suggestion: when you're learning to do this on your own, don't start with steep mountain topography. Find a park near your house that you know pretty well, ideally with some roads and trails that you can see from the satellite. Drop some placemarks, make a few paths, see how it generally works without the complications of doing it in 3-D. After you get the hang of it, and then go find some steeper mountains to practice.

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Step 1 - Zoom into your area of interest, and make a folder for your placemarks and path.

It’s possible to do it without a folder if you just want to draw one path, but if you want to draw any more than that, such as placemarks plus the route, you need to contain them all in one folder so they export as a single file later on. So, let's do that. In GE, Choose “Add > Folder” from the top menu, and name your folder. You should see it on the left side.

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Step 2 - Add some placemarks along your route.

These help keep the path drawing (next step) more accurate. You can keep the placemarks after you draw the line, or delete some or all, your choice. The simplest would be two, a trailhead, and a destination.

Zoom to where you want to add a placemark, using all the 3-D features of zoom, pan, and tilt until you just the right spot. When is looks good, click the yellow “thumbtack” icon along the top row. Drag it to the right position, then click “OK” in the pop-up box. (If you want to change the name or position after this, right click on a placemark icon or the placemark name from the left part of your screen, and choose “Get Info.”)

If you know where your route goes, then you can add proper names of placemarks in the correct location. If you're not sure of the route, you can still add placemarks. Zoom in close in GE, and draw placemarks at places like “base of ridge” or “top of gully”. Below, I added about five placemarks that show important progress points of the route.

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Step 3 - With a few placemarks to guide you, draw a path.

When you're ready to start drawing your line, click the “Add Path” icon at the top. You should see a pop-up box with some properties of the line. I like to change the color to red or magenta at this point and not use the default of white, because you can't see the white line when you're drawing over snow.

Also, somewhere counterintuitively, you need to keep this dialog box open and available while you’re drawing your path. So, after you name your path and change the line color, drag the box off to one corner of your screen, so it's out of the way but you can still see it.

You will soon discover that the wonderful zoom, pan, and scroll viewing options in GE do not work nearly so well when you're trying to draw a line at the same time. So, try to adjust your viewing angle in GE before you start so it shows where you want to go as clearly as possible.

You can change the viewing angle with the up down left right buttons on your keyboard, and also with the GE view controls in the top right corner. Don't try to scroll or click and drag on the screen while you're drawing the line, because you'll be sure and screw up your line. (I did say this was a bit annoying, right?)

While you can click and drag to draw freehand, this gives you a zillion different line points and makes it hard to edit. I prefer to click one by one to draw the line. If you draw a vertex that you don't like, tap the keyboard delete button to remove it. You have to click OK in the dialog box to complete the line and stop drawing.

If you have a more complicated route, draw in one section of it at a time that you can clearly see. Then, change the view for the next segment of the route, right click on the path, choose “Get Info”, and then you click to extend the path for the next part of the route. (A bit hard to describe in words, try it yourself and you'll get the hang of it.) You can also use “Get Info” to drag a vertex into a new position. So, don't stress when you're drawing if a vertex isn't exactly in the right spot, you can adjust them later.

When you're done, you hopefully have something that looks about like this:

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Step 4 - Save folder as KMZ file

A KMZ / KML file (which stands for Keyhole Markup Language, for you software nerds) is a file containing geographic data that is the native GE format. (A KMZ is the compressed version of a KML; they're both basically the same thing.)

Right click on the folder name on the left side of your screen, and choose “Save Place As.” Save as a KMZ file to your hard drive.

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Step 5: Import the KMZ file into CalTopo

Let's import the file into CalTopo, and check to see that it looks good. If we like it, then we can export it as a GPX file for use in a smartphone mapping app like GaiaGPS or on a handheld GPS device.

Go to CalTopo.com, tap the “Import” menu from the top, and select your file.

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When it imports and draws, it should look something like this. That looks pretty good! Notice that the path and placemarks were imported exactly as they look in GE, with correct labels and colors.

Note: When you export as a GPX and open it in a phone app or handheld GPS device, it's quite likely the icons and line color might change. Don't worry about that, the geo-data is in exactly the right place, it just might look a little different.

Step 6 - Export as a GPX file.

Now, the final step is to export the file as a GPX file and save it to your computer, ready to use in the field. Click the Export button at the top of the screen in CalTopo and save to your hard drive. (CalTopo uses the term “Download File” on the drop-down menu. Don't let that throw you off, think of it as a “Save As”.)

Now you have a GPX file to use on your device in the field. If you’re a fan of Gaia GPS (like I am!), the easiest way to get this onto your phone is to go to GaiaGPS.com, log into your account, click your account name in the top right corner, choose “Upload” from the drop-down menu, and upload the file. In a minute or so it should auto-magically synchronize with your phone.

BOOM, you’re done! Give yourself a high five!

GaiaGPS - cell coverage map layer

GaiaGPS, the favorite backcountry GPS phone app for many outdoors folks, keeps adding map layers at an impressive rate. (To be honest, it's hard for me to keep up on all of them, but I try.)

As of June 2020, there’s a new one that might be useful for some folks.

It's a cell phone coverage map of the United States, which shows where in the backcountry you're likely to receive a signal. There's a layer for individual carriers such as Verizon, Sprint, AT&T etc, and also a layer for “all carriers”. The darker the color, the better the signal, at least in theory.

Should you be yapping on your phone and checking social media in backcountry? That's a question you get to answer for yourself.  =^)

Should you be yapping on your phone and checking social media in backcountry? That's a question you get to answer for yourself.  =^) But, if you have a backcountry emergency and need to get somewhere where you can make a phone call for help, or you're on a long backpacking trip and want to check in with folks at home before you move into an area with no coverage, this feature could be very helpful.

This map layer is available only on the Gaia Premium level of membership which typically is $40 a year.

As with all Gaia map layers, you need to download these to your phone while you have Wi-Fi (preferred) or a cell connection.

Read the full scoop about the cell phone map layer on the GaiaGPS blog.

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Let's start out small scale to large scale. Here is a good chunk of Colorado, Verizon layer.

How about Yosemite National Park? Good coverage (Verizon layer) if you're in the Valley, but not much anywhere else. Minimal cell coverage in an alpine wilderness; isn't that how it should be?

image: Gaiagps.com screen grab

A final zoom in to Mt. Rainier National Park. Hgh up on the mountain coverage should be good, but down in the lowlands driving into the park and even at the main Paradise visitor center, probably not. (This is the “All Carriers” layer, and yes that magenta color is a little strong on the eyes.)

image: Gaiagps.com screen grab

How to view GPX files in Google Earth

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A GPX track file shows a continuous line of a mountaineering route, hike, mountain bike trail, or pretty much anything. It's of course great to have a GPX track on your phone GPS app to help with navigation in the field. But it's also really helpful to see it in Google Earth before you leave town to help visualize your route, and maybe save a few screen grabs to help with wayfinding on your actual trip.

(If you're looking for GPX files of climbing routes in the Pacific Northwest, a great place to start is right here on Alpinesavvy, where you can download more than 70 of the most popular routes.)

While Google Earth does import GPX files, it’s a bit of a bother. They display more easily if you convert them to a KML file first. A “KML” file (Keyhole Markup Language, in case you really wanted to know) is a file format of geographic data that plays nicely with Google Earth.

There are various ways to convert from GPX to KML. Here's a method that's fast and simple. Of course it’s my favorite mapping software, CalTopo! (If you'd like to learn the basics of Calopo, watch this video.)

Here’s a walk-through using the Liberty Ridge route on Mt. Rainier as an example.

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First, find a GPX file of your route and open it in CalTopo. A GPX file can be either recorded by you, drawn in mapping software if you know the route, or downloaded from the web. (For climbing routes, peakbagger.com is a good source to find and download GPX tracks. Read this article for a step-by-step how to do this.)

Step 1: Go to caltopo.com, click “Import” on the top menu, and import your GPX file. It should open in CalTopo.

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Step 2: Export the GPX file as a KML file. From the “Export” menu on the top row, select “KML for Google Earth”, and save the KML file to your hard drive.

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Step 3 - Launch Google Earth and open the KML file. This should open the 3D fly-around splendor of Google Earth, with your route drawn in. Looking at your favorite mountain in Google Earth is great, but having your route drawn in is much better!

Take lots of screen grabs, they’re free and weigh 0.0 grams. One way is from the Google Earth menu, File > Save > Save Image. You can print them to take with you, save some on your phone, or both.

Take some from farther back showing the whole route . . .

and also some “close ups” .

Plan a multi-day backpack trip with GaiaGPS.com

This video was made by Travis Prescott, who is an expert digital navigation instructor for the Seattle Mountaineers. Check out Travis’ website, TheAlpineGeek.com.

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Backpackers: watch this excellent video and learn how to use modern navigation tools like GaiaGPS.com to plan a multi-day trip. (The example is for a backpack trip, but it certainly has applications for other types of wilderness travel.) The video is a bit longer than most, about 30 minutes, but it gets into some of the more advanced features of GaiaSGPS.com that make it such an effective planning tool.

Here are a few of the many trip planning tips covered in the video:

• Using the “snap to trail” feature to make a track that exactly follows your trail

• Using the “elevation profile” feature to figure out steepness and length of each trail segment

• Stacking different map layers on top of each other by changing the opacity of a layer

• Using folders to keep your map data organized

• Creating waypoints with a name, color and symbol

• Finding possible campsites and water sources

• Using the Gaia “Public Tracks” map layer to see possible cross country scramble routes

• A clever use of the “roadless areas” map layer to show where bail out possibilities might exist

And that's just what I remember. There’s more, good stuff, check it out!

Below is a screen grab, showing each segment of a multi-day trip, and campsite location.

Watch the complete video here:

Use CalTopo layers in Google Earth

If you're new to using CalTopo mapping software, watch this tutorial to get started.

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Disclaimer: This article is pretty much for map geeks only. Having said that, it’s pretty darn cool and you might well find some uses for it that I can’t imagine. I've been a CalTopo nerd for many years, and I didn’t know about this feature until recently, so I thought I’d share it.

Have a quick look through the photos below, and if it looks interesting, give it a whirl.

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Here's how it works: If you have a paid subscription to CalTopo (and you should, it’s well worth it) one benefit is access to what are called “Super Overlays.”

What the heck is a Super Overlay? It lets you use pretty much all of the CalTopo map layers in the 3-D splendor of Google Earth!

(The helpful tips on this CalTopo blog/help page cover it pretty well.)

Login to your CalTopo account. Click your email address in the upper left corner of the CalTopo screen, then click the “Account” tab. You should see a screen that looks something like the screen grab below.

See that arrow and the red box at the bottom after the “KML”? That’s the “super overlay” KML file you want.

• Right click that link to download the super overlay KML file to your hard drive.

• Then, open it in Google Earth. (Tech note: “KML” is a type of a geographic data file that plays nicely with Google Earth.)

I blocked out part of the link because the CalTopo team does not want people to share it. You need to pay for a subscription and get it yourself.

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For this example, we’re looking at the Mt. Whitney area in the California Sierra.

Once you open the super overlay KML file in Google Earth, you should see a menu on the left that looks something like the red box in the screen grab below.

If you check any of these boxes, that map information from CalTopo will overlay onto Google Earth.

I suggest checking ONLY one layer at a time, and zooming into a fairly small area so it redraws fairly quickly, depending on your computer speed and web connection speed.

Some layers are more helpful and interesting than others. Try a few and see what you think. Some examples are below. (Note, these layers look MUCH more impressive on a full width desktop computer screen than the screen grabs below.)

Here’s the 20 meter contour layer overlaid onto Google Earth.

Here’s the custom CalTopo layer “MapBuilder Topo” layer overlaid onto Google Earth, with trails, shaded relief, streams, wilderness boundary, and more.

Another interesting overlay is slope angle shading. These are indicated by the “Fixed” and the “Gradient” boxes. Here's the Emmons glacier route on Mt. Rainier. You can see how the route pretty much takes the path of least resistance/lowest angle slopes.

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Hopefully you get the idea. Zoom in to an area you’re familiar with, load up a few CalTopo layers in Google Earth, and have fun playing in the sandbox!

CalTopo pro tip - split tracks, add colors and direction

(If you want to learn the basics of using CalTopo, start with this tutorial video.)

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A more advanced tip in CalTopo (the best backcountry mapping software) is to “split” a track and give different legs a unique color and/or line style. Doing this shows at a glance the way up and the way down, and is especially helpful if you have a loop route on a climb or hike. 

If the map is just for you, and you know the route, you probably don't need to do this. But if you want to share your route with others, doing this takes just a minute or two and makes the map much more usable for those who are not familiar with the route.

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Here’s an example of the Mountaineers Route on Mt. Whitney in the California Sierra. What you’re seeing is a GPX track of the route (traced over to remove squiggles) downloaded from Peakbagger.com, which is a great source for finding GPX track files for climbing routes. We cover how to do that in this article.

Here's the entire route. The ascent route breaks off from the main climber’s trail a mile or so after the parking area, and proceeds counterclockwise. But, If you’re not familiar with the route, you wouldn’t know what’s the ascent and what’s the descent just by looking at this map.

So, let’s split the GPX track into two parts, the “up” part and the “down” part. 

Zoom in close to the summit area, mouse over the line until it turns bold, select “Modify” > “Split Here”.

This splits the one line into two. The line still looks the same on the map, but if you look on the left side of your screen, now you should see two lines with the same name.

Now, let’s change the color. Click the “pencil” (aka Edit) icon next to the name under “Lines & Polygons” on the left side of your screen. Click the small red square in the edit box to choose a color. For this example, we’ll choose green for the ascent.

And, to clearly show the direction of travel, let’s change the line style to one with some directional arrows. To do this, click the “Pencil” edit icon again, and click the horizontal line that comes after “Style” in the edit dialog box.

Repeat this with the second line, choosing a blue line color and the same directional arrow.

Now, that’s an improvement! Someone seeing this map for the first time can immediately determine the ascent and descent. If you’re making a map for any kind of public sharing, even if it’s with some other teammates on your trip, taking an extra minute or so to do this makes your map more legible for everyone.

And finally, below is a screen grab of the PDF file of the map made from CalTopo, which prints nicely on 8.5” by 11” paper at 1:25,000 scale. Print this to use on your climb, and save it as a PDF on your phone as a backup. (The base map is USFS 2013, with about 20% shaded relief.)