FATMAP
Price
Free or €29.99 for 1 years Explorer Access
60 Day free trail for Backdrop Readers!
Brand // Manufacturers
FATMAP
What we liked …
An app with all the world mapped in your pocket, aimed at backcountry adventurers, what’s not to like?
What we didn’t …
Ok, so I didn’t like having to take my gloves off to use it on a cold mountainside.
You can’t move the app to your SD card, so for downloading offline maps you need to have enough space.
Listen to the FFS Podcast with Misha Gopaul, co-founder of FATMAP
The Verdict
Our Rating
5 out of 5
the Short Read…
A phone app that will tell you exactly where you are, pinpointing altitude, visualising slope angles, aspects and distances. You can even custom layer; elevation, gradient and aspect, allowing you to highlight specific avalanche forecasts direct to the map.
The Long Read…
While nothing can take the place of local knowledge, nor on-mountain personal micro terrain management, FATMAP pretty well does everything else. FATMAP can be used for free but if you want to use it to its maximum (like being able to download offline maps, see topo map layers etc) you need to subscribe. This review is on the subscription version, which costs €29.99 a year, although BACKDROP JOURNAL readers get a 60 day free trial by clicking the button below. Sitting in the comfort of your chalet, wondering where to head tomorrow? Well now you can use Fatmap as inspiration to look up pre-set tours and adventures in your area. You can also record and plan routes yourself, by scrolling around the incredibly detailed 3D maps.
We could go on and on about how good Fatmap is, and we will, but there are a few things you must take into consideration first. It will never take the place of good on-mountain decision making, especially around the micromanagement of terrain, which is a skill learnt over many years of mountain travel. It's on your phone, so becomes useless if your battery fails, therefore always carry a paper map and compass. The preset route descriptions are added by Fatmap users, as such gradings are subjective, one person's perception of ‘easy’ is another persons ‘hard’...
Phone battery usage used to be a problem when recording routes but now with a separate Fatmap App this problem has been put to bed and you can record activities, which are then layered over the main Fatmap maps, post-adventure, so you can share on social media or retrace your steps another day. Lastly, on the downside, you have to take your glove off to use it, fine in Spring, but a pain in the arse in Winter.
Ok enough of the negative, as we love Fatmap really. New for 2020 is the Topo Layers, which are topographical maps of Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Germany, USA and France perfect for when looking for a start or finish point, especially when parking the car. The European topo layers show summer footpaths, refuge/hut locations, glaciers and everything else you'd expect from a top-quality paper map, making Fatmap perfect for all Summer activities too.
You can easily switch between metric and imperial and the new 'Custom Layer' is great for flagging up danger zones. Once you've read the avalanche forecast, you simply set the elevation, gradient and aspect of concern, hit apply, and these will all be highlighted in green on the map. Though personally, I'd rather they were highlighted in red, so as not to think green means good to go.
For anyone resort riding, there are many 'Live Resort Status', informing you if lifts are operational and pistes are open. There are also many piste descriptions and stats, accessed by simply tapping the piste on the map. 'Snow Layers' is also available with current depth, fresh and forecast tabs, but these could do with a little more work to make them really useful.
The Terrain Layers are very useful, especially when planning a route and if not using the Custom Layer function. When using the Custom Layers if you hit any of the Terrain Layer tabs; Gradient, Aspect, Elevation, Distance, Avalanche or Flats buttons they override your preset Custom Layers, and when turning off your Terrain choice you need to re-tap the Custom apply button, which is a little annoying.
The Gradient layer gives you all angles, with a coloured overlay, whereas Avalanche only highlights angles between 25 and 50 degrees. The Elevation layer gives you contours and for an exact elevation for any given point, you simply screen tap the point of interest. The Distance layer is useful when legs are tired and you want to know how much further, and also when planning routes. Aspect is useful looking for the sun or for planning in conjunction with avalanche advice.
Overall we all love and use Fatmap on all of our winter tours, when out fell running and even when simply out for an adventurous walk with the family.