How to Plan Your Mountain Adventures

 
FATMAP Future Adventure Planning 1.jpg
 

What better way to spend your time at home than getting down to some serious adventure planning?

We’ve put together the ultimate guide on how to explore the world, plan adventures and create routes, all from the comfort of your sofa.

Gathering Inspiration

Browsing the map can be a great way to discover new locations and find inspiration. To help, our collections of adventures we call Guidebooks are the perfect place to start. Our guidebook themes include location, activity and difficulty level amongst others.

Some guidebooks are curated by us and some by our network of guides, athletes and outdoor brands. In each guidebook you’ll see the Author under the summary.

To check out our Guidebooks, head over to the website or open up the app and begin the search for your inspirational Guidebooks by name, destination or activity.

 
Guidebooks on the FATMAP website, check them out

Guidebooks on the FATMAP website, check them out

 
 

Some of the most popular Guidebooks on FATMAP are multi-day tours that show you the route for each day and what’s involved. Check out one of the most popular ones, the Haute Route ski tour Guidebook.

Tip: Did you know you can create your own Guidebooks? Here’s how.

 
Today I use FATMAP in almost all my outdoor activities... to plan new projects or to see an activity afterwards, it is very easy with the routes and waypoints.
— Kilian Jornet, mountain athlete

Creating Your Adventures

When you’ve got your route in mind, the next step is to get it added to the map.

With our adventure creation feature you can draw it on the map yourself or, if you have the GPX file, upload it to the map directly.

You can also add details such as photos, title, description and a difficulty rating to your route. Check out our tutorial videos below for both options.

 
I use FATMAP to browse my area for route options and trail ideas, look at all those beautiful trails to run!
— Charley Radcliffe, The North Face Ambassador

Understanding the terrain

With our wide array of terrain tools and live data, you have everything you need at your finger tips to understand the terrain for your adventures.

Travel Distance Layer

Trying to work out where you can get to in a set amount of time? Our Travel Distance Layer is the perfect tool for the job.

All you have to do is set the location and time, and the Travel Distance Layer will do the rest for you. This useful tool takes into account the type of activity and the geographical properties of the terrain such as how steep it is. The travel distance layer is currently available on the web for hiking.

Read our full blog post on the Travel Distance Layer

Travel-Distance-Layer-FATMAP.gif

Topo Maps

Topo Maps are available on both the web and app platforms for Switzerland, France, Austria, Germany, the USA, UK and Spain. All Topo Maps are accessed in the terrain tools menu, allowing you to easily select your preferred country. If you have a route selected or are viewing activities on the map, they will still be visible on the topo map, allowing you navigate and assess the terrain.

More info on Topo Maps here

Terrain Tools and Live Data

Understand more about the area you are going into and getting up-to-date information on the conditions will help you make more informed decisions about your route.

At FATMAP, we’ve addressed these critical requirements with our Terrain Tools and Live Data overlays.

Some of the key tools include: Gradient, Aspect, Elevation, Snow Layers, Resort Status and more.

From the hunt for deep powder to planning a trail run - it’s great to be able to know how steep your route will be, where the snow is, if the lifts are open, and how much you’ll be ascending or descending.

Find out more about using our terrain tools and snow layers

FATMAP_Snow_Layers.png

We hope you enjoy planning and reliving your adventures with FATMAP!

Share your plans with us in the comments below or on social media with #FATMAP.

Blog Footer Jon.png