Rakkup Digital Guide Books - Unuseable Offline?

Anyone else use these?

I got it for Ten Sleep and my experience was that it didn't work at all offline.. Or barely in some rare cases.

Only tried the free versions but worked ok. To hijack the thread a bit, does anyone even use rakkup? It's fantastic and what MP should move towards. But it doesnt seem like the app has much of a following

We went to Wheeler Mtn in VT last weekend and laughed a little when we saw someone actually had a Rakkup sticker on their Thule. But then, I think the local guidebook (Tough Schist) is one of the few that's actually in Rakkup.

Agree that it's the right idea, but it hasn't seemed to gain any traction yet. Not surprising if you need to be online.

Interesting, the Rakkup Faqs imply that the app should work without network, since "no cell service" should mean no internet.



What’s this rakkup app all about? Is it new? Are people using it?

Rakkup is an app for iPhone and Android devices that lets climbers purchase and download digital climbing guidebooks that go beyond the printed book, which work even without cell service. We first released rakkup in 2011 and well over 10,000 climbers have downloaded our app. There are nearly 40 guidebooks available today in 5 countries, and many additional books in development. We won Climbing magazine’s Editor’s Choice in 2014 and continue to improve and release more titles all the time!

Do you have to download all photos for an area before you leave cell service? This is how the mountainproject app works. If you forget to do that, you really can't look at topos and photos you didn't preload once in a dead zone.

I only have the Devils Head section on my phone. It worked offline just fine.

I did find that with Republic Wireless, all their stupid little data quirks and constant searching for wifi made it near impossible to download anywhere but at home. Once I had it, I was fine though.

Did you try to download it on the way to the crag?

Everything works without service save for the gps feature, however, you need to download every individual guidebook and update before use. Which can take a few hours. I love the app works terrifically for me.

EDIT:

Stich wrote:Do you have to download all photos for an area before you leave cell service? This is how the mountainproject app works. If you forget to do that, you really can't look at topos and photos you didn't preload once in a dead zone.

yes, it works exactly as you describe. You download an entire guidebook at once though, not just specific areas.

Hey guys, jumping in here with a few corrections:

• there are about 50 guidebooks out for rakkup now, but this time of year we are releasing more every week.
• judging by the number of downloads and the number of climbs being ticked every day, we definitely have thousands of people out there using the guidebooks, and we're growing lots every year. Whether you've seen people using it in our area depends a lot on where you climb, most likely. Mountain Project took 10 years to reach the widespread use, give or take, so we know it takes time to spread the word about a new thing.
• yes, the app works cmopletely offline, as we mentioned in our FAQ . The GPS directions feature (turn by turn navigation to any route or sector) works without cell service, too. GPS is a separate antenna/radio and works anywhere you have line of sight to the sky (satellites). We test this all the time.
• as soon as you buy a guidebook we download the main content (typically 5-20 seconds) and then start caching all the photos automatically. Over wi-fi that usually takes between 1 and 5 minutes, depending whether you are talking about a guidebook with 100 climbs or 3,000.

Thanks for the kind words. Feel free to drop us a note if you have more questions or would like some support. (Simon W, is it alright to follow up with you via email about your experience? I'd like to understand better what you were seeing.)

-Rob
rakkup co-founder & Chief Belay Officer

Hi Rob,

Yes absolutely. If you PM me I'll get it. Sounds like I wasn't doing something correctly, so sorry for possible negative publicity from this post. However seems like everyone else on here had a really good experience so hopefully this attracts business..

I downloaded the Ten Sleep book but didn't download any others.

I didn't download any map data, if that's possible.

The issues I was having were that:

- the map data didn't show up,

and

- GPS was spotty, sometimes the app told me that I had to turn GPS on even though it Rakkup was set to "always allow".

When trying to "go" to a climb it would sometimes give me an error, and other times it would work, but there was no map visible, just the circles with the climbs. Hooked up with some other climbers and did the approach with them, so didn't try using the app beyond my truck.

Thanks,

Simon

Fully functional offline.

I'm from VT and have seen/used our local book via Rakkup. Not only is it a compact and extremely useful tool for finding routes, it's much more effective than a guidebook. Ability to search, interact, see photos, navigate, and have the latest updates added, I honestly am unsure why more books don't use this format. I admit I love my paper copy, but when it's no longer readable I probably won't replace it since the app is much more useful.

So no photos for El Salto are coming up after purchase. Are there photos/topos included with this guide?  If so, what am I doing wrong?

A developer in Quebec is creating multiple Rakkups for local areas. He does the legwork of quality pictures and GPS trails.
He charges nearly nothing and the work is pretty much a precursor to an actual regional guidebook. He can reuse all the data entered directly in a document production software.

The problem is that it's a guidebook so there's no consensus grades, comments etc.
He takes the openers ratings as true even though everybody climbing those would cry sandbag.

Cool, but does not help with El Salto.