Approach Trails and Approaches

kenr wrote:

Where I suspect that might be helpful, I've been putting the Latitude/Longitude for start and/or finish (and interesting points along the way) in my note / description for the route.

My sense is that the vast majority of phone app and GPS users has not the slightest interest in "geeky" things like lat/long numbers (in which of the four formats?), so be careful about cluttering up the standard user interface.

Ken

Not suggesting it should be a first class object on the screen, but that it's available for the advanced user. Maybe as a waypoint you can transfer to your phone/GPS/Garmin or whatever.

I'll echo (again) that this is a very useful feature, and also throw in another suggestion to make it more awesome.

I think it would be nice to designate a trail as a descent trail, and perhaps have it show as a different color for easy map-reading. Obviously many areas do not need a descent trail, but for some, it could be extremely useful. Here's one I added for Wigwam Dome: https://www.mountainproject.com/approach-trail/113531196. I'm wondering other peoples' thoughts on adding descent trails, and ways to make that useful (and make sure people don't confuse them for approach trails).

Aaron Glasenapp wrote:

I'll echo (again) that this is a very useful feature, and also throw in another suggestion to make it more awesome.

I think it would be nice to designate a trail as a descent trail, and perhaps have it show as a different color for easy map-reading. Obviously many areas do not need a descent trail, but for some, it could be extremely useful. Here's one I added for Wigwam Dome: https://www.mountainproject.com/approach-trail/113531196. I'm wondering other peoples' thoughts on adding descent trails, and ways to make that useful (and make sure people don't confuse them for approach trails).

Love the idea.  I'm going to keep just these going as-is for now until we get more experience with them.  But this would be perfect for alpine routes for sure!

Aaron Glasenapp wrote:

I'll echo (again) that this is a very useful feature, and also throw in another suggestion to make it more awesome.

I think it would be nice to designate a trail as a descent trail, and perhaps have it show as a different color for easy map-reading. Obviously many areas do not need a descent trail, but for some, it could be extremely useful. Here's one I added for Wigwam Dome: https://www.mountainproject.com/approach-trail/113531196. I'm wondering other peoples' thoughts on adding descent trails, and ways to make that useful (and make sure people don't confuse them for approach trails).

You can set the start (green) node at the top of the cliff, and the end (red) node back at the road. That way people can see the intended direction. Not perfect, but may work with the current set up.

This is a great feature and why we get lots of comments as people get excited!

Hmm. it looks like only the creator see the start/end marker.

Ron Birk wrote:

Hmm. it looks like only the creator see the start/end marker.

If you hover over the line, then click the little popup, you go to a page dedicated to that trail, and the start/end markers are shown for everyone.

Nick Wilder wrote:

If you hover over the line, then click the little popup, you go to a page dedicated to that trail, and the start/end markers are shown for everyone.

Nice! The other thing I would do is to rename the trail from the default "Approach from.." to "Descent from..". Then it should be pretty easy to understand the purpose of the trail :) (which I now see Aaron has done)

Let's try this: if a hiking trail leads to a climbing destination, include that as part of the approach.  Start at the parking lot, go on the hiking trail, and then continue on the climber's path the base of the climb.

What I'd like to avoid is trails that are JUST hikes and are not primarily used to get to climbs.

Nick Wilder wrote:

Let's try this: if a hiking trail leads to a climbing destination, include that as part of the approach.  Start at the parking lot, go on the hiking trail, and then continue on the climber's path the base of the climb.

What I'd like to avoid is trails that are JUST hikes and are not primarily used to get to climbs.

What are your thoughts on this https://www.mountainproject.com/approach-trail/113521735? The trail to Chasm lake is definitely a popular hiking trail. Do you think it would be better to start this approach trail at Chasm Lake where the maintained "hiking" trail ends, and the "approach" begins? I'm open to either option and will edit the trail as necessary. Also, I think allowing comments on trails would serve this conversation well when there are specific approaches that may be ambiguous as to whether the "hiking" portion should be included. 

Aaron Glasenapp wrote:

What are your thoughts on this https://www.mountainproject.com/approach-trail/113521735? The trail to Chasm lake is definitely a popular hiking trail. Do you think it would be better to start this approach trail at Chasm Lake where the maintained "hiking" trail ends, and the "approach" begins? I'm open to either option and will edit the trail as necessary. Also, I think allowing comments on trails would serve this conversation well when there are specific approaches that may be ambiguous as to whether the "hiking" portion should be included. 

This one looks great.  I didn't mean we should omit things just because they are hikes.  I think we should omit things that are ONLY hikes, and do not involve getting to a climb.

I just added this one, as a similar example: https://www.mountainproject.com/approach-trail/113553564

We will be adding the Approach Trails to the MP app in the next month or two.

Nick Wilder wrote:

We will be adding the Approach Trails to the MP app in the next month or two.

Will they be downloadable for use offline?

For that matter, are the maps tiles used in the app downloadable (similar to google offline maps), or do they require a data connection? I've already downloaded a bunch of the gpx files for approach trails for use with my garmin and my own custom maps that I print. Thanks for including this feature!

Andrew Krajnik wrote:

Will they be downloadable for use offline?

For that matter, are the maps tiles used in the app downloadable (similar to google offline maps), or do they require a data connection? I've already downloaded a bunch of the gpx files for approach trails for use with my garmin and my own custom maps that I print. Thanks for including this feature!

The approach trails will be part of the data packs and will work completely offline (along with your blue location dot).  The map tiles are up to google's caching policy.  Generally, if you look at the map while online, get the google map tiles, they will remain in the cache for a while and work offline.  But there's no guarantees.

I just realized it's been almost a year and I haven't seen approach trails in the iphone app yet. Any update on when that might happen?

Was hoping this summer, but we got behind on other app work, and now our app developer is on paternity leave for a while... so I can't give a good ETA other but I really want it too!

I'm a long time user of MountainProject but just discovered this feature and am really excited about it. When out hiking (and climbing) I like to track my hiking and mentally take notes so that when I get home I can use my experience to either add or improve upon the data in OpenStreetMap.

I know directly contributing these trails to OpenStreetMap is a can of worms (I've posted on the import list serv...and felt the wrath) but I'm curious if MountainProject is interested in or has any ideas for how this data can be better combined with OSM data. I noticed that on maps that use vector tiles you remove all trails from the OSM data and instead use MP trails - this works great in areas that have great MP coverage but not so well in places that don't, especially those that have great OSM data.

I can imagine a few ways to facilitate the flow of data between MP and OSM, but was curious if any efforts are currently under way or being considered.

Thanks!

Is there an update to this? It would be great to be able to view approach trails.