Strava acquires Fatmap 3D mountain mapper

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Ear Drum

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News from a month ago. Not yet reported here that I could find in searches.

"Strava, the activity tracking and social community platform used by more than 100 million people globally, has acquired Fatmap, a European company that’s building a high-resolution 3D global map platform for the great outdoors. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2009, Strava has emerged as one of the preeminent activity tracking services, proving particularly popular in the cycling and running fraternities, which use the Strava app to plot routes, converse with fellow athletes and record all their action for posterity via GPS. The company has increasingly been targeting hikers too, and last year it launched a new trail sports and routes option aimed at walkers, mountain bikers and trail runners.
Fatmap, for its part, was founded a decade ago, with an initial focus on providing ski resorts with high-resolution digital maps. In the intervening years, the company has worked with various satellite and aerospace companies to bolster its platform with detailed maps incorporating summits, rivers, passes, paths, huts and more, arming anyone venturing into mountainous terrain the information they need to know exactly what they’ll encounter before they arrive."
from: Strava acquires Fatmap, a 3D mapping platform for the great outdoors

Personally I like Strava for keeping track of hikes. I also use GaiaGPS to record routes, and play around with CALTOPO for route planning and plotting. I even look at AllTrails for ideas. Not to mention NETC, various blogs, paper maps and guidebooks.

I hadn't used FATMAP until today (thanks, snow day). It's pretty cool. Take a look if interested. Similar to the Google Earth interface, you can zoom in, tilt and pan, move around, and see topographic relief in vivid imagery. It was quite entertaining looking around the Whites, and brings a new way to visualize the hike. You can imagine things in 3-D. Many features are labelled, such as the Black Pond Bushwhack and Brutus Bushwhack (these are becoming trails, right?).

Unfortunately, you need to create an account to use it. Since I have Strava, I just linked it without creating a new account. Below is a screenshot of a view of the Pemi loop area. I've also included a link to follow to the same view (though you'll need to log it as noted in order to play around and move your view point).

https://fatmap.com/adventures/@44.1...-22.1843491,-35.4303941,918.5278450,satellite
FATMAP_SCREENSHOT.jpg
 
I had come across this awhile back and thought it was decent. It's a pay app for the phone though and there are free options like Google Earth that are out there. I never paid to use it so I don't know whether there are features in the paid version to justify it's use. I mostly use Gaia GPS on phone while hiking and plan with it at home on the PC as well. I also use CalTopo but use it less now that Gaia has become so advanced. I tried the CalTopo phone app awhile back and didn't like the interface. (Of course it may have changed since then).
 
These things are always changing!
Fatmap has a free version (I don't pay for it, or Strava).
Agreed the Caltopo phone interface is clunky, whereas Gaia works very well while out and about.
Last time (a while ago) I tried to draw a route w Gaia on a laptop I found that I preferred Caltopo for some reason, so I should revisit Gaia for this purpose.
 
good catch there. Maybe it's LIDAR data coming online for the masses to easily view.
I've not read any accounts of hiking that particular old rail bed. That's just below the Owl's Head rock outcrop feature on the SE side, isn't it?
 
I've used Relive to make 3D maps of my Strava activities for some videos. I'll be interested to see how this acquisition helps in the future.
 
I thinks its just they took it when the hardwoods leaves were down and the softwoods are showing up. The spur runs from one of the the old logging camps next to Franconia Brook all the way to Lincoln Brook trail. There have been a few trail reports over the years. One of the more impressive JE Henry projects that does not have trail on it. Its looks like a road more than a railbed and very obvious. If you ever do the route, you will come out on Lincoln Brook trail and wonder why you never noticed it coming into the trail from the east. The west end just starts at a high spot in the wood adjacent to Franconia Brook. When you see how high the track grade is compared to Franconia Brook, its impressive. The trestle used to cross the brook must have been quite a structure. If I squint real hard at the NH Lidar images, I can sort of see some footings in the channel.
 
These things are always changing!
Fatmap has a free version (I don't pay for it, or Strava).
Agreed the Caltopo phone interface is clunky, whereas Gaia works very well while out and about.
Last time (a while ago) I tried to draw a route w Gaia on a laptop I found that I preferred Caltopo for some reason, so I should revisit Gaia for this purpose.
That is one of the reasons I stuck with CalTopo but this has improved in Gaia and in some cases is better now.
 
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