the peakery blog

We just pushed a complete overhaul of routes that brings peakery closer to providing you the necessary info to go out and climb a mountain. 

It rethinks how routes are created, grouped, and featured. It simplifies the underlying route data model. It sets up an organized structure for GPX track contributions going forward. It also groups and features the 1000s of GPX tracks already contributed by peakery members.

Routes card

Every peak now shows a Routes card that features all of the routes with GPX tracks for that peak. As members contribute more GPX tracks, the Routes cards will fill in with additional routes. An algorithm automatically figures out which GPX tracks are the same and uses all matching GPX tracks to calculate average times. Note that by default, routes are now all round-trip; one-way routes are now designated like “Disappointment Cleaver (1-way)”. Except in rare cases where it makes sense, we aim to feature round-trip GPX tracks for routes going forward since these give you the best estimate for how long an outing will be.

Expanded route stats

We’ve revised route stats to give you a better understanding of each route. Now every route shows:

• distance to summit
• distance, total
• elevation, start
• elevation, max
• vertical, gain
• vertical, loss
• time to summit (based on average of all GPXes for that route)
• time, total (based on average of all GPXes for that route)

Download GPX files

As before, on any route page you can click the ‘GPX’ button on the map to download the GPX for personal use. Note this is currently unavailable on mobile and tablet devices.

Ongoing project

We’re still working on some tools to help clean up and normalize the existing route data — things like associating the best GPX files with specific routes, hiding duplicate routes, etc. If you find any bugs with anything route-related, please let us know.

Please contribute your GPX files!

peakery needs your GPX tracks to make it a better resource for everyone. Most routes are missing a GPX track, and even if a route already has a GPX track, an additional GPX for that route is valuable as it helps refine hiking time estimates. If you’d like to contribute your GPX files to climbs you’ve already logged, you can go back to one of your logs and click ‘edit’ to then add your GPX and associate it with a route. So please, dig up those old GPX files you have stored away somewhere and add them to your past climbs —it’d be a huge help.

Next steps

The routes revisions set things up for some great features to come, such as better map features and filters based on distance and vertical gain. That and a lot of bug fixes are coming next.

Thanks for reading! And please hit us up at [email protected] if you have any feedback.

We just went live with 2 new topo maps: Natural Atlas for the US, and OpenTopoMap for the entire world. Combined, these new maps provide a whole new level of detail for your outdoor adventures.

Stop what you’re doing and GO CHECK OUT THESE MAPS. They’re that good.

Natural Atlas (US)

When we first saw a snapshot of Natural Atlas, we assumed it was a custom-made map for just a small area. The design quality was so high, styled like a US National Park map but with contours and tons of additional outdoor details and points of interest.

Then we discovered… this amazing map covers the entire US! Indeed, Natural Atlas has been on a mission to make the best outdoor map ever, working hard on a million details for the past few years. It’s loaded with relevant info for mountain hiking: trails with mileages, campsites, waterfalls, glaciers, lookout towers, vegetation, and tons more. Just check out these screenshots; click any of them to see the full detail:

OpenTopoMap (WorldWIDE)

For peaks outside the US, we’ve been searching for a comprehensive topo map with a high level of outdoor-related detail. OpenTopoMap delivers. An effort by a team of map enthusiasts to make OpenStreetMap look more like the celebrated TK25 German topo maps, it shows vegetation and terrain detail (forest, meadows, scree, etc.) and a long list of outdoor points of interest such as mountain huts, shelters, viewpoints, campsites, and more. Here are some screenshots:

 

CHECK ‘EM OUT!

You can see these maps on peakery’s main Map page (choose the map type in the upper right) or on any peak page. Also, when you add a GPX track, it’s now featured on these great new maps. An example log:

 

We just launched a batch of improvements focused on making the peakery website easier to use across desktop, tablet, and mobile.

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Better Logging

We cut out several steps to make logging your climbs easier.

• Sitewide ‘Log a climb’ button: at the top of every page on the site

• Log directly from your GPX tracks: peakery will automatically match the peaks.

• Multi-peak logging: when you climb multiple peaks in a day, now you can choose to log them together:

 

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Better Notifications

The old News page is no more. But its contents live on in 2 places:

• a new Notifications area for just the news involving you: 

• a new ‘Members you follow’ filter on the Latest page for news just about those you follow:

 

 

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BEtter Navigation

We rethought the site’s navigation to make it more intuitive, better organize features, and surface important parts of the site that were buried.

Some of the changes:

• icons next to links
• homepage is now called Latest
• new Peaks dropdown with options to view peaks by Map, List, and Regions:

• moved all of the hard-to-access links from the old footer into a More dropdown (and added a Contact us link):

• access all of your pages from your profile photo:

• search is now more prominent
• completely new mobile nav; now includes all of the same links as on desktop:

 

How do you like these new features? Find any bugs? Please let us know by emailing us from the Contact us link or messaging us via our Facebook page.

 

And PEAK MONTH 2018 is a wrap. Here’s a quick recap…

It began on Aug 1 in the wooded hills of New Jersey with the summit of 750 ft Campgaw Mountain by wacbravo.

1422 summits later, on Aug 31 Culater stood atop Mount Belcher in the islands of British Columbia, capping 4 weeks of mountain adventures by peakery members around the globe.

Some PEAK MONTH stats

Along the way, peakery members overcame many obstacles, such as:

Impolite weather

“In Canada, even the mountains are polite. I have never been kicked out from the mountains in such a way: two hail and thunderstorms within just 2 or 3 hours[…] the wind gusts were somewhat up to 80-100km/h. In some places had to really hold onto the rock in order not to be blown away[…] Had to hide in a hole between camp site’s stonewall and a boulder for quite some time.”  — Longs Peak, Colorado by alexp

Crevasses

“We teamed up with another party of 2, using all 4 of the pickets and belayed each other up the steep snow. After passing the crux it was easy going and super gorgeous. We got to the summit around 10. I can’t imagine having better views. Sean and I had the top to ourselves for 15 minutes then made pretty good time heading down.” — Mount Baker, Washington by MatthewWinterberg

Emergency caving

“Six of us were stuck in a cave for three hours on 8/4/18 about an hour below the Lunch Counter. Severe hail storm with lightning. No warning. We were instantly wet and cold.” — Mount Adams, Washington by blindskov

 

Ornery wildlife

“The hike/slog up was mostly uneventful, except for an ornery bighorn ram. We gave it a very wide berth, walking well around the three rams hanging out, but it kept approaching us. Mike and I took out our bear spray (safety too!) and we all stood together behind a tree clacking our poles together and against the wood. We yelled. Nothing!” — Mount Nestor, Alberta by leigh-annewebster

 

Bad ideas

“After stopping at the archway for a photo, the hiker we picked up was climbing down from the arch and decided to toss his bag for extra mobility. The bag ended up rolling through the archway and all of the way down the sheer north face of Tyrwhitt never to be seen again[…] had to give the guy a lift back to calgary as he had no keys or wallet in order to get home.” — Mount Tyrwhitt, Alberta by MarkJPerkins

 

Chupracabra & agro running dudes

“…darkness fell and I had to descend the rough Harris ridge in the dark from memory as my beam of light barely helped me. I was followed by a group of glowing eyes to add to the drama. Probably squirrels but my imagination thinks chupracabra. Very special day owning the mountain. I have very strange experiences when I pass some men on the trail. 2 times today guys tried to chase me down (with no success) and left their group to do it! Crazy!” — Harris Mountain, Nevada by paula.raimondi 

 

Flimsy footwear

“Started walking with boots I found in the garage and tested while cutting the lawn. After half an hour the rubber sole of the left boot came loose… on the way back the right sole fell off. Not possible to rent boots at hut. We’re here now, put on sandals, more grip than other shoes.” — Bovški Gamsovec, Slovenia by Pieter 

 

Exhaustion

“Third peak of the Castle Peak 100K. After summiting Crow’s Nest, we navigated the craziest, most insane part of any race I’ve ever done[…] a series of fixed ropes would aid our ascent to the summit. The 1.5 mile section would take nearly 45 minutes, and by the time we reached the summit I was spent. I had to sit for a few minutes sipping ginger ale and energy gels before I could continue.” — Lincoln Mountain, California by rsnipes 

 

Tedious footing

“Loose rock galore, but firm enough to give you hope. I didn’t really enjoy this one, neither did my cousin, more of a chore than a fun day on a mountain. Alas, the views were good despite the smoke. Frozen lake is absolutely beautiful…. I won’t be back!” — Mount Fox, Alberta by jakefinnan

 

Bees, snakes, & sharp plants

“Several people were getting stung (I got it twice) at around the 3.0 mile mark. Then on the way back down, yep, got stung twice more. Also had a rattlesnake kindly “warn” me of his presence! The sharp yucca plants and sharp thorny-plants also can be a pain (literally!) so long pants wouldn’t be a terrible idea. But then with the bees and snakes, stormtrooper armor might be better…” — Strawberry Peak, California by Marc 

 

Type 2 Fun

Those are just a few of the many tribulations experienced by peakery members during PEAK MONTH. Some people (most?) may read these stories and think “no way, that’s not fun.” It seems like a natural response.

But there are those of us who not only endure these challenges but keep coming back for more. Call it Type 2 fun. A desire to embrace gentle sufferings and in spite of it all stand on a high spot and see the world from a different perspective.

Next time you look at any of the thousands of summit photos on peakery be sure to notice a certain gleam in the eyes, a sense of elation beaming through. “I made it!” those faces joyfully proclaim. But then take a closer look and you’ll also find things a little rough around the edges — the sunblock not totally rubbed in, the sweaty hair, the deep fatigue set around the eyes. It takes a lot to make it to a summit, both physically and mentally. And to many, even the rewards of views, adventure, challenge, and natural beauty aren’t worth it. But to those that feel the pull of the mountains, successfully journeying to a mountain summit and back is one of the best feelings in the world.

Have fun, and be safe, in the mountains,

– the peakery team

 

Join for peakery’s first ever PEAK MONTH!

Based on popular demand we’ve extended the annual PEAK WEEK into 4 weeks of mountain adventures.

To join in on PEAK MONTH:

1. Go summit peaks during the month.

2. Then log your climbs on peakery to share with everyone.

In the past we’ve given out peakery stickers to all participants, we might do that again but no promises…

Why PEAK MONTH? Because we hope it’ll give you a little extra push to make some mountain plans before summer’s end.*

We look forward to seeing your photos & following along with your adventures in the mountains.

-peakery team

 

* OK, for southern hemisphere peakery members, let us know if you’d also like to take part in a PEAK MONTH SOUTH in, ahh, let me think… February??

 

A few weeks ago, we started fiddling with Mapbox and quickly got excited about their developer-friendly outdoor maps. Now we’re excited to feature these great maps on peakery; they’re purpose-built for mountain exploration.

Mapbox’s next-generation vector maps highlight info important to hikers and climbers, such as topo lines, trails, streams, terrain shading, and park boundaries. The best part about these maps: since they’re vector-based we can adjust every map element, tweak the design, add data layers, and build new interactive features. Example: a new button that instantly toggles all contour lines between feet and meters. We hope to keep improving these maps in the future.

These new maps complement the 2 other excellent topo maps currently featured on peakery, Outdoors and Topo (US/CA/NZ) from CalTopo.

peakery now offers 5 map options:

1. Terrain: a detailed, worldwide topo map. See contours, trails and other relevant details at much closer zoom levels than Google Terrain view. Use the “first-ever-in-the-history-of-the-web” toggle at the top to change the contours between feet/meters.

 

2. Outdoors: a second worldwide topo map that provides an alternate view

 

3. Topo (US/CA/NZ): detailed government-produced topo maps for the US, Canada, and New Zealand provided by CalTopo

 

4. Satellite: imagery with info layers

 

5. Satellite Topo: imagery with contours, trails, and info layers

Go check out the new maps

 

We just completed a second major update to peakery’s underlying peak data (the first being our recent clean up of regions).

Now featuring 587,000 peaks!

This update adds 250,000 new peaks to the existing 337,000 for a grand total of over half a million peaks. Some countries gained a huge number of new peaks. Here are the top 25 countries that gained the most peaks:

Russia	31,816 total peaks	+ 24,687 new peaks
Spain	20,533	+ 18,969
Italy	22,607	+ 17,405
Germany	19,585	+ 16,930
China	15,474	+ 13,321
Australia	14,072	+ 10,027
Chile	14,399	+ 10,005
United Kingdom	12,512	+ 7,771
Czech Republic	6,978	+ 6,107
Brazil	6,384	+ 5,748
Morocco	9,068	+ 5,297
Norway	9,461	+ 5,206
Colombia	6,051	+ 4,918
Poland	6,065	+ 4,573
Austria	10,455	+ 4,538
Saudi Arabia	5,196	+ 4,389
Turkey	8,144	+ 4,225
France	7,216	+ 4,180
Argentina	7,666	+ 3,948
Slovakia	4,665	+ 3,503
United States	71,168	+ 3,296
Sweden	4,919	+ 3,164
Greece	4,448	+ 2,761
Bulgaria	3,058	+ 2,669
Indonesia	16,965	+ 2,608

Overall we added peaks to 195 countries and territories; go to the Regions page to check out any of these. We plan to add more peaks over time.

Improved summit locations & elevations

Since the launch of the new peakery, we’ve also fixed the locations of over 72,000 peaks and the elevation of more than 16,000 peaks. This is on top of the 1000s of valuable contributions from the peakery community.

Other tweaks

• added country and region names to every peak’s URL
• changed all existing unnamed peaks to the default ‘Peak 1,234 ft’ or ‘Peak 1,234 m’ naming-scheme
• fixed bug in Log climb date picker (Windows/Chrome)
• fixed the summits that show up on Challenge > Members pages
• fixed the summits that show up on Profile > Map

Why we’re doing this

peakery’s long-term goal is to become the world’s ultimate resource to plan, collect, and share your mountain hiking & climbing adventures. An important ingredient in this is accurate and comprehensive info for every mountain in the world. It’s going to take years of constant improvement to get there, but with your help we plan to keep chipping away at it.

Join for the 2nd Annual PEAK WEEK!

Go summit a peak from Aug 1 to 7, 2017 and then log your climb on peakery.

During last year’s first ever PEAK WEEK, peakery members climbed 359 summits around the world. We’re hoping that we can all beat that this year.

So start gathering up your friends for some great mountain adventures.

Use Google calendar? Quickly add PEAK WEEK to your calendar by clicking here:

peakery’s long-term goal is to become the world’s ultimate resource to plan, collect, and share your mountain hiking & climbing adventures. An important ingredient in this is accurate and comprehensive info for every mountain in the world. It’s going to take years of constant improvement to get there, but with your help we plan to keep chipping away at it.

Huge cleanup of regions
In line with that, we just released a major cleanup of peakery’s worldwide regions info. Previously, over 1,000 peaks had no country and over 60,000 had no region. Even worse, a huge number of peaks were assigned to outdated or incorrect regions. We fixed all of that in 249 countries/territories and almost 4,000 regions.

Country maps come to life
Now with updated regions, every country’s geochart shows its regions fully colored in. A few examples of how much better these look:

Faster loading region pages
While we were in here, we greatly reduced the loading time of all of the regions pages. If you experience a really slow regions page (> 5 sec to load) please let us know and we’ll take another look.

Streamlined peak approval
With the new regions in place we’ll be able to respond to new peak submissions much faster. Before, we’d often need to manually assign regions to submitted peaks, but now they’ll be auto-assigned.

Meanwhile in bug land…
• fixed issue that wasn’t showing non-member companions in summit logs
• fixed issue that prevented removing non-member companions from your logs
• in summit logs added hover tooltips over Companion and Like avatars showing member names
• improved UI for adding companions to a log
• added checks to prevent losing data in logs when user doesn’t hit ‘add’ button in some sections
• added a peakery mobile app icon for when you save peakery to your homescreen on iPhone/iPad for quick access. DO IT NOW! Here’re the steps:

1. load peakery.com in Safari on your iPhone/iPad

2. tap the share icon at the bottom

3. choose the 'Add to Home Screen' option in the bottom row

A good topo map is essential to understanding mountainous terrain. And as any map lover will tell you, it’s just fun to look at. Thanks to CalTopo, peakery members can see highly detailed topo maps in the US, Canada, and New Zealand. Just select the Topo (US/CA/NZ) view on the upper right corner of the map:

But what about the rest of the world? For this we’re excited to offer a new highly detailed topo map view: Outdoors. In many countries, the Outdoors map view provides vastly more details on peaks, trails, and mountainous terrain than the existing Google Terrain view. Here’s a quick comparison (click to see full details):

Along with other recently launched map features of the new peakery— Summits & Difficulty filters, bigger map views, mobile and tablet support— we hope that this global topo map makes peakery’s maps even more useful as you plan your next mountain adventures. Please let us know at [email protected] if you have any ideas to make peakery’s mountain maps even better.