How to Use the CalTopo Website to Plan Safer Tours

The CalTopo mapping website and app provides SO much information it can be overwhelming, but it can also be an amazingly useful tool for backcountry travel. CalTopo maps can show you a wide variety of information including terrain shape and steepness, zone avalanche forecasts, which way the sun will be shining on certain slopes at particular hours of the day, details of weather at certain spots, where is treeline, what areas might make for a great day of backcountry skiing, and more! You can easily see zones where there would be potential avalanche safety concerns, plan a safer route in advance, and share it with your companions by QR, URL, or printed map. Pay for the feature and even see 3D plotting of your route.

Our Operations Manager and long time avalanche educator and lead guide, Justin Ibarra, filmed a CalTopo demo that will:

-Walk you through signing up (Find the app and desktop version here.)

-Examine some of the most useful layers and explain how to use and read them

-Show you how to mark up the map in useful ways when planning a backcountry tour

-Explain how to save and share the map with your touring companions.

Let us know what you think, and if you have any more great suggestions for how to use this amazing tool!