Exploring great backcountry terrain often goes hand in hand with the threat of avalanches, but with careful route planning and rational terrain management, dangerous slides can largely be avoided. Before you head into the backcountry, brush up on how to use the best maps to identify avalanche terrain and plan the safest routes.
Topo Maps
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Knowing how to read a topographic map is the foundation to any backcountry adventure. Through the use of contour lines, topo maps bring a 3-dimensional element to a 2-dimensional paper map, allowing you to visualize the rise and fall of the land and “see” the depths of canyons, the location of boggy meadows, and the height and shape of mountain
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Take your adventures off-road with the best maps for overlanding. This list includes favorites like USFS Roads and Trails and Motor Vehicle Use Maps, plus a few bonus maps you might not know about. Discover new trails, go further off the grid and always be prepared for what’s ahead with these key map sources.
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For those keen on a multi-sport adventure in New Zealand, Gaia GPS now offers detailed New Zealand topo maps of the North and South Islands. Beyond shores, Australia/NZ Nautical Chart…
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Gaia GPS’s Australia map collection now includes South Australia Topo. For adventurers down under, this authoritative government-produced map unlocks five areas from the coast to the mountains. Dial in your…
Find 4×4 roads and points of interest quicker than ever with Gaia Topo’s latest updates. Gaia Topo now displays color-coded points of interest, more 4×4 roads when the map is zoomed out, and larger labels, badges, and contour markers when the map is zoomed in.
Great news Gaia users! We’ve added another map source today from the USGS. It’s their new National Map source. Check it out by going to the layer button on the main…