Alpine Hiking 1C – Open Street Maps

In this third module we’ll get familiar with one of the most commonly used maps for hiking – Open Street Maps (OSM). OSM is a collaborative project to create a free editable geographic database of the world. Anyone in the world can freely use and contribute to it. Many web based and mobile apps use OSM as a base map for planning routes and navigation. OSM maps can be downloaded and used for offline navigation in phone. Let’s take a closer look:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/
(open in mobile or laptop)

Search for “Indrahar Pass” and zoom out a bit as below. OSM shows lots of useful details:

Type of terrain: forest (green), open (white), blue (glacier), yellow (farmland)
Peaks (orange triangle) and rivers (blue lines)
Boundaries (state, district…) (dashed line)
Settlements (cities, villages, hamlets, dwellings)
Roads (red, yellow, white) and trails (dotted line)

Zoom in/out and pan around the map to identify the above elements. These are important to plan your hiking journeys. The bottom left shows the scale of the current map view – actual distance on the ground.

Topography

One important aspect is missing in the standard OSM view – topography. To show contours simply choose “CyclOSM” in the layers (icon on right toolbar) which adds significant value to the map view. We can now easily see peaks, ridgelines, valleys, steepness of the terrain.

If we zoom in again on the Indrahar pass (4320m) to view the trail (dotted line). We can see it climbs up steeply from the bottom / South (contours are very close – each line is a 10m vertical increase). On the top / North / glacier side the trail descend more gradually (contours more widely spaced + trail does not drop straight down but goes side-wise – less steep / crossing contours less often):

Routing

OSM can automatically route between two points. Click the “Directions Arrow” right of the Search box, enter start and end locations and choose “Foot” (Default is “Car” / Road). Alternatively you can also right click directly on the map to mark the start / end location. OSM will automatically calculate the optimum hiking route between both points assisting you in planning your hike.

Outdoor Features

For the hiking community OSM shows a number of useful outdoor features (each with specific icon) once you zoom in further around the trail:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/32.2629/76.3525&layers=Y

Campsite – flat space with running water
Shelter – (semi-) covered to shelter from rain, wind
Streams (smaller) – useful source for drinking water
Spring – drinkable water source
Village, Hamlet, Dwelling – human settlement (larger, small, tiny) suitable for night stay, food supply, guidance
Bridge, Ford – different ways to cross stream
Cairn – pile of stones showing route
Cave – covered shelter from rain, wind
Mandir – small temple along way

Zoom / Pan around the Indrahar trail to spot some of the above features. Select the “?” arrow icon on the right toolbar and click on any feature on the map to show more details in the left pane (type, name):

Hiking Route

We are now ready to review the entire Indrahar pass hiking route in detail. This usually takes a little bit of time (zooming in/out of map) but is VERY IMPORTANT in planning your journey. Understanding the various trail sections and features / landmarks along the way – altitude, distance, direction, climb / descent, campsites, shelters, springs, stream crossings, terrain type, villages, etc. Start from Galu Devi hamlet and zoom into each section the Indrahar trail until you reach Kuarsi village at the end.

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/32.2539/76.3327&layers=Y

Once you dissect the entire route you are half-ready in planning your own alpine style journeys in the mountains. Identifying the altitude of each feature along the way allows us to the determine the elevation gain / drop (climb / descent) to reach that point. You can also route (refer above) to each feature to identify the exact distance. Knowing both distance and elevation gain will allow you to estimate the approximate duration to reach that feature or landmark. This is especially useful to plan your night halts / campsites in multi-day hikes.

Assignment

It’s time for some hands-on now and plan your own hiking route through Open Street Maps. Search for the “Thamsar pass” and identify all important sections / outdoor features along the trail starting from “Bada Gran” village in the Uhl river valley across the Thamsar pass to “Bara Bhanghal” in the Ravi river valley. Similar to the example above. Take screenshots of maps of different parts of the trail and write requested details on top. Submit your maps in a public folder in the form below for review.

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/32.1035/76.7624&layers=Y

Assignment