Here is a short list of smartphone apps that are useful for backcountry safety and navigation. Many of the large avalanche centers all have mobile apps so if you are traveling out of Utah, be sure to check your mobile app store for the mobile app of other avalanche centers.
UAC Mobile App
The NEW UAC app consolidates the avalanche, weather, road, and slope information you need for critical decision-making, including:
- Daily avalanche advisories for 8 regions around the state from the Utah Avalanche Center
- Daily field observations from a small army of volunteer observers as well as the UAC staff.
- Road conditions including avalanche closures, road travel restrictions, and canyon road webcams
- Mountain weather information including current conditions, forecasts, satellite loops, radar, mountain weather cams, and a custom My Weather section to bookmark your favorite point forecasts
- Emergency contacts and your GPS location for a fast rescue response
- A slope evaluation tool using your camera, containing your GPS location, steepness, aspect, elevation, time, and date
- Ability to photograph a slope watermarked with GPS location, steepness, aspect, elevation, time, and date and share that photo
- Share your observations with the Utah Avalanche Center
- A list of contacts for more information
From the time you roll out of bed until the time you hit the driveway, this app makes it easier to figure out where the best snow is, what avalanche, weather, and road conditions to expect, and which slopes will have the best and safest conditions.
Avalanche Forecasts
Avalanche Forecasts displays avalanche advisories for regions around the country including Utah Avalanche Center and it caches the advisories so you can view them even if you don't have cell coverage. Really useful if you are on a road trip.
onX Backcountry
onX Backcountry puts all of the information you need to plan your next adventure in one App. Giving you essential information on trail networks, campsites, backcountry ski routes, and public land boundaries, allowing you to plan your excursions with confidence. Whether you’re hiking, backpacking, biking, climbing, skiing or simply enjoying nature, onX Backcountry is the essential companion that combines convenience, accuracy, and comprehensive knowledge in a single, user-friendly application.
CalTopo
Get off the beaten trail with the leading adventure planning software. From collaborative map building to Location Sharing and offline adventuring, CalTopo is the one app that does it all. Features like slope angle shading help you avoid steep terrain when finding routes, hourly data from SNOTEL stations to let you know exactly what to expect, public land overlays to check if you're crossing private land along your route, and more help guide backcountry recreationalists through the route-planning process.
GAIA GPS
Tap into the Wild. The best iOS/Android/web app for the outdoors. Adventurers and professionals worldwide use Gaia GPS to plan, navigate, and stay safer in the woods. Download maps; View you location; Works offline; Set waypoints; Over 500,000 trails; Uses USGS and Worldwide Topo Maps; and much more.
Wasatch Backcountry Skiing Map
The Wasatch Backcountry Skiing Map is the mobile version of the popular paper map and website. As with the other platforms, the mobile map includes an index to more than 1,000 backcountry locations in Utah’s Central Wasatch mountain range. With its familiar interface, the Wasatch Backcountry Skiing Map accesses your mobile device’s GPS to display your current location on a high-resolution topo map. And with only a few taps, the “destination arrow” on the integrated compass will point to your desired backcountry ski location.
This is the standard reference map used by the Utah Avalanche Center and by local Search & Rescue teams, so when you reference a run on this map, everyone knows exactly where you are referring to. Purchase the map for route planning at home and for a backup in the backcountry.
Topo Maps+
Go deeper into the backcountry with Topo Maps+. Maps and GPS work offline. Topo Maps+ works with USGS topographic maps, US Forest Service maps, Satellite maps, and many other outdoor maps. With Topo Maps+ you can plan your next outdoor adventure.
Free and Subscription options, iOS
Backcountry Beta
Backcountry Beta provides all the resources essential to planning your next backcountry ski tour:
- Up to date avalanche forecasts for all U.S. and Canadian zones.
- Hourly summit weather forecasts and realtime SNOTEL snowfall data for backcountry sites.
- Field observations, avalanche reports and snow pits displayed from Colorado Avalanche Information Center, Utah Avalanche Center and Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center.
- Color slope maps that help identify high risk avalanche terrain.
- Record your tracks and share snowpack observations with fellow backcountry users.
Snow Scope from Propagation Labs
The Snow Scope App is the easy and free way to create, view, analyze, and share all kinds of snowpack data: snow profiles, snowpack test results, snow height measurements, and automated profiles from Snow Scope Probes. Your window into the snowpack, with or without a Snow Scope Probe! Simple enough for quick observations, yet powerful enough for detailed full snow profiles, and it saves time translating information from your notebook to the computer as all profiles are automatically tagged with GPS location and time. Additionally, go hands-free and use the power of their "Voice to Pit" technology to record a snow profile completely from talking to your phone.
Avalanche Inclinometer
Avy savvy backcountry skiers and riders know that three things count when it comes to the terrain’s influence on avalanches: the slope, the elevation, and the (compass) aspect. And Steve's Avalanche Inclinometer delivers all three. Sure, you can find plenty of inclinometers (also known as clinometers) that are designed for carpenters, but the Avalanche Inclinometer is meant for people who spend time in avalanche terrain.
This app shows the slope, elevation, and aspect in BIG FONTS which are perfect for tired eyes in stormy (or too-bright-and-sunny) weather. And it doesn’t display a gaggle of tiny buttons and widgets to decipher when you should be skiing.
Theodolite
On one screen using the camera to line up with the slope, it shows you steepness, aspect, gps location and altitude. You can do a screen capture to your phone.
$7.99, iOS