WMG Online Shutting Down. Alternatives?

[Ramblings]

I just received the following in my inbox:

Over the course of ten years, thousands of outdoors enthusiasts have used White Mountain Guide Online to plan their adventures, and we remain grateful to every one of you for doing so.

Unfortunately, ongoing technical challenges with the application today prevent us from delivering the standard of service that subscribers deserve and that we expect of ourselves all across AMC. After much deliberation, we must share the news that we are disabling the ability to subscribe or renew, discontinuing further development of the application, and closing down White Mountain Guide Online effective September 30, 2018

I'm going to miss the ability to select trails to build custom routes and export those tracks to Google Earth, GPS, etc. Are there other apps or websites that have this functionality?

 

[JoshandBaron]

caltopo.com is my website of choice. And it's free. https://sectionhiker.com/caltopo-a-great-online-mapping-and-planning-tool-for-hikers/

With Guthook's New England Hiker app you can create your own on-trail routes but don't have the exporting abilities.

 

[Ramblings]

caltopo.com is my website of choice. And it's free.

I'm familiar with Caltopo and have used it a bit in the past to compare old maps and satellites, but I didn't realize that it's possible to build a track that follows trails. I just figured it out (using the "add a line" feature) and it's exactly what I need. Thanks!

 

[DayTrip]

I'm familiar with Caltopo and have used it a bit in the past to compare old maps and satellites, but I didn't realize that it's possible to build a track that follows trails. I just figured it out (using the "add a line" feature) and it's exactly what I need. Thanks!

CalTopo.com is a pretty robust site actually and has a ton of tools, especially considering it is free (I believe there are additional pay options as well but I have never researched). Well worth the time to mess around a bit and see what it is capable of. I've been using it for quite awhile now and find it very useful being able to print out customized, zoomed maps for notes and doodles, having multiple copies, etc.. The only word of caution I would put out there is that there can be inaccuracies with the actual trail locations between the various layers and official maps for the area. I don't notice it so much in the Whites but in other areas of New England I have found some issues and omissions.

 

[Will]

Are there other apps or websites that have this functionality?

Garmin's BaseCamp does a passable job but only with maps that have the routable trails. Their Northeast 24K map has many of the White Mountain trails routable, but not all of them. You can patch together routes that have a combination of routable trails and manually-entered sections but it's not straightforward (or accurate in elevation and mileage totals, obviously).

 

[bignslow]

I haven't used the WM online guide, my go-to tool of choice has either been hand-drawing lines in:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com and then counting the topo contours to get the total gain/descent

I've recently been introduced to this source by Trail Boss:
http://brouter.de/brouter-web/

It's really good with the exception of it not matching my calculations for gain (seems short most of the time), and there are also some gaps in trails which make auto-routing fail sometimes.

 

[1HappyHiker]

The original announcement indicated that AMC would be “closing down White Mountain Guide Online effective September 30, 2018”. Here it is November 2, 2018 and the WMG online is still up and running. Does anyone know if the AMC decided against deactivation, or maybe decided to delay inactivation until a later date?

 

[TJsName]

The original announcement indicated that AMC would be “closing down White Mountain Guide Online effective September 30, 2018”. Here it is November 2, 2018 and the WMG online is still up and running. Does anyone know if the AMC decided against deactivation, or maybe decided to delay inactivation until a later date?

Perhaps it's a distinction between shutting down vs no longer supporting?

 

[JustJoe]

I was wondering that too since it's still working for me as well. I'm guessing when your subscription runs out you won't be able to renew it and willno longer be able to log in and use it. For me that will be next month. So we'll see.

 

[yogi]

Not sure how long it has been down. But it's down.

https://www.outdoors.org/trip-ideas-tips-resources/wmgo

 

[peakbagger]

I have no doubt that AMC is shopping the data out there to some entity that can better support it. The WMG and the associated maps are regarded as valuable IP by AMC as its big revenue generator. They probably already have seen the revenue fall off on these materials as Map Adventures and one or tow other firms seem to be better at getting into gift shops and outfitters.

I have speculated with my redlining friends that the ever increasing additional of "local" trail networks to the WMG is an attempt at putting in new content in the guide to get people to buy the latest version.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I recently upgrade from 27th to 30th edition, having started to explore more than the 4Ks, where there is plenty of crowd-source information on the current state of things. CalTopo.com is my usual online trip planning resource, FWIW.

Tim

 

[yogi]

Since I'm paid until the end of 2020 I asked about a refund. No response so far.

 

[iagreewithjamie]

WMGOnline

Hi all,
Sorry if this has been discussed already, but I can't turn up anything in the search.

I knew wmgonline was going the way of the water buffalo, but it seems like it's totally gone now.
Is there a comparable tool? I used that all the time.

Thanks much

 

[JustJoe]

CalTopo. I would have embedded a link but it just goes to my last map. Just Google it. There's free and different levels of purchases.

 

[Ramblings]

Here is the previous thread on this topic. I've been very happy using CalTopo since it shut down.