If you're into rock climbing, chances are you're familiar with an app called Mountain Project. Love it or hate it, it's a pretty useful resource that can save you hundreds of dollars on guide books and help you find your way around thousands of climbing areas all over the world… just take the comments with a proverbial grain of salt. If you're unfamiliar, the Mountain Project app is a resource for all things climbing, from GPS coordinates of climbing areas, route descriptions and beta, to photos and a colorful array of comments and trip reports from the community. The app also lets you create an account to track your own to-dos and ticks as well as comment and contribute.
The other day I was heading to Hartley Springs bouldering area near the shop to meet up with some friends for an after-work pebble wrestling sesh. At least, I thought I was heading to the bouldering area... apparently I took a wrong turn. My shortcomings in route finding lead to all kinds of unexpected excitement. Soon, I found myself deep in the National Forest with no boulders or boulderers in sight. Well, it has been a few years since I climbed at this specific area and clearly I don't remember the approach beta. My excuse for getting lost? ...as if I need one at this point... I prefer rope climbing to pebble wresting, that's why it's been years since I've been to this little local gem of a bouldering area. No problem, I download Mountain Project onto my newly installed DD2001 and tap the "Near Me" option from the home screen. I've actually never used this feature before but it's pretty awesome. "Near Me" let's you view all the climbing areas within a given area, overlaid on a Google map base that lets you toggle between topographic and satellite views.
From the map view I see myself as a little blue dot on the fire road. I tap "Hartley Springs" and a screen comes up asking me if I would like to download all info for the whole state of California. Well yes, yes I would like to do that. As it turns out, the Hartley Springs bouldering area is not at the Harley Springs campground, but a couple miles always.
Voila! In a matter of seconds, I'm on my way to the climbing spot with in-depth information on every climbing area in California downloaded to my Subie and now available offline. That's cool enough on its own, but the part that really got me amped is the "Near Me" map view shows me there are a bunch of climbing routes in the area that I never knew about. I have a feeling it's going to be a great summer!
Even if you're not into rock climbing and have no use for mountain project, you can probably imagine how some of your favorite apps can create a whole new experience when they're built into the dash of your vehicle. For more info on Insane Audio's DD2001 or any other of our awesome products check out: https://insaneaudio.com/products/ or shoot us a message: https://insaneaudio.com/contact/