AlpineQuest & OfflineMaps

Hi all,

I've been using AlpineQuest for years and have loved it, it's such a great tool. One feature which I'd really like to have, and which I'm not sure if it exists or whether I just don't know how to use it, is the ability to choose two points on an existing GPX track and be given the distance and elevation gain between them when following the track (ie. not just the 'as the crow flies' distance between two points, but along a specific route). This is something that my app on ios does really well - you can very quickly select points A and B along a track and it will immediately tell you the distance between them, show you the elevation profile between them, and provide full elevation stats.

My workaround for AlpineQuest has always been to go into the dynamic profile of the route I'm following, move forward to the point I want to know the distance to, and then mentally subtract the mileage count of that point from the mileage count of my current location in respect of the route as a whole. This does work, but it's clunky and obviously takes a bit of effort, not to mention that it won't tell me the elevation stats. It would be really nice to be able to look at a GPX, zoom in to a specific section and be given all the details about that particular part of the route.

Is there any way to do what I'm looking for in AlpineQuest, or if not, is this something that could be added?

Thanks,

Tristan

Hi Tristan,
Thanks for your feedback and suggestion.
You're right that right now you can only get the track stats from the beginning to one point of from from point to the end, but not between two points.
I'll try to add this, if I can find an easy way to do it without too much easy changes, but right now I cannot tell you when I'll be able to work on this.
In order not to forget I've added it in the wanted features list.

I have a request that is related, but more basic. I, also, have used and appreciated AlpineQuest for many years, daily in fact; and I have often (tried to) use it to determine hiking distances. What I used to be able to do in AlpineQuest was to tap on a point in the current (active) track, memorize the distance traveled that was displayed; then tap another point (e.g. at the trailhead), and memorize the distance traveled to that point; and then mentally subtract the two distances, to calculate how far I have walked. (The total track length is not helpful because it includes driving to/from the trailhead).

Unfortunately, even this method no longer works -- it seem you have removed "distance traveled so far" from the data displayed when tapping on a point in the current track. I am puzzled why such a thing would be removed. Perhaps it is accessed in a different way now?

Hi Lief,
I'll have a look, but if it has been removed it's not intentional... And in this case I'll put it back.

Hi, Leif!

Is that what you need? (screenshot)

Yes I think this is what he wants, for the the track being currently recorded. In this case it's not displayed.

Yes, that's right...
There is no such data for the currently recorded tracks...

Hello, Ingensor. Thanks, yes, your screenshot shows the kind of information I am seeking -- "distance traveled so far" for any given point, but, for the currently recording track.

Psyberia-Support wrote: ↑Sat May 28, 2022 1:52 pm Hi Lief,
I'll have a look, but if it has been removed it's not intentional... And in this case I'll put it back.

Thanks for your reply, and thanks for checking.
Yes, unless I am insane I am pretty certain that the feature ("distance traveled so far" for any given point on a currently recording track) used to be available! I distinctly remember using it in AlpineQuest.

I am sorry to be replying so late. I do still use AlpineQuest every single day (no kidding), and although I don't need distance traveled every day, it's something I enjoy checking on most hikes. For example my wife uses a pedometer-type app on her iPod, and we often have debates about the distance we've walked. I realize no method is perfect; no doubt AlpineQuest (or any GPS-based method) increases the estimated distance slightly, due to the fact that the inherent uncertainty of GPS coordinates causes a zig-zag effect. But, it at least would give me a consistent "yardstick", which could be "calibrated" by comparison with known distances, for example.

Hi Leif,
My wife uses a different app, for a specific reason and the serious map work is down to me and my trusty AQ. From time we have differences in the distance walked.
The biggest reason for any difference is the frequency of the gps plot in relation to the distance travelled. If you imagine walking around a curve for example, the more plots on the circumference the further the distance travelled. (This can also be seen if you plot a route using only waypoints). Some apps have the facility to remove spikes (larger zig-zags) from a track.
It is not convenient to check AQ at the moment and it may have these features.
Hope that helps
Regards
David

Hi all,
Yes that is the way I do that too. Have a look at the dynamic profile for an impression of the ups and downs and use the old brain to calculate distance between two points. But now there is another way; Have BRouter calculate a route using a startpoint and a finishpoint on the track. Did do that with the track of a bikeride.
Getting rid off the spikes in the
45 km track this way made for
48 km in real life. Excactly the same as the little counter on my bike. A BRouter gpx (offline) generated track comes with elevation info too.
Just hope this is a little help.
Friendly greetings
Jos

leif, as an update, "the done so far" information was indeed available for the recorded track too, and unintentionally broken since version 2.3.0.
I've published a new version 2.3.2c which fixes this problem, it should be available by tomorrow. Right now it's still in beta but it should be available for everyone within a week if everything fine with it.

Concerning the zig-zag problem, yes it's true. But I'm not sure how much impacting it can be. Note that AlpineQuest does also take into account elevation changes when computing track length, something your pedometer does't, which also assumes all your steps are equals in length.

Psyberia-Support,
That's great news, thank you for addressing this issue and I look forward to the new release!
Yes, I've always preferred GPS over a pedometer app -- I'm just not comfortable making assumptions about step length. GPS seems a much more natural way to estimate distance, since it inherently preserves position data allowing any portion of the trip to be examined.

This is now available from version 2.3.6.
Set any location of a track as target, then move the map center along the track to get the distance.