Contents: OpenAndroMaps (World)

Key facts
What are OpenAndroMaps?
Coloured paths and the SAC scale.My experiences with OpenAndroMaps
How to use an OpenAndroMap?

OpenAndroMaps key facts

Website	www.openandromaps.org/en
Map type	OpenStreetMap-based vector maps.
Which devices?	Smartphones only. Apps must import the mapsforge format.
File type and approx size for UK	Mapsforge. Smartphones and desktop computers. 1.7GB for ‘Great Britain incl N. Ireland’
Cost	Free
Areas covered	Worldwide mapping available.
Contours, crag markings, ground underfoot	10m contours (UK). OS 1:25k crags. OSM ground detail.
Paths and tracks	Hiking and mountain biking trails can be coloured according to difficulty. Highlighting for popular routes can be toggled on/off.
Public Rights of Way and access land	Not reliably highlighted
Map styling	Hiking, mountain biking, cycling and city styles. Elevate and Voluntary themes offer many customisable options.

What are OpenAndroMaps?

Freely available to download at the OpenAndroMaps website, these maps are funded entirely by donations and created by developers who are outdoor enthusiasts. These maps are an attractive rendering of OSM data and my favourite OSM-based maps. I use them in my primary nav app Locus Map 4, but they can be used in other apps and on a desktop too..

The UK maps are now using OS 1:25k crag details and should be using OS Terrain 50 contours soon. They contain the usual extra paths and other OSM details that are absent from OS mapping. OSM-based they won’t reliably highlight public rights of way or mark open access land. Similarly they generally don’t show the nature of the ground under your feet as well as OS maps (eg marshy, stony, grassy etc).

With no copyright protection and purpose-built for use on smartphones they may be used in any app which will import the ‘mapsforge’ format. You can use them on multiple devices and download new updated maps whenever you like.

Coloured paths and the SAC scale

Unusually, OpenAndroMaps colour code the paths according to difficulty. OpenStreetMap data grades path difficulty based on the Swiss Alpine Club Hiking Scale. However the path colours are those used for the eastern Alps rather than the SAC colours.  It’s not just in Switzerland that the paths are coloured. If the person who uploaded the path to OpenStreetMap included the appropriate SAC Scale then the path will appear appropriately coloured on the map, wherever it is in the world.

See the path sections crossing the exposed Aonach Eagach ridge in Glencoe (below). They are coloured appropriately. The 1:25,000 scale OS mapping doesn’t show this path at all currently.

Keen to describe the paths as accurately as possible, the dashes get increasingly broken to represent path visibility on the ground. Great path detail for hikers. Here’s the Swiss Alpine Club’s official guide to the scale.

This table shows the colours OpenAndroMaps use…

SAC scale	OAM colour	Swiss Alpine Club trail description
T1	Yellow	Well-constructed footpath. Where possible, all exposed areas are made secure with fixed cables, railings, etc. The risk of falling can largely be ruled out with normal behaviour.
T2	Blue	Continuous established footpath. Exposed areas made more secure. Partially steep terrain. Risk of falling not ruled out.
T3	Red	Path not always obvious / visible. The more exposed areas can be secured. You may need your hands for balance. Some exposed areas remain, where there is a risk of falling. Pathless sections over scree or talus.
T4	Black	Occasionally pathless. In certain places you’ll need to use your hands. Some quite exposed terrain, e.g. steep grass slopes, rock ledges, simple firn fields and minor glacier passages (with little crevasse risk).
T5	Black	Often pathless. Individual easy climbing secions. Exposed, challenging terrain, steep cliffs. Bare glaciers and firn slopes which posed some risk of falling.
T6	Black	Mostly pathless. Grade II scrambling. Often very exposed. Terrain examples: Dangerous talus slopes, rock gullies, steeper sections of snow-free glaciers = increased risk of falling.

In the Alps, as well as learning how tricky a path might be, you can also learn if it has things like ladders, cables, rungs or via-ferrata sections. All marked on OpenAndroMaps.

Accompanying OpenAndroMaps is a tiny ‘Map Style’ file (Elevate and Voluntary) which must also be installed to give fine control over what shows on the maps and how they look. This makes it easy to customise the map for different activities. Elevate offers four map styles. Hiking, City, Cycling and Mountain bike. Voluntary gives the map an OS look with clearer OS crag detail. Good for mountain adventures.

An OpenAndroMap can be used as an A-Z street map, a small-scale road map, a detailed topo map, cycle map or mountain bike map. Mountain bike routes are also marked according to difficulty. All the path and track detail is in the OpenAndroMap Elevate key.

The developers seem to pay attention to the OpenAndroMaps forum and the maps are continually being improved.

My experiences with OpenAndroMaps

I first used an OpenAndroMap during a family holiday in northern Spain. We had struggled to buy all the paper maps we needed for our trip, so a couple of days before we left I trawled the internet to see if there were any smartphone maps that might help out. I found OpenAndroMaps and they were free, so I put the ‘Spain and Portugal’ map on our phones and off we went. 

We hardly touched any paper maps all trip. We spent time exploring quiet coastline and villages, did full-on touristy stuff in Bilbao and I took the opportunity to scramble to the top of Pico Tesorero, one of the highest peaks in the rugged Picos mountains. The OpenAndroMap did it all.

I was impressed by how good it was. The government funded mapping of Pico Tesorero only had boundaries marked. The OpenAndroMap showed paths around that area and included a good route through the very rugged ground to the summit. 

We haven’t bothered getting paper maps for subsequent family holidays to Europe because the OpenAndroMaps website has provided all the mapping we needed. I’ve now used these maps all over Europe for mountain hiking, glacier exploring and regular touristy visits to the towns and cities.

Why not download ‘Great Britain incl Northern Ireland’ and put it on your phone? It’s free, weighs nothing and only needs about 1.7GB on your phone. It will ensure you’ve always got good mapping, anywhere in the country. With no subscription to maintain, the map will never ‘expire’.

The maps are updated at OpenAndroMaps every 4-5 weeks with the recent additions to OpenStreetMap. Download the latest version whenever you like.

How to use an OpenAndroMap

There are ‘quick install’ buttons on the OpenAndroMaps website to make the maps easy to put into various apps. There are two files you need for an OpenAndroMap to work properly.
1. The map file.
2. The small ‘Map Style’ file called ‘Elevate‘. This is a one-off download and allows the app to ‘style’ all downloaded OpenAndroMaps. The Voluntary theme is an OS-like option from John Campbell who isn’t part of the OpenAndroMaps team.

Android phone apps: Locus Map 4, Oruxmaps, BackCountry Navigator Pro and Cartograph Pro.
Locus Map is my favourite by some margin. I’ve used Oruxmaps and Cartograph succesfully too.

iPhone app: Cartograph Maps offers the only iOS app I’m aware of that will use OpenAndroMaps. Use the OpenAndroMaps ‘quick install’ buttons for Oruxmaps to put files into Cartograph.

Desktop computers: There are MacOS and Windows versions of Cartograph Maps which allow the maps to be used on a computer. Also keep an eye on the OpenAndroMaps website FAQ for more suggestions. eg Cruiser can be used as a simple OpenAndroMap viewer on desktops.