onX Backcountry Snow/Trail GPS 4+

Best Navigation App!!!

I purchased other nav apps before, and a few were decent, but there wasn’t one that pulled together all the features I love like this one! But the best part of onX Backcountry is the customer service. A couple weeks ago my iPhone battery was dying. The Apple store swapped it out. I backed up my phone, but, of course, none of the passwords back up. I was locked out of my accounts. I went to reset my password but my linked email account was locked and I couldn’t get in. I sent a help request to the onX Backcountry help desk and it was only minutes before they responded, changed my email to my back up account, and sent me a temp password. Start to finish…only a few minutes and I was rucking on! There are no other companies I deal with that have a response time like that! None! The sense of urgency is understood! If you’re debating purchasing this app, hesitate no more! Awesome features, emails with hints and tips to get max usage, and a top-notch help desk if anything goes wrong! Professional from start to finish. I know I’ll be renewing when the time comes because this is a company I can rely on! Run your own race. Hike your own hike. Live your own life. Backroads Buck

Developer Response ,

Thank you so much for your support of both the Backcountry App and our customer service team. We really appreciate it and are so glad to hear that our team was able to get you back out on the trail!

Glad to hear you're enjoying the App. It really is a game-changer for any time out in the field. Stay safe and have fun out there!

This app saved my toes!

Tried this out when backpacking Big Bend for the first time. Ended up getting snowed into a mountaintop campsite with a historic amount of snow. This app gave us the confidence we were going the right way to return to the base when we couldn’t see any trail or tracks at all and needed to get down in time to prevent frostbite.

The tracking works remarkably well and the UI is fairly intuitive. Also seeing the difficulty gradient along the trails is very useful for planning and decision making. My only suggestion would be to make it easier to access and view stats on previously tracked hikes. The only way I could find to access them was by tapping on the path on the map, but sometimes I had hiked the same segment many times making this an imprecise way to find precious data.

Developer Response ,

Hi Ben, thank you for taking the time to share your support and feedback. We really appreciate it! We are so glad to hear that Backcountry helped to lead you safely back home. What a crazy situation!

I can definitely pass your feature request onto the team! We do have the "My Content" menu that would show each individual track once it is created. That may help you to sort out those previous trips.

Thanks again!

Severely Limited App

Updated review. On second day using app, the server that controls login crashed and couldn’t use the app. I’ve been trying to plan some hikes and this app just has nothing on the alternatives. You can’t navigate between waypoints. Unless a user has uploaded a gps track, the “trails” on the map are pulled from a general USGS database and lack topo and difficulty. Because it’s a new service there are not a lot of reviewed trails. I am going back to my other apps. This one is not ready for prime time.

Initial Review. Just got the app. I also use Trailforks, MTB review, and Gaia (all paid versions). This app is geared toward hiking only. It lacks trail reviews, trail photos, and any other intel that I find helpful in planning an adventure. Great to see that a trail is in the Gunnison NF, or that the Gunnison nF is 1,000,000 acres but I ask you, how does that assist me planning a hike? It does not. Clicking on a trail marks that spot on the trail and highlights the trail. It’s a bit of an awkward functionality. Again show me trail reviews, trail conditions, user photos. Also what’s the point of an app that only shows information for a single use - hiking? All the other apps I use are multi use. So far disappointed.