April 16th is CalTopo Day

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Join us in celebrating CalTopo Day on April 16th! Read on to hear from CalTopo founder Matt Jacobs about where we’ve come from, what’s important to us as a company, and where we are headed next.

People often ask me when I created CalTopo, and I struggle to find the right answer.  Is it when I first experimented with blending satellite imagery and topo maps?  When I started creating an offline mapping tool for SAR, or the first time that tool was used to remotely plan a search and I saw the value of online collaboration?  The launch of the website itself?

The California Secretary of State approved our LLC paperwork on 4/16/2012, which seems as good a date as any; within the company, we’ve begun calling this “CalTopo Day”.  I want to take the opportunity to share the existence of this holiday with all of you, reflect on where we’ve been, and touch on where we’re going.

Staging for a winter High Sierra search with my BAMRU teammates in late 2015; by this point in time, SARTopo had seen widespread adoption in wilderness SAR. While a boot delamination prevented my teammates from fully searching their assigned couloir, Julie Vargo (who would later come to work for CalTopo in team sales) managed to spot a critical clue while searching it via helicopter late in the day.

The 2018 Camp Fire was a formative moment in CalTopo’s history, and it’s been on my mind lately as my local Truckee community works through its own catastrophic loss.  I spent a week there helping to support evacuation efforts and manage the early SAR response, and while CalTopo was well standardized within the SAR community by that point, the toolsets we had developed for wilderness searches did not translate well to the urban environment.  After a string of 20+ hour days that could be another essay unto themselves, I left determined to make CalTopo as strong of an urban disaster platform as it was a wilderness search one.

Conducting the morning briefing during one of the early days of the Camp Fire recovery efforts; each day set a new record for the largest SAR effort in California history, and with that, brought new scaling challenges.

In large part we’ve met that goal, whether it’s urban datasets like parcel boundaries and structure footprints, or the rapid scaling that mutual aid incidents provide to outside collaborators.  Across fire evacuations, tornado and hurricane response, flooding, and even localized events such as industrial explosions, CalTopo has become a go-to public safety tool outside of the traditional wilderness SAR setting.

Over the past 5-6 years, the mobile app has additionally transformed mapping from a centralized tool for managers, into an essential need for every responder on an incident.  When I teach search management classes, at this point typically half the people in the room have spent their entire SAR career in the era of live tracks.  Flying blind with only paper maps and the radio is almost as foreign a concept to them as rotary phones and party lines.

Speaking of serious trips, here’s my then-5yo son trimming maps with a paper cutter so that we could lay out the entire John Muir Trail on our floor, as preparation for him hiking it with my wife that summer, which is a separate story unto itself.

On the recreational side, I could talk about milestones like slope angle shading – a tool we didn’t invent, but one that we were the first to put in front of recreational users on a nationwide basis.  Instead I want to touch on something more personal, which is the experience of watching my own son’s interaction with CalTopo.  There’s been a great deal of pride in seeing that develop, whether it’s small projects like mapping out his Halloween trick-or-treat route, planning out imaginary ski areas (which is apparently a thing when you grow up in a ski town), or bigger endeavors like the first backpacking trip he planned end-to-end.  CalTopo helps you explore the world, and watching him has shown me that there are many angles to that beyond the serious backcountry trips we often think of as our core mission.

An old printout I found in a shoebox amongst a pile of maps from the NPS, Tom Harrison, Nat Geo, and some well-worn USGS quadrangles passed down from my grandfather when I was a teenager. The browser-printed style dates this to no later than 2012, a time when I felt free of responsibilities and the world felt large.

While I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished, the journey hasn’t all been sunshine and rainbows.  Between a small child and a small business, it’s hard to know which has contributed more to the replacement of long days in the high country with quick mountain bike laps on neighborhood trails.  Life these days brings with it a weight of responsibility that is hard to explain, and more so than free time itself, the lack of an off switch is probably the thing I miss most dearly from the before times.

Okay, so it hasn’t all been neighborhood trails.

For the reluctant entrepreneur, today’s world is full of temptations.  Multiple times a week, I receive emails like the following:

Congratulations on building CalTopo. One of my analysts recently mentioned your company to me from some research they conducted on mission-critical software businesses in the geology and mining space.

Unlike most private equity firms, we aim to run each business as if it is our family’s only asset for the coming decades. We are not pressured by exit timelines as we are a permanent capital acquisition vehicle, partnering alongside founders to build resilient software businesses. 

Have you given any thought to selling your business?

These messages often paint a sunny picture of what the future might hold, but I’ve seen this movie before and it never ends well for the company being acquired.  Even if you haven’t lived it with a former employer, one need not look far in the recreational mapping space to find an example of what happens once the signature dries.  So let me save everyone the trouble: CalTopo is not for sale; there is no magic number, and asking for one makes about as much sense as asking what I’d sell my dog for.  I feel incredibly grateful to have been at the lucky intersection of timing, proximity to the problem, skill and finances needed to effect change across an entire community, and hope to continue that work for many years to come.

Meet Bodie. Also, not for sale.

The past year has been marked by large, long-running projects touching core parts of our UI.  I know that not everything we’ve done has been universally loved and I’ll certainly own that some of that comes from misses on our end.  At the same time, many of our changes are driven by recurrent problems and support requests we’ve seen from slices of our user base, problems that may not be apparent to everyone else.  These changes have also helped lay the groundwork for future long-term functionality, in ways that might not be currently obvious.

No, I haven’t heard anything about this change, and yes, I’d love for you to bring it up if we ever meet in person.

This year will continue the theme of large projects, aimed primarily at how teams share and manage data.  Much of this is work that has felt 1-2 years out for the past 5 years, and I’m excited to finally be getting some long-planned puzzle pieces into place.  My hope however is that by early 2027, we’ll be able to switch modes and spend more time on things that matter to recreational users as well; many of CalTopo’s employees are in SAR, but every single one of us is a backcountry recreationalist.  While it’s too soon to say exactly what functionality that translates to, many of our early hallmark features came from experimentation and chasing dead ends, and I would like to get us as an organization to the point where we have that kind of bandwidth again.

Screenshot of an early experimental attempt at making the simulated view look like a hand sketch. Work like this often didn’t pay off, but it was rewarding and occasionally led to really awesome things.

Thinking about the sea change of transformation we’ve seen over the years, I’d be remiss not to include those who have taken this journey with me and made possible where we are today.  My wife, who amongst many other things, sacrificed her own career for mine.  My son, who – ok kid, actually you owe me, but work has still made me less present than I would have liked.  CalTopo’s employees, and the passion they bring to the product despite the number of times I have had to say no to their ideas; having started this solo, you can only get so far without a tribe.  My SAR teammates, for the shared experiences and deep sense of community without which this platform may never have taken shape.  Our early adopters, who saw the value beneath all the rough edges even when they arguably shouldn’t have.  And our community at large, whether you’ve just arrived, or have printouts stashed away that are almost old enough for a learner’s permit.

When I snapped this picture from Yosemite’s Lembert Dome in 2009, I had just started playing around with overlaying different map layers. I had no idea that there was a logo hiding in it which would represent a company whose path has exceeded even my wildest dreams.

Planning for Spring Skiing with CalTopo

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When the powder dries up, it doesn’t mean ski season is over- for some people, its just getting started.

While winter has ended prematurely across much of the Western US, there is still time for fun skiing and this guide will cover the layers and tools useful for spring skiing. As the snow line recedes, that means melted out access roads, more predictable avalanche danger, and often more stable weather. For many, it is the time to tackle bigger objectives and explore deeper into the mountains. There are few things as joyful as ripping down soft spring snow in the sun on a remote peak or high volcano!

Ripping corn in the North Cascades

However, planning for a spring ski adventure looks very different from a typical winter tour. There are three crucial aspects of planning a spring tour that CalTopo can help with:

  1. Snowpack
  2. Weather
  3. Sun Exposure

Snowpack

As spring arrives, the lower elevations typically start to melt out first, along with south aspects. And this year, the snowpack has unfortunately melted out earlier than normal for most of the Western US. Most spring objectives require careful consideration of the state of the snowpack. With any spring tour, you can ask yourself the following questions:

  • Roads: Can I drive to where I need for this tour?
  • Access: Is there snow where it is needed for access? Or is there a trail if melted out?
  • Line: Does the ski line still have sufficient coverage?

Sometimes, you cannot satisfy all three of these questions simultaneously, and compromises can be made. But usually, you can optimize pretty well with careful planning.

Mt. Stuart is a massive, complex peak on the dry side of the Washington Cascades. Its broad south face is a maze of couloirs and gullies. Human powered access is not reasonable in the winter, so it is a classic spring objective. Unfortunately, the steep south aspect often melts out faster than the approach road. So timing this line means waiting as long as possible before the south face melts out, and accepting a few extra miles of skinning or walking along the road. Except in rare circumstances, it is nearly impossible to be able to drive all the way to the trailhead, but still have sufficient snow in the south facing gullies.

The Sentinel Weekly imagery layer in the Base Layers menu on CalTopo is extremely helpful for timing an objective like this. When I skied this line last spring, I watched carefully to see when the ski lines were looking thin, and knew I had to pull the trigger then.

The pinches and bottoms of the lines were beginning to look thin in late April, 2025. Time to go!

Typically, we are concerned about too little snow coverage. However, there are often approaches where too much snow is a problem. In general, most approaches are best when the transition from no snow to complete coverage occurs as quickly as possible. This setup is found when the snow line is at a point in the route where you quickly gain elevation, although it can also be achieved by changing aspect or terrain at the right point.

Ruth Mountain in the North Cascades requires a 3-4 mile approach up the middle of a low elevation valley, with steep avalanche paths above on both sides. While the snow is melting out of the valley, approaching Ruth would be a constant transition between avalanche debris and dry trail sections through the forest patches. This would be painful and slow, requiring frequent transitions or challenging hiking through the snow. But once it melts out further, you can just hike the dry trail with skis on your back, before reaching full snow coverage in a higher basin. When I skied Ruth in June, we never stepped on snow the entire hike in, until we reached the basin where we could transition completely to skis.

Early May conditions – the approach trail crosses a dozen avalanche paths, necessitating a bunch of transitions.

Early June conditions – dry trail to full snow coverage, transitioning where the skier icon is.

Weather

Like any form of skiing, weather is essential. For spring “corn” skiing, the ideal setup is a week or two of “freeze thaw” conditions – where temperatures go above freezing during the day, and below at night. This melts and consolidates the snowpack, transitioning the snow to melt grains, which resemble corn as they soften in the sun. More than a few inches of fresh snow will usually reset the “corn cycle”, so it is not desirable at this time of year.

While CalTopo does not replace your favorite weather app, its abundant weather stations do include super helpful data on recent weather. In the right hand sidebar, just select “Weather Stations” from the Overlays menu and look for a station near your objective, ideally at a similar elevation.

Temperature, wind, and snow depth near Tioga Pass. The multiple days in a row with nighttime temperatures below freezing and daytime temperatures above freezing = a consistent freeze/thaw cycle, which is needed for corn!

The weather history is particularly useful for evaluating if a zone has been in a consistent freeze/thaw cycle. The location above is near Tioga Pass and has been seeing night time temperatures just below freezing, with daytime temperatures in the mid 50s. However, you can see that one of the recent nights was warmer, with temperatures never reaching freezing. Although the snowpack can refreeze on clear nights even at temperatures modestly above freezing, this does indicate that the snow conditions the next day would be more prone to becoming mushy much faster than normal. This plot suggests generally favorable conditions for spring skiing.

Temperature and wind speed and direction in Lee Vining. Notice how the night time temperatures don’t drop below freezing- not ideal for corn.

Down the road at Lee Vining, the overnight temperature is only dropping to 45F. This indicates that it is not really getting cold enough at night for a refreeze. Thus, good skiing would be hard to come by during the day.

Sun Exposure

After a solid refreeze, the key ingredient for ripe corn is solar input – the sun. With the long spring days, east aspects get the first light, and soften first. Then south aspects and west aspects corn up. If the sun is high enough, lower angled north aspects also might soften nicely, usually later in the day.

There’s no magic formula for how long a slope must be in direct sunlight before softening. It depends on a plethora of factors:

  • Slope angle: while the sun is lower in the sky in the morning, steep slopes receive more direct sunlight. Thus, steep east aspects usually soften before lower angled east aspects.
  • Temperature: A hard refreeze overnight delays softening, and warm daytime temperatures speed it up.
  • Cloud Cover: Clouds weaken the refreeze overnight, but also slow the softening during the day.
  • Wind: A breeze will also delay softening.

The CalTopo “Sun Exposure” layer in the Overlays menu will show you what slopes are in the sun at any point during the day throughout the year. This layer is incredibly helpful for determining when a slope starts to receive sun.

Around 9:30 AM in June, the SW Chutes of Mt. Adams, a classic corn ski, begins to see sunlight.

The SW Chutes of Mt. Adams, a classic corn ski in the Washington Cascades, doesn’t really see any sun until 9 AM. Its aspect, coupled with a high elevation of 9,000-11,000 ft, means that it typically does not reach “corn o’clock” until noon or 1 PM.

An under appreciated element of sun exposure is the refreeze when a slope returns to the shade. If you have ever been caught on a spring descent too late, you will not soon forget the harrowing experience of skiing down a refreezing slope, trying to keep your skis from hooking in the icy crust forming. Here, too, the sun exposure layer is very helpful.

The Emmons Glacier on Mt. Rainier reenters the shade around 5 PM in June. This author has had the unfortunate experience of descending the Emmons after 5 PM, and it was extremely unpleasant!

Spring Adventures

For the intrepid skier, spring can be a special time of year where we venture deeper into the mountains. CalTopo offers the tools you need to plan a successful spring ski trip.  Although for many, this season has been tough, there is still time to break out the sun glasses, skinny skis, and have a great adventure!

Author Kyle McCrohan is a CalTopo Educational Ambassador as well as an avid backcountry skier, climber, and storyteller at climberkyle.com.

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