Strava for Backpacking?

Sure!

These are from a recent walkabout in Kings Canyon:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

Here’s the relive from Day 4: https://www.relive.cc/view/1172815057

If you want to get a relive of the entire hike, it can be done, but you have to do a little offline gpx file manipulation. I discovered that it becomes challenging to track where you are, with the camera swinging around the way that it does in relive. For example, see here: https://www.relive.cc/view/1145021792

I use a Suunto Ambit 3 Peak. If I set it to the longest battery life setting, it records a point only every minute, but it can record for a total of 200 hours. The 60 second spacing creates issues in Strava when it tries to parse the file, and as a result, speed and mile splits will be way off. Again, it can be solved with a little gpx file manipulation, but if you don’t care about splits, it still gets the rest of it right. Well, almost–with 60 second spacing, it will get the distance short, sometimes fairly significantly, depending on how fast you’re moving and how straight your route is. That’s not Strava’s fault, of course, that’s a limitation of the 60 second pacing.

I don’t think I’d ever try it with an iPhone. I’m not sure how quickly it drains the battery, but I bet the answer is: “Pretty quickly”.

Thanks, Adam, that’s awesome! Very cool trip and great pictures.

Not super worried about splits as we’ll be moving relatively slow but I’d definitely want to get a relive of the whole trip in one video if possible.

I was thinking of using the phone since I’ll be carrying it and I don’t have a Suunto or Garmin watch. I do have an Apple watch S2 though but hadn’t really considered bringing it due to the battery life and needing to be charged daily. I suppose it wouldn’t be that bad to charge it from my power brick. As much as I want the video I definitely don’t want to shell out $450 bucks for another GPS watch.

I think I’ll test the Apple watch running Strava all day and see how long the battery lasts. If I can squeeze 8-10 hours out of it it may work.

I use Strava a lot, mostly for running but enjoy the data for hiking as well.

I record my hikes with my GarminFenix 3. It has an method to extend battery life called UltraTrac (if I understand correctly, it takes a GPS-signal for 15 seconds every 75 seconds) but in my experience it’s way off; it hugely overestimates daily distances. So now I record my hikes like I record my runs: a datapoint every second.

Battery life is approx 16 tot 18 hours, so roughly two days. I carry a small lipstick-sized Anker just for the Fenix (I really like data, hah).

It’s nice having the data on Strava, and on Garmin Connect. And whilst hiking it’s nice knowing the distance hiked, how much vertical you’ve already gained, the altitude you’re on, when the sun goes down…

For example, my first day along the GR54 in the French Alps a couple of days ago:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1186693931

that’s quite a route, adam!

i did a bit of your route in reverse a week before you: the steep bushwack down from bench and back up the other side to that beautiful lake below cartridge.

since you are recording your gpx data on a non-strava watch (…right?), does that mean that i could import my own gpx onto their site and do one of those “relive” jammers? appears to be much nicer than google earth, which is getting pretty rickety.

I kept Strava open on my Apple watch all day and got the low battery warning after 5hrs. So that’s definitely not going to work, unfortunately.

You can import the gpx into Strava and then get the relive I think, Ben. Maybe Adam knows if the imported data will actually trigger the video? Relive sends you a free video after your activity, but the “club” membership with more enabled options is a monthly subscription. Seems like it would be neat to try it out, but it’s not worth it for me.

I really like the app though, it’s very fun. Heres a training hike I did on Sunday:

https://www.relive.cc/view/1189272031

The titles an inside joke for a good friend, lol. ;)

ben . said:

that’s quite a route, adam!

Thanks! It was a great route. We cut it a little bit short (had been hoping to summit Arrow Peak), but weather didn’t cooperate. Adventurous nonetheless! And spectacular, scenery-wise. Some photos with captions (and a map) here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/96747006@N05/albums/72157688741799975

…does that mean that i could import my own gpx onto their site and do one of those “relive” jammers?

Yes, absolutely. I use a Suunto watch, which means I need to download the gpx, tcx or fit file from Movescount, then upload to Strava. Uploading that file triggers the relive app to run off and make the nice lil’ movie for you. I think the only catch is that when you upload it, you need to not mark it as private.

If you have multiple days in multiple files, you need to merge them before uploading. Or merge them after uploading the individual days, but then you also need to shift the dates in your merged file so that Strava doesn’t think you’re uploading a duplicate. That upload will trigger relive, and as soon as the movie is made, you can delete the merged activity off of Strava.

Ralph said:

…Heres a training hike I did on Sunday:…

Nice! I was just running around there a few weeks ago. I’m in the east bay.

If I were in your shoes, I’d look for a phone app that can record a gpx file that you can later access, but that does so with low battery usage. I suspect somebody has made one, but I’ve never looked. Once you get the gpx file, you’re golden–just upload it to Strava.

Lastly, there’s one more alternative, if all you want is the movie, and not accurate speed/pace information or GPS tracking: You could enter your route into Sierra Mapper or CalTopo, then export from CalTopo as a gpx file. Then, either find a website that will add timestamps to a gpx file, or write your own code to do it (or ask me), and then, voila! Upload it to Strava, which will kick off the relive movie, and there you have it. You can delete the Strava activity; you still have your movie.

i repeat, that is quite a route! would love to pick your brains about it sometime.

thanks for explaining how the magic of relive videos works. that all sounds doable, but also like a lot of work. i also don’t belong to strava in any paid tier way, so perhaps it’s not even possible.

I usually use my Ambit 3 Peak to record everything, whether it be hiking, backpacking or running. On my way up to Lone Pine last Thursday my watch display went blank. Couldnt get my watch to reboot or show a display so that was that. I did have my Inreach tracking while I was out on my trip so when I got home and synced my Inreach I downloaded the tracks and uploaded them to Strava. No HR or other fun data, but it is what it is.

Here are the tracks from my 3 day trip from Horseshoe Meadows to Whitney Portal:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

I record my hiking tracks with OsmAnd app on my Android phone. Also helps with navigation.

I use a Garmin 920XT and have a battery to recharge it.  I’m not too concerned about battery life since I recharge it every night.  I would rather have it measure accurately.  I track all my runs, hikes, backpacking and packrafting trips on strava. I end up carrying a little extra weight with my electronics but I like data.

@visualscapes You have received a lot of great feedback however just wanted to leave my feedback as well. Like others I like the data of tracking my hikes via Strava, its how I reflect at year end on miles, amount of trips, etc.

For my trips I used the iphone app and at the end of the day just finished the current track and began a new track the next day. When doing so I could go a few days without charging by shutting the phone down at night and staying on airplane mode.

Once I got home and the tracks uploaded to Strava I downloaded the gpx tracks and used this tool to merge them all and re-upload the file to Strava. It has worked flawlessly for awhile however with my desire to also have an interactive map while hiking I recently tried out Gaia GPS app for the map portion and since it has a tracking option as well I used that and merged the gpx tracks with the tool above. Agian it worked flawlessly and as an added bonus you can upload a track that was created in CalTopo to which you can follow on the map that you downloaded previously.

Hope that helps. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have.

To summarize what Sean said, it seems to me like there are two smart choices. Either:

(1) Use your smartphone, ending your track/recording at the end of each day, then turn off the phone while you sleep, and begin a new track/recording the next day. Gives a few days of battery life, as Sean said, and then you can just recharge the phone while you’re hiking once it’s low (bring an Anker battery or something). Also has the added advantage of having a map right there in your face while you record, which is useful. Then use a third-party tool to combine those separate recordings into one if you want a single Relive video.

(2) Use a Suunto Ambit3 Peak or Suunto Sparta Ultra HR (longest battery life I’ve seen in a GPS watch so far) to get about two full days’ worth of fairly accurate GPS data before recharging. To be specific, the Ambit3 gets 20 hours of GPS tracking with 1-second tracking accuracy, 30 hours with 5-second tracking accuracy, and 200 hours with 60-second tracking accuracy. Suunto Sparta Ultra HR (the newest shiniest Suunto watch) gets 18 hours of GPS tracking with 1-second tracking accuracy, 35 hours with 5-second tracking accuracy, and 140 hours with 60-second tracking accuracy (but has a prettier color screen and a few other differences from Ambit3).

Advantage of the watch is that your phone is totally unused and has full juice, though this advantage isn’t much of one considering you probably won’t do much with the phone while in the wilderness anyway. So unless you really foresee needing the phone for various intensive tasks, like constant photo-taking or video-editing or reading books late at night, it seems like just using a solid smartphone is the cheapest option for recording hikes, even really long ones, and also seems just as effective as using the watches. You’ll have to charge the smartphone and the watches just as often unless you choose to use the much-less-accurate-but-battery-saving modes on the watches. Personally, I’d rather have accurate data, at which point the devices are at parity.

Am I missing anything?

There is always the option of leaving ALL the electronics behind (serious weight saving), and using map and compass, small watch and a small pencil and notepad.

Timing is accurate. Summits are accurate. Ridge junctions and creek junctions are accurate.

And it can be hundreds of dollars cheaper.

Cheers

And of course Roger, you could leave your new-flangled map, compass, watch pencil and notepad at home for some serious weight savings and just navigate like the aborigines did! I don’t know why you have to be at the bleeding edge of new technology all the time :)

Next you will talking about watches you don’t have to wind up!

A hit indeed. I carry an electronic watch because it has an extremely useful altimeter in it. In the mountains, especially in fog or bad weather, an altimeter is just as useful as a compass.

Can I plead that the pencil is a very small one?

Cheers