Elevation Gain and Loss is double the correct amount
Answered
Mapping in the grand canyon and the gain/loss is being presented at twice the correct amount (10000 ft to the river versus 5000 ft).
It is doing this consistently for any route.
Is this an issue on Gaia end as I've never had this issue with browser mapping previously.
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Hey Jay,
Elevations appear to be showing correctly for me at this time. Are you still experiencing this?
If so, please contact support and share the trail you're routing and a screenshot or two.
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Hello! I've got similar problems in BC. The desktop map (and the android app version) is showing 3.47 km and 116 m gain for a route I hiked in October that was way longer and steeper than noted. It was a bit of a nasty surprise when we arrived! I knew it must be somewhat off just by looking at the contours, but was still confused why it was so very far off. (Bedwell Lake Trail).
If I choose the "create route" tool and run it up the exact same trail, it tells me it is 3.62 km long with 506m ascent. That's closer to the truth, but still several km short and well below what my GPS tracked. (Round trip shows 10.8 km with over 600m gain)
Just now, while trying to figure this out, I also noticed that although I have "metric" selected in my options, and readouts on trails are showing km and metres elevation, the map itself still shows contours in feet (which is fine, i can use both, just thought I'd point it out as it is confusing)
From the screenshots below: 3200 ft - 1800 ft = 1400 ft = 426 m between end points, impossible to only have 118 m gain in that trail.
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I'm in CA and I've been seeing this gross over-estimation of the elevation gain for several weeks now. It happens on almost all routes. Here's an example:
Gaia estimates 5,400ft gain: https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=13.2/-122.3328/37.4426&pubLink=c6xnpIuhEBrtMuQKSeFtqV1e&trackId=cea104f6-c3e3-48f3-ab23-d2a88cad0dbe
Actual is 4,150ft: https://www.strava.com/activities/4310352145
I extracted the GPX from the actual run, then import it into Gaia. Elevation gain is now 3,855ft. Under-estimate, but a lot closer than the route I created manually. Link to the imported route: https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=13.5/-122.3413/37.4392&pubLink=NbrU9ExC9iZQJypXWVgggBjl&trackId=68165e69-b16d-4d01-b982-a70ccec1662f
I'm planning to do some Grand Canyon hike this month and just like Jay (OP), the elevation gain estimate is doubled. Here's a basic South Kaibab - Phantom Ranch - Bright Angel route. Estimated elevation gain is 10,804ft: https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=13.8/-112.1240/36.0772&pubLink=ZtiPyHZiA4y7GbWUoxBwNal2&trackId=aa2a1813-5f8e-46e0-8efe-bae51242d76f
But from AllTrails, it's 4,845ft: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/trail/us/arizona/south-kaibab-phantom-ranch-and-bright-angel-trail-loop
Someone's Strava recording shows 3,223ft gain: https://www.strava.com/routes/3646991
Clearly 10K ft gain is very wrong.
Thanks and please fix this soon.
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Hi all,
We've seen a few reports of routes and trails displaying unexpected elevation stats.
We're looking into this more and we plan to update our algorithm so that it produces more expected elevation stats in situations like these.
An elevation algorithm can spit out vastly different results based on how often you sample the points. For a mountainous track that has continuously undulating ups and downs, it's possible to get widely different elevations calculated, depending on how frequently you want to sample the points. It will be much higher if you include every tiny up and down. If you under-sample - peaks and valleys may get cut off and the elevation will be too low.
We think the trick is finding the middle ground between what people expect to see, and what is most accurate.
Unfortunately, I don't have an ETA on when you can expect this update to happen, but we are working on it.
@julie_tarr
You can switch to Gaia Topo (meters) with these steps:
Add and Manage Map Sources in Android
Add and Manage Map Sources in iOS
Add and Manage Map Sources on gaiagps.com
If you have any further questions, please contact Support here. -
I am noticing this problem as well now, also in the grand canyon. Elevation on route profiles is just sometimes wrong, and the cumulative elevation is absurdly high, as much as double of what I get from other mapping tools (ridewithgps). attached are screenshots of an elevation profile and a point where the elevations do not agree. Putting the wrong elevations aside, it seems to me the algorithm that is interpolating and integrating elevation differences is far too noisy (the elevation profiles are very noisy).
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