Ascent and descent are totally wrong when planning a route
I see several somewhat related posts, so sorry for potential duplicaiton, but I see zero answers to any previous posts that either explain what the user is doing wrong, or acknowledge that there is an issue.
The issue is that total ascent and descent are WAY overstated when creating a route. If you take a route that is almost 100% downhill it reports that the route has significant ascent to go with the descent even though the elevation profile doesn't show this. Since many people may not be familiar with my local trails I'll use an example of a very popular trail. The South Kaibab trail in Grand Canyon NP goes from the south rim down to the Colorado River. GAIA GPS seems to report an accurate distance (6.3 miles from TH to middle of bridge across the river) and correct max and min elevations. It also shows an almost continuous downhill elevation profile, with TINY uphill sections. Having hiked this before I know there are no major uphill sections when doing from the rim to the river. However, GAIA GPS reports the total decent as 6,758' and total ascent as 2,127' for this route. Net change is correct, but there is not >2K' of UPHILL on the hike DOWN into the canyon. I see similar things on every single route I create where I have knowledge of the hike. Take a almost continuous uphill or downhill section and the tool shows a correct elevation profile (ascending or descending) but shows there is a big ascent on a downhill route or a big descent on an uphill route. Net is the tol is worthless when trying to understand total elevation gain and loss which is very important when planning a trip in mountainous terrain.
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I've noticed this on several trails around my area, perhaps a 25-30% deviation that I chalked up to the inherent inaccuracy of gps mapping(although I don't remember it being this bad a year ago). As it would happen I am in the process of planning out a Grand Canyon Backpacking trip and for Rim to Rim to Rim and it has the ascent listed as being 25k overall which was over double what NPS has on their website which is 10k ascent.
Sadly I am finding that GAIA GPS is becoming buggier and have had many of my existing trial plans duplicate themselves. I like a lot of aspects of GAIA GPS and have sold 3 subs to it but if this continues I'll have to find a new platform. -
I am having this same issue on MTB trails in the Tahoe area. When planning routes on Gaia GPS, ascent and decent are exaggerated by as much as double. I know these trails and have measured them using various apps and tools. There is definitely an issue with Gaia.
GAIA ... PLEASE AT LEAST ADDRESS THIS ISSUE AND TELL US YOU ARE WORKING ON IT!!!!
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Damn no one at Gaia answers this? I'm getting the same unrealistic compute:
yesterday I planned a route, gave me 4k elevation, did it the same day and ended up doing 2k elevation gain -
That is quite a difference, I was quite upset.
Here is another example: Computed w/ gaia I get 7.4k elev. gain
https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=11.4/-122.3545/37.2849&pubLink=jrzjQ5ofwMfDCEvEw393XGeH&trackId=6520ecb0-4d77-4882-abf8-e5cfd41cbeceComputed w/ kommot a more realistic 4.7k elevation here: https://www.komoot.com/tour/983421646?ref=wtd
You can see from the elevation curve that gaia is completely wrong. I pay for this tool, I would expect a little more accuracy. Like the poster above said, tell us that you are working on it...
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