Here at Gear Institute, our sole focus is testing gear. By working with top testers who are experts in their field, we strive to provide you the reader with the most objective, transparent, expert advice on the products you rely on to enjoy the great outdoors.
But when it comes to finding all those great places to go, we tend to rely on the advice of the local experts. Which is why we’re so excited about Bivy.com, a new app, website, and community of like-minded adventurers actively creating and sharing mapped routes for the best places to hike, paddle, ski, camp, climb, and bike.
With more than 30,000 adventures already in the Bivy database, the site is quickly becoming a kind of Wikipedia of adventure-specific intel. The more people who contribute, the better it gets.
Founded in 2012 by Vance Cook, an avid mountaineer, rock climber, outdoor adventurer, and long time software developer, Bivy was created to help people find, track, and share outdoor adventures and maps. A companion mobile app identifies the details, location, and full path of tens of thousands of trails, waterways, and climbing routes as well.
Bivy was already years into development, but still looking for a name when Vance and his long time climbing partner, Ciprian, were forced into an emergency bivy in an ice cave at the top of Grand Teton. They had just finished climbing up the Complete Exum route when they were hit by a snowstorm, leaving no safe retreat. The decision to bivy kept them safe, and settled the name of the site.
Here are some key Bivy features – all completely free to use:
- Fully mapped routes for 30,000+ adventures.
- 17 different activities: Hiking, Biking, Backcountry skiing, Paddling, Camping, Climbing, Bouldering, and more.
- Integrates with your phone maps to give you directions to the start of any adventure.
- Every adventure is fully mapped from start to finish, including mapped approaches for climbing routes and beta photos of every route.
- Make yourself visible to friends and followers so you can always be found.
- Track your elevation, distance and ETA. Also track new adventures and create new paths and maps.
- Maps and adventures are downloadable for use offline. GPS still shows your location on the map even if you are out of cell service.
- Available on iOS now and also on Android on the Google Play store.
Check it out and sign-up at Bivy.com.
Editor’s Note: This post is part of a paid campaign to promote the launch of Bivy.com.