The mapping for our apps is a pretty complicated business and has been a big learning curve for everyone.

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Working with Harvey Maps to produce our first app of Everest Base Camp, we first asked them to create a map of the entire route from Jiri to Lukla.  Issie then walked the route (Jiri to EBC) with a GPS, sending back the GPX files from Kathmandu.

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Once that was complete, at a scale of 1:100,000, it looked fantastic printed out.  However, as print was not going to be our media for these products, we needed to test it out on the phone.

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Once our developer Keith had created enough of a platform for us to do that we realised very quickly that one layer of 1:100,000 was definitely not going to be enough.  Opening up the map on the phone it quickly lost its resolution, the paths and contours became too wide, the text too big and there was not nearly enough information, even although Harvey’s had taken as much information as they could from the aerial photos.  When Issie had done the original GPS of the route, because we were not entirely sure of how much information was required she had only waypointed a few big features along the way.

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We decided we needed more layers and at least one more scale for the map so that more features could be shown to help trekkers see where they were, and we could add things like mani stones, walls and prayer wheels.  We also felt it was important that more information was available in the bigger villages of Namche Bazar and of Lukla; just more detailed information across the whole map really.

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So Issie made another trip back to Nepal in January (pretty chilly at that time of year!) with her GPS, drawing pad and two sherpa friends, Cshiring and Dan Bhadur. The idea was to GPS and draw every feature along the path up to EBC so that when looking at the map to determine your location there would be more features available.  Issie took the more complex section from Lukla up to Kyangjuma, and Cshiring travelled quickly (as only sherpas born in that region can do) up to Kyangjuma and then GPS’ed the entire section up to Kala Pattar (minus 20 at Gorak Shep, just below Kala Pattar).

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Frozen fingers, no electricity and storms not withstanding, the Khumbu in the winter is just fantastic.  Crystal clear days, stunning views and no people, it is one of the quietest times of the year for visitors if you don’t mind the cold.  In fact Namche Bazar had more electricity than Kathmandu, so Issie was able to send all the GPX files direct back to the team at Harvey’s who continued working on the new scale version of the map.

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Three of Issie's hand drawn maps