Support

Maps and planning

Downloading maps for a country

Open Offline Areas in the app and download the country you need. Each pack contains the topo map, graded trails, points of interest, contour lines and the terrain model, and works with no connection at all. Downloads need Wi-Fi or mobile data and some free space; it's best to download at home before you leave.

Countries that don't have a pack yet are marked Coming soon: more are added over time, and they are included in your purchase at no extra cost. To remove a country and free up space, swipe it to the left in Offline Areas.

Planning a route

Tap Plan route, choose MTB or Hike and the maximum grade, then tap the map to add waypoints; drag a point to move it. The route follows the trails in your offline map and shows distance, elevation gain and descent, estimated time and arrival time, with warnings for steep sections. If you only set a starting point, the app can suggest loops of about 2 hours, 4 hours or a full day. A short guide is in Settings › Help › Planner guide.

Planned routes are suggestions calculated automatically: always check them against the terrain, signs and local rules.

Trail colors and grades

Each trail is colored by its grade: the SAC hiking scale from T1 to T6 and the Singletrail MTB scale from S0 to S6. In Settings › Trails you can set the maximum difficulty shown for hiking and MTB, and choose whether to show ungraded trails.

Trails and grades come from OpenStreetMap. If something is wrong, you can correct it directly on OpenStreetMap; the fix reaches Peak Explorer when the country pack is next rebuilt.

Recording

Recording a hike or ride

Tap REC. The app records distance, time, elevation, elevation gain and speed, and keeps recording with the screen locked; iOS shows the location indicator while it does. When you're done, tap Finish, give the track a name and save it. You'll find it in Hikes with its elevation profile and stats.

In Settings › Recording you can choose the GPS accuracy (Best, Balanced about 10 m, or Battery saver about 100 m) and keep the screen on. Elevation gain is measured with the barometer and filtered for noise.

Apple Watch

The Apple Watch app needs watchOS 10 or later. If it isn't on your watch yet, install it from the Watch app on your iPhone (in the list of available apps).

Open Peak Explorer on the watch and tap REC: the recording also starts on your iPhone, which records the GPS track, so keep the iPhone with you. The watch shows your heart rate and effort zone and sends them to the iPhone. It also works the other way: when you start a recording on the iPhone, the iPhone opens the watch app and starts its session automatically. When you finish and save the hike on the iPhone, the workout is saved to Health.

If the heart rate doesn't appear, check that the watch is snug on your wrist, that the watch app is open, and that Health permissions are on (see below).

Health permissions

The first time you start a recording, iOS asks which Health data Peak Explorer may use. The app reads heart rate, date of birth (only to estimate your maximum heart rate for effort zones), body weight and active energy, and saves your hikes as workouts. You can change these choices at any time in the Health app: tap your profile picture, then Apps › Peak Explorer.

The app never copies health data to iCloud and never uses it for advertising. Details are in the Privacy Policy.

Your data

iCloud and a new iPhone

Settings › iCloud › Save to iCloud is on by default. Your hikes, saved routes, preferences, emergency contacts and planner draft are copied to your own iCloud (hikes and routes appear in the Peak Explorer folder of iCloud Drive). On a new iPhone signed in to the same Apple Account, install Peak Explorer and keep Save to iCloud on: they come back by themselves.

Heart rate, calories and cadence are not copied to iCloud: they stay on the iPhone where they were recorded and in Health. Turning Save to iCloud off stops the copying but deletes nothing already in iCloud.

Importing and exporting GPX

Import: in Routes, tap Import GPX, or open a .gpx file from Files, Mail or Safari and choose Peak Explorer. Imported routes are drawn in orange, also in 3D and offline. Swipe a route to the left to delete it.

Export: open a hike and tap Export GPX, or save and share a planned route from the planner. A hike's GPX file includes the heart-rate values recorded during it, so think about who you send it to.

Weather, radar and lightning

The weather layer is off until you switch it on from the map, and it needs a connection. It shows precipitation radar with the last hour animated, lightning, and hour-by-hour forecasts for where you are or any spot you tap.

• Radar: EUMETNET OPERA (Europe), Radar-DPC of the Italian Civil Protection Department (Italy), NOAA / National Weather Service (United States), Environment and Climate Change Canada (Canada).
• Lightning: EUMETSAT (Europe, Africa, Middle East and Atlantic) and NOAA nowCOAST (Americas, Atlantic and Pacific).
• Forecasts: MET Norway.

These are public services. Their data can be delayed or incomplete and is for information only: for warnings, always follow your national weather service. What each service receives is explained in the Privacy Policy, and the licenses are on the Licenses page.

Deleting your data

• A hike: open it and tap Delete hike. A route: swipe it to the left in Routes. A country: swipe it to the left in Offline Areas. A contact: remove it on the Emergency Location screen.
• Everything on the iPhone: delete the app.
• The iCloud copy: delete the Peak Explorer folder in the Files app (iCloud Drive), or the app's data in Settings › your name › iCloud › Manage Storage.
• Workouts and health samples: in the Health app.

The start date of the free trial stays in the Keychain on your iPhone after the app is deleted, so that reinstalling doesn't restart the trial. It is only a date. It is removed when the iPhone is erased and set up as new, and comes back if you restore a backup that contains it.

After the free trial, if you haven't bought the app, your hikes and routes stay available: tap anywhere in the locked app to open the purchase page, then Your Hikes and Routes, to open them, export them as GPX or delete them. Contacts can always be removed on the Emergency Location screen (it stays available), and deleting the app deletes everything.

Your location

The Emergency Location screen

Open it with the red button on the left side of the map. It shows your coordinates in large type (read the digits in pairs), with elevation, accuracy and the time of the fix. From there you can copy your location, see it in other formats, call the suggested emergency number or send a text message to up to three contacts. The screen stays available even after the trial, without a purchase.

Good to know:

• The screen does not call or message anyone by itself: calls and texts go through the Phone and Messages apps on your iPhone, and a message leaves only when you tap Send.
• Calls and messages need mobile coverage. With a weak signal a text message has a better chance than a call, but with no signal neither can go through.
• It is not a satellite messenger or a personal locator beacon. On iPhone 14 or later, in countries where Apple offers it, iOS itself can offer Emergency SOS via satellite when an emergency call doesn't connect; that is an Apple feature, separate from Peak Explorer.
• If there is no fresh GPS fix, the screen shows the last known position and tells you. Move to where you can see more sky, away from rock faces and trees, and hold the phone still.

Trial and purchase

Free trial

Peak Explorer is free with every feature for 3 days. The trial starts when you tap Start Free Trial on the welcome screen, and the time left is shown at the bottom of the screen. There is no card to enter and nothing to cancel. The trial can be used once on each iPhone: reinstalling the app does not start it again.

When the trial ends without a purchase, the app locks: maps (including downloaded ones), trails, the planner, recording and weather. Your downloads stay on your iPhone and come back as soon as you unlock, and your hikes and routes stay available on the purchase page, where you can open, export or delete them. A recording in progress is not cut off: the app locks when you finish it.

Buying and restoring

Tap anywhere after the trial, or open Settings › Unlock Peak Explorer, to see the purchase page. It is a one-time purchase, with the price shown in your currency; there is no subscription. It includes every country pack, also the ones added later, at no extra cost.

New iPhone, or reinstalled the app? Open the purchase page and tap Restore Purchases. A purchase made with the same Apple Account comes back at no charge.

If the page says purchases are turned off on this iPhone, check Settings › Screen Time › Content & Privacy Restrictions, where in-app purchases may be blocked.

Family Sharing

Family Sharing is not available for Peak Explorer's purchase: each Apple Account needs its own.

Refunds

Purchases are handled by Apple, so refunds are requested from Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com. We can't see payments or issue refunds directly, but if something doesn't work, write to us and we'll do our best to fix it. Your statutory rights regarding the conformity of the app are not affected (section 5 of the Additional Terms).