Nears App

Our app for the Nears is now available for $5.99. It goes from Kansas City to Grease Gun Groove. Like with the Trapps App we will be expanding it, but updates are free. All the same features as the Trapps App plus collapsable pitch descriptions (descriptions are more in depth than in the first release of the Trapps App).

Nears App for Android

Nears App for iPhone

Also, in case you didn't make it to the New Paltz film festival here's Ben Carlson's Three 6's...

youtube.com/watch?v=xbrwf9I…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbrwf9IOXnQ

Awesome!

Thanks crew.

Gunks Apps wrote:Our app for the Nears is now available for $5.99. It goes from Kansas City to Grease Gun Groove. Like with the Trapps App we will be expanding it, but updates are free. All the same features as the Trapps App plus collapsable pitch descriptions (descriptions are more in depth than in the first release of the Trapps App). Nears App for Android Nears App for iPhone Also, in case you didn't make it to the New Paltz film festival here's Ben Carlson's Three 6's... youtube.com/watch?v=xbrwf9I… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbrwf9IOXnQ

Love the drone footage, can't stand the music [solution - turn the volume down/mute it]. :-/

Thanks for the app, looking forward to using it.

oh nice. just bought it.
way more up to date than the last nears guidebook. and thanks for the pretty pictures, route following in the nears is tricky, so many traverses!
Check out the new line off Le Plie'

I used this last week. Just as good as the Trapps app (once all the routes filled in).

Some of the routes (ie Slammin the Salmon) have FRA's listed, what's FRA? First Redpoint? If it was originally led on preplaced gear?

Hey Kevin,

I tried sending an email to gunksapp@gmail.com - My Nears app ends at Gelsa and I couldn't find any updates online. Any idea what's going on with it? My buddy had no problem getting the routes further left

Jon, when you have wifi, hit the menu button top left and then look for the check for update icon at the bottom.

Ah, didn't see it down there. Thanks Brian!

Brian CS wrote:Jon, when you have wifi, hit the menu button top left and then look for the check for update icon at the bottom.

Yup, mine was missing those extra routes and they came down as an update as I recall.

Not sure exactly what changed but make sure to get to version 8 if you have the Gunks app. Same process for updating as mentioned above

Jon Frisby wrote:Hey Kevin, I tried sending an email to gunksapp@gmail.com - My Nears app ends at Gelsa and I couldn't find any updates online. Any idea what's going on with it? My buddy had no problem getting the routes further left

Hi Jon, our email is gunksapps @ gmail, not gunksapp, which is why we didn't didn't get the message. You can also send us a message using the contact form on gunksapps.com/

We release frequent route updates within the app whenever we add a route or something changes (Menu -> Scroll to bottom -> Check for update) We occasionally release changes to the app itself (Open the App Store on your phone -> update)

Sounds like you found it though.

CFrac

I purchased both of the recently-released apps for the Near Trapps and I have some definite opinions about their relative merits.

I should say at the outset that I am friendly with Chris Fracchia, who is one of the prime movers behind the Trapps App and the Nears App. He and I aren't friends in the sense that we get together socially, but I have seen him at the cliffs many times and he has been very helpful to me when I have asked him for info on Millbrook. Apart from these interactions we have no relationship. Basically I say we are "friendly" because I admire his work and have had occasion to talk with him about it. I have never met the makers of the Next Ascent App.

With that disclaimer out of the way, I will cut to the chase:

There are now two apps available for the Nears, which is quite a luxury. If you look at them both it quickly becomes clear that The Nears App is far superior to the Next Ascent App.

1. Completeness

Neither app is finished. The Nears App is complete from the beginning of the cliff out to Yum Yum Yab Yum. The Next Ascent App currently extends further down the cliff-- all the way down to Lean and Mean-- but there are large gaps covering huge portions of the cliff. The developers of both apps promise comprehensive coverage at some point in the future.

If you look at the way the routes finished so far are documented, however, you will see that the Nears App is far more comprehensive. In the areas covered so far, the Nears App documents pretty much every route, with numerous variations meticulously documented. The Next Ascent App, by contrast, skips a lot of routes and generally doesn't provide the variations.

Take the opening portion of the cliff. Last week I was in the Nears and it was raining. I was in the opening part of the cliff where it stays dry and I did a route called Crass. I only did this route because it appears in the Nears App. It isn't in the Next Ascent App. It is no classic but it has a great crux roof and then another fun traverse/roof escape.

Or take a look at Inverted Layback-- a popular 5.9 with several different possible starts. The Nears App documents all of the variations and gives you an opinion about them. The Next Ascent App only gives one option.

2. Overview Photo Quality

Both apps have large overview photos of the cliff with the lines drawn in. The ones in the Nears App are of higher resolution than the ones in the Next Ascent App. The difference is quite noticeable, to the extent that with the Nears App you can really make out exactly where to go, while from the overview photos in the Next Ascent App you sometimes cannot, because large features are obscured.

3. Detailed Base Photos

The Nears App has a detailed base photo for every single route, which makes finding the start of the routes all but idiot-proof. The Next Ascent App only occasionally provides such a photo for a small number of the climbs, and sometimes the photo provided is actually for a neighboring route.

4. Quality of Descriptions

The Nears App has descriptions of every pitch and variation. The descriptions aren't quite as complete as you'll find in the Williams guidebook but they are substantial. It is a real improvement over the Trapps App, where the initial editorial judgment was to make the descriptions very spare. (This has since been corrected to a large extent by the makers of the Trapps App, but that is another subject.)

In the Next Ascent app, it is much more spotty. Sometimes there are detailed descriptions, sometimes not. Easy Rider is included in the app but no pitches are actually described. If you look at the legendary sandbag Broken Sling (5.8), you'll find a good photo of the base and an accurate overview topo photo, but no description of the two pitches at all. I would like to see the terror on the face of the 5.8 leader who starts up Broken Sling with only the Next Ascent app for guidance!

Sometimes the descriptions in the Next Ascent app leave much to be desired, or leave out crucial details. Wooly Clam Taco has a description,for example, but it just says one should start on Eastertime Too and "go left." The description of Yellow Belly's pitch two fails to mention that pitch's defining feature, the alcove. These are just a few examples.

5. Accuracy

I sometimes wish to quibble with the makers of the Nears App about their editorial choices. But I haven't found any outright mistakes in their descriptions of routes or in the lines on the photos. Chris and his collaborators seem to be almost maniacal in their efforts to get the lines on the photos correct.

In the Next Ascent app, by contrast, I found several issues in a single pass through the app. Sometimes the information is simply missing or is actually for a neighboring route-- such as when the app provides a description of the obscure route Topeka but provides a detail photo of Kansas City, or similarly provides a description of a route called Sling Line but a base photo of Broken Sling.

On other occasions I saw things I regarded as mistakes. The Outer Space (5.8) topo line sends you into the correct notch but then sends you over a 5.10 variation roof instead of left to the standard belay. One other example: I think the Grand Central (5.9) topo line should go further right when that route goes around the nose.

And then there are other times when the editorial choices are highly questionable but I guess I can't call them "mistakes." Take, for instance, Fat City, which is perhaps the most legendary route in the Nears. The topo line on the overview photo in the Next Ascent app sends the climber left up the traditional Fat City, skipping the overhang which provides the crux 5.10d climbing on the Direct version which everyone does nowadays. And then the description of the upper roof (with the famous hard-to-clip piton) states simply "go over the crux roof with spooky maneuvering." I'm not sure what this description does for anyone. If you wanted to do Fat City and you only had the Next Ascent app, you wouldn't know the Direct existed and you might not be able to locate the upper crux.

Or take the megaclassic Yellow Ridge (5.7), one of the best climbs in the Gunks. I guess it isn't a mistake that the Next Ascent folks give no base photo and don't describe the climbing up to the off-width. In the Williams guidebook there are at least three different potential starts, and in the Nears App there are two, very clearly photographed and described. But users of the Next Ascent app are told only to climb up to the off-width, which has the potential of sending them up the poorly protected direct start up the nose of rock just beneath the off-width. this doesn't serve the users of the app very well.

6. Navigation

The Nears App is easy to use. It has a seach function for names and grades. Each route has a clear base photo with descriptions and you can click through to the topo overview. Simple.

The Next Ascent App has no search function. Navigation is divided by the areas of the cliff and if you have a route in mind but don't know which area it is in, good luck finding it. There are useless area maps purporting to help with the approach but really they just show Rte 44/55 on a map with portions of the cliff marked by a star in the middle of a green area. The app can be downloaded to either an iPhone or an iPad but the app is clearly optimized for the phone. When I try to use it on my iPad sometimes the things I want to click on are off screen and I can't scroll to them.

Overall, I think the choice is clear. It is kind of amazing that we now have two of these apps for the Near Trapps. If the Nears App did not exist, I might recommend the Next Ascent app as a worthy supplement to the guidebook. It is handy to have on your phone if you don't want to carry the book up the cliff.

But since the Nears App exists, I can't see any reason to purchase the Next Ascent version. The Nears App is just so much better in every respect.

Nice review Seth. I agree 100% with your assessment of the Nears App (I haven't seen/had a need for the other one).

SethG

You were clearly put up by someone to defame the Next Ascent app as nobody would take the time to nitpick every detail of that app like you did.

You are clearly a billboard for the Gunks App, app. C'mon dude.

Also with the Next Ascent app you get a free Smith Rock guidebook, a free bouldering app for someplace in Pennsylvania, and I see they just added other free apps for Devils Tower or something.

Personally I think both apps are amazing but Im not going to go busting Next Ascents chops because I know Chris Fraccia. I support both apps but I especially support the Next Ascent app because I'm getting free guidebooks from them when I purchase their app.

I have both apps and I totally disagree with most of what you said. You skim over issues that are apparent with routes missing in the Gunks app, app but knock Next Ascent for the same thing?

I think the Next Ascent app is every bit as good as the other app. It's not perfect but the drone ariel photos in BOTH apps are amazing.

You are certainly entitled to your clearly skewed opinion but I want to support Next Ascent so I can continue to get free guidebooks and I really appreciate what they are doing.

Brad