Mountain Project vs Avalanche Lab
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Mountain Project
Discover and navigate to outdoor climbing areas, and find specific routes with detailed filters. Access route beta, photos, and topos offline, and view climbing area statistics. Connect with other climbers in the forum, track your progress, and create to-do lists.
- Find and navigate to climbing areas
- Sort routes by discipline, difficulty, and rating
- Search 155,000+ climbing routes offline
- Download route beta, photos, and topos for offline use
- View climbing area route statistics and critical info
- Connect with climbers in the forum
- Track attempts, sends, and create to-do lists
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Beyond the Guidebook: The Definitive Rock Climbing Resource. • Find outdoor climbing areas near you, and navigate to them, using the map. This super-handy new feature is one of our personal faves. • The much requested route finder: Easily sort routes by discipline, difficulty, star ranking and more. If a 4-star M9 is your thing, we'll help you find it. • Search our entire database of 155,000+ climbing routes, even offline. • Download route beta, photos, and topos state by state for offline use — because the best crags often have the worst reception. • View a climbing area’s route stats (how many 5.11s are there?) and critical info (when is the raptor closure again?) in a single glance. • Chat, ask questions, or put out a call for partners in our forum. • Rate routes and photos, keep track of attempts & sends, or make a to-do list • It's free to download and free of advertising too. Everything you need, nothing you don't.
Avalanche Lab
Record snow and avalanche data in the field using your iPhone. Measure slope angles, record crown profiles, and map slides with GPS. Share your findings instantly with colleagues and the wider community.
- Snow pit diagram creation
- GPS slide mapping
- Slope angle measurement
- Crown profile recording
- Offline field use
- Data export (PDF, KML, CAAML)
- Import CAAML profiles
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Imagine... You see an avalanche, you ski over to the crown and pull out your iPhone. You snap a photo, measure the slope angle and aspect, then record a crown profile, all on your phone. As you ski down the path, you use your phone as GPS to map the slide. When you get to the toe of the slide you send a diagram of the crown and a map of the slide to your colleagues back at the office, then you post it to the Avalanche Lab network to alert everyone else. With Avalanche Lab you can do all that and more. Avalanche Lab was developed out of a desire to easily enter snow and avalanche data in the field, and then electronically share that data. Avalanche Lab uses all those fancy features on your iPhone to make it as easy as possible. It has all the features an avalanche professional would want, and is simple enough to be used by backcountry skiers and even snowboarders. Avalanche Lab includes clinometer, GPS, and compass support so you can accurately measure and mark your field sites. Avalanche Lab is designed to be used in the field, there is no need for a wifi or cell signal. Most inputs are multiple choice to eliminate the need for typing, and the buttons are big for use with cold fingers. Avalanche Lab produces professional quality snow pit diagrams in the standard format, and in a compact format for display on mobile devices, and saves diagrams as an image or PDF file. Other export formats include KML maps of avalanches, CAAML xml, and SnowPilot format. Avalanche Lab can also import CAAML v5 snow profiles so you can load data from other software for viewing in the field. https://avalanchelab.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Terms-of-Use.pdf
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Avalanche Lab at 91% against Mountain Project's 36%. Avalanche Lab also leads on iOS requirement (11.0 vs 16.0). Mountain Project's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ratings volume (4.6K vs 15). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Avalanche Lab sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year. Mountain Project asks for nothing beyond the download.
Mountain Project holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Mountain Project has 4.6K ratings behind it against 15, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 36% of Mountain Project's written reviews are positive against 91% of Avalanche Lab's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Mountain Project ships an update every 3 weeks, Avalanche Lab every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Mountain Project | Avalanche Lab |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (4.6K ratings) — better | 4.3 (15 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 36.0% of reviews | 90.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4.6K — better | 15 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 79 MB | 23 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Adventure Projects Inc. | RENAISSANCE RECREATION LLC |
Customer experience
Mountain Project
Avalanche Lab
Bugs and requests
Mountain Project
Reported bugs
5 issues- App crashes when opening routes or areas
- Map not showing all available climbs
- Incorrect date recording for ticks
- Inability to delete downloaded areas
- Login issues and account sync problems
Requested features
5 requests- Add ability to add/update routes and areas
- Implement better offline map functionality
- Improve search and filtering options
- Add user profile and route tracking features
- Enhance community engagement tools
Avalanche Lab
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Mountain Project
No in-app purchases
Avalanche Lab
- Observation PRO Subscription$9.991 Year
- Avalanche Lab PRO$9.991 Year









