The (pun ahead) peak of this method imho is implemented in "PeakFinder", afaik uses a low res nation wide (switzerland) height map, after initial gps fix it downloads local high res height map, calculates peak contours based of current location AND height and overlays that grid including the peak names onto the camera feed using the gyro and compass.

It's quite easy to build accurate geo-related applications in Switzerland due to the excellent work of the government office "Swiss Topo" that maps every tree, every house, every road in the whole country. Trees in cities have metadata such as: year planted, type etc. :)

Johnny Harris, the map aficionado mentioned Swiss maps and Swiss Topo's dedication multiple times in his videos.

This (as previously posted) is one of my few Favorite posts on HN. Half because of how awesome it is, and half because I can never remember what it’s called.

Neat and utilitarian tool that I've used for a while.

I'm always disappointed that it's not open-source though. It would be really cool to be able to run the "viewshed" / etc. calculations locally, instead of having to wait for their server.

Very nice! I personally use PeakFinder on my phone. It can overlay peak names directly onto the camera image. I think it’s well worth the five bucks.

Tangentially, are there any good map websites out there that show me the elevation at a point I click on?

I've found a lot of providers lacking in this department, even if they clearly have height data for showing contours/3d views.

This is real clunky from a browser. https://caltopo.com can do this from a map (right-click on the viewpoint, point-info, simulated view). The horizonator (https://github.com/dkogan/horizonator/) is a hackable implementation; has a FAST local gui, and can easily be extended to do other stuff.

Interesting, but clearly ancient (refers to a Google Earth plugin, for instance).

Are there more modern equivalents? I'd love to have an Android app which told me what the things were I was looking at.

Reminds me of the app from the Swiss federal office of topology (swisstopo), which has the same functionality (albeit limited to Switzerland, of course): https://www.swisstopo.admin.ch/en/swisstopo-application

This webapp seems to be more useful though, thanks for sharing.

You hike to the top of a mountain or pull off at a scenic overlook. You see mountains in the distance. Which mountains are they? HeyWhatsThat will tell you, providing a 360° panoramic sketch labeled with the names of the peaks you're looking at. From almost anywhere in the world.

> At HeyWhatsThat -- Russia? we tell you where in Alaska you can see Russia.

Man. Remember when saying something like that was enough to disqualify you from the presidency?

I've used the site for years.. I've always ignored the dropdown with a million entries, it's terrible UX.