UKC

People on here often ask about or suggest the old Soviet maps as expedition resources. They covered the whole world and were remarkably accurate, even for the Himalaya and Karakoram, far beyond anything available elsewhere at the time - and still, in some cases. This is the story of their production and what has become of them.

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/secret-cold-war-maps

In reply to Damo:

Brilliant! Thanks for the link.

In reply to Damo:

many thanks, I knew the maps existed but not much more.

In reply to Damo:

A fascinating article Damo , thanks for the link .

In reply to Damo:

Great read, thanks for sharing! Always been a big fan of soviet maps so it's nice to have a bit more info about them.

In reply to Damo:

Great article! Fantastic insight into cartographic and geopolitical history. Thanks for posting

In reply to Damo:

Damn brilliant find. Thanks for sharing this.

In reply to Damo:

Brilliant, thanks! Reminded me that I'd used them extensively when crossing Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Siberia/Urals and they were the only source of any information. At the time we had a mix of the civilian high level maps and the military maps and noticed that some key features didn't add up with reality which caused some real confusion whilst navigating (eg sending us up a wrong valley)...

Didn't really think about it again until now.

Thanks!

In reply to Damo:

I'm reminded of undertaking outdoor work in Italy where the exercise moved across the boundary of two sheets of the Italian maps. Planning it was initially frustrating until we realised that the overlapping area common to both sheets had radical differences, including missing villages, roads, rivers and cliffs...

We sourced a Soviet map instead and everything worked fine...

In reply to Damo:

Fantastic - I love that the USSR had detailed maps of "classified" areas. They were totally prepared to take over.

In reply to Damo:

Fascinating stuff! Many thanks for sharing.

In reply to Damo:

There used to be a site where you could download them for free, if you could spend the time poring over the grid to work out what you wanted, but it seems to be no longer up. I saved several but have since lost them.

I had been researching areas in India. The modern Olizane Swiss maps, that cover Ladakh and nearby areas, look very nice and are quite good, but have many serious errors in peak heights (and maybe other things?). The older Leomann Swiss maps are better than nothing but have whole patches almost blank, partly made-up, or just wrong.

So some years ago when I found a high, steep peak on Google Earth (whose resolution then was much poorer than now) in Eastern Kishtwar, it was only when I looked at an old Soviet map did I find that there was a huge mountain there around 6450m that did not show up on other maps. There were no photos of it around, though British climbers had been near it and, when prudent, returned to what 'became' Kishtwar Kailash (6451m). http://www.planetmountain.com/english/News/shownews1.lasso?l=2&keyid=41...

In reply to Damo:

Great article!

The website to download them from is here: http://loadmap.net/

I've put together a list of articles and links to using these maps (and other stuff) here: http://www.67hours.co.uk/mountaineering/mapping . Will definitely add this article to the list!

In reply to 67hours:



Wow, that is an awesome resource, thanks!

In reply to Damo:
Very interesting, thanks.

In reply to Damo:

They didn't manage to crack the old 'get the whole of the Lake District on one sheet' problem though, so I won't be using them for a traverse of Helvellyn.

I haven't read the article yet but I will say thanks for posting now.

In reply to Damo:

haven't read link yet, Sorry. But when I was working in the Urals 2003/4 you could just about buy the few detailed maps in atlas book form at 1:10,000. of the whole of the Urals and Russia were printed but the books were running out. went out of print many years before but still a few copies available! As good as OS and made it invaluable to find that broken combine second field on the left past the church on the corner after a 300km drive! They prity much did the same for every county they had an influence over, but getting the up to date ones is a real task!

In reply to pass and peak:


South Yorkshire?

In reply to Damo:

I wonder if they are still available? Would love a couple, feed my map addiction.

In reply to Damo:

There is a big X by Devonshire Dock Hall in Barrow in Furness, I wonder why that is?

In reply to Ghastly Rubberfeet:

Take a look next time there. You'll see why

In reply to Orgsm:

It was a tongue in cheek comment.

I know exactly why. That's why I looked it up.

;~)))

In reply to Simon Caldwell:

Yep see link, http://loadmap.net/en?qq=54.2215%20-2.1563&z=10&s=500000&c=41&a...