The Topo Review: Is 27 Crags’ Rebrand Worth It for Van Life Climbers?
360,000+ Premium routes and boulders across 48 European countries, a 50% revenue share for local topo authors, and a genuinely useful discovery tool — but is The Topo (formerly 27 Crags) the app to actually plan a climbing trip around?
Disclosure: Rock Van Life has a content partnership with The Topo — we receive complimentary Premium access in exchange for keeping our contributed crag data accurate and up to date. We don’t receive a commission on subscriptions, and this arrangement has no bearing on the honest assessment below.
- Developer
- 27 Crags Oy (Jyväskylä, Finland)
- Platform
- iOS, Android & web
- Founded
- 2008 — rebranded 13 April 2026
- Routes
- 209,900+
- Boulder problems
- 153,000+
- Premium crags
- ~5,450
- Verified topos
- 5,000+ (local-author made)
- Offline access
- Yes — Premium only
- Subscription
- €8.90/month or €49.90/year
- Free trial
- 7 days, no commitment
- Revenue share
- 50% of subscriptions to local topo authors
- Website
- thetopo.com
The Topo Review: From 27 Crags to The Topo
If you’ve been climbing in Europe for more than a season, you’ll remember 27 Crags — the free-spirited, crowd-built alternative to buying a guidebook for every country. On 13 April 2026, the platform dropped that name entirely and became The Topo. Nothing about the underlying service changed: same account, same ascents, same community of local climbers writing the topos. The name simply caught up with reality — the app had long since outgrown the idea of documenting just 27 crags, and now covers over 360,000 Premium routes and boulders combined (209,900+ routes and 153,000+ boulder problems) across six continents.
For van life climbers, the pitch is straightforward: instead of buying a guidebook for every region you pass through, one subscription gives you access to Premium topos for whichever of the ~5,450 Premium crags you’re heading to next, with offline downloads for when you lose signal. Half of every subscription goes back to the local climbers who actually wrote the topos — a genuinely different model to a traditional publisher.
The short version of this The Topo review: we reach for it most often when we’re passing through somewhere for a day or two and don’t want to justify buying (or carrying) the physical guidebook. It’s convenient, and the sheer breadth of coverage means you can turn up almost anywhere in Europe and find something. What it isn’t, in our experience, is a replacement for a dedicated regional guidebook or app once you’re actually settling into one area for a proper stint — more on that below.
💡 RVL note: The Topo is built on the same underlying account system as the old 27 Crags — if you already have a 27 Crags login, it carries straight over. New users can sign up directly in the app or at thetopo.com.
Countries & Coverage
The Topo lists 18,551 climbing destinations across 48 European countries — from the obvious hubs to places most apps don’t bother with, including Kosovo, Moldova and the Faroe Islands. Coverage naturally isn’t even: it’s strongest in the countries with the most active local contributor communities.
What You Get With The Topo
Here’s what the subscription actually unlocks, based on the app’s own feature set and our day-to-day use of it on the road.
Verified Local Topos
Over 5,000 Verified Topos written and maintained by local climbers, covering ~5,450 Premium crags. Quality varies a bit more than a professionally-edited print guidebook, but the local knowledge is often accurate.
Offline Downloads
Premium topos can be downloaded for offline use — essential once you’re off grid. GPS navigation to the crag also works offline once downloaded.
3D Maps & Continuous Zoom
Following the 2026 rebuild, the app’s mapping got a genuine upgrade — smoother continuous zoom and improved 3D terrain, both flagged as real improvements by users who’d used the old version.
Huge Global Footprint
360,000+ Premium routes and boulders combined across six continents, 18,551 climbing destinations in Europe alone. Genuinely useful for turning up somewhere new and finding out what’s there.
Ascent Logging & Social Feed
Log sends directly in the app and follow a social feed of other climbers’ ascents and route feedback — useful for a quick sanity check on current conditions before committing to an approach.
Create Your Own Topos
Any climber can write and publish a topo for a crag that isn’t yet covered. If it becomes a Verified Topo, you’re entitled to a cut of the 50% revenue share that goes back to local authors.
iOS, Android & Web
The app runs on iPhone and Android, and the full topo database is also browsable at thetopo.com from any browser — handy for planning ahead on a laptop before you download areas to your phone.
Collections (New)
Added in a September 2026 update: organise routes and boulders into custom lists — a trip to one area, a project shortlist, routes to tick this year — invite friends to build a collection together, and share it with the community. Free for all users, not just Premium.
How We Use The Topo, Rockfax & Park4Night Together
The Topo isn’t the only app in our rotation. Here’s how we actually combine it with Rockfax and Park4Night when planning a van life climbing season across multiple countries.
Climbing Destinations We’ve Actually Visited
Many of the crags listed on The Topo also appear in our own destination guides, written from time spent on the ground — parking, water, current local guidebooks, and the best season to visit.
Free vs Premium Subscription
The app itself is free to download, and plenty of community-written topos are freely browsable. The ~5,450 Premium crags and offline downloads sit behind a paid subscription.
- ✓ Browse community-written free topos
- ✓ Full crag/route map directory
- ✓ Create and publish your own topos
- ✓ Collections — plan trips with custom route lists
- ✓ Available on iOS, Android & web
- ✗ No access to Verified Premium topos
- ✗ No offline downloads
- ✓ Full access to ~5,480 Premium crags
- ✓ 360,000+ Premium routes and boulders combined
- ✓ Offline downloads for any area
- ✓ Verified, locally-maintained topo quality
- ✓ Ascent logging & social feed
- ✓ 50% of your subscription funds local authors
💡 Van life tip: The annual plan works out at roughly €4.16/month against €8.90/month billed monthly — worth it if you’re climbing through more than about six months of the year. Check thetopo.com for current pricing, which is shown in EUR by default.
Everything Else You Need for a Climbing Road Trip
App sorted. Now make sure the rest of your kit is dialled in — from harnesses and gear to van-specific logistics for climbing travel.
Pros & Cons
360,000+ Premium routes and boulders combined across 48 European countries and six continents. Wherever you’re passing through, there’s a good chance something is listed.
Added in a September 2026 update, Collections let you group routes and boulders into custom lists — a trip itinerary, a project shortlist, a tick list for the year — and invite friends to build one together. A genuine answer to the save-for-later gap this app used to have.
When we’re only stopping somewhere for a day or two, it’s rarely worth buying or carrying the physical guidebook. The Topo gives us just enough to get on rock without the commitment — that’s exactly the gap it fills for us.
Half of every subscription goes back to the local climbers who write and maintain Verified Topos — a genuinely different economic model to a traditional publisher.
The app was rebuilt from the ground up in 2026, with smoother 3D maps and continuous zoom that users who’d tried the old version flagged as a clear step up.
iOS, Android, and a full web version at thetopo.com — useful for planning ahead on a laptop before downloading areas to your phone.
Day to day, the app isn’t always intuitive — flipping between topo images now takes several taps rather than a swipe (removed by the developer to fix crashes on older phones), and it’s a step down from a well laid-out print guidebook or a slicker competitor app.
This is the real trade-off in our experience: The Topo is brilliant for discovering that there are climbing areas almost everywhere, but once you drill into one specific region, the coverage there can feel thin or fragmented next to a dedicated local guidebook. It’s a discovery tool first, a deep local reference second.
Viewing a Collection’s routes on a map is advertised as part of the September 2026 update, but in our own testing we couldn’t find where to actually do this in the app. If it’s there, it isn’t where we’d expect to look.
Individual topo pages don’t show route height/length at a glance, and crag overview pages don’t list the minimum or maximum route height for the venue — both of which we’d want before deciding if a crag suits the rope or draws we’ve got with us.
Where a proposed car park or approach is described, there’s no visible “last updated” date. Parking situations change; without knowing how current the note is, it’s hard to judge how much to trust it.
Climbing and Van Life Across Europe — Our Story
Rock Van Life is written by climbers who live on the road. Everything we review, we use — from apps and gear to the crags themselves.
A Brief History of The Topo
The Topo’s rebrand in 2026 was a name change, not a relaunch — the platform itself has been quietly growing since 2008.
27 Crags launches with a simple, self-limiting premise: document the 27 best crags in the world. Climbers immediately start adding their own local crags beyond the original 27, and the platform grows organically from there.
Over €200,000 is raised for local developers/authors through the platform’s revenue-share model during the year, according to the company.
The app is rebuilt from the ground up (v3.2.0), bringing improved performance, smoother 3D maps and continuous zoom, and reworked navigation tabs — the first major technical overhaul in years.
27 Crags officially becomes The Topo. The company’s own explanation: “the number 27 stopped meaning anything a long time ago.” By this point the database held over 5,000 Verified Topos and had long outgrown its original 27-crag concept. Accounts, ascents and topos carry over unchanged.
Version 3.3.1 adds Collections — organising routes and boulders into shareable lists, inviting friends to build one together, and (in principle) viewing a collection’s routes on a map. Free for all users, not just Premium subscribers.
Coverage continues to expand past 360,000 Premium routes and boulders combined across six continents, with 18,551 climbing destinations logged in Europe alone and roughly 5,480 crags carrying Premium-quality Verified Topos.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes. The Topo is 27 Crags under a new name, rebranded on 13 April 2026. The company kept the same platform, community and account system — existing 27 Crags logins, ascents and saved topos carried straight over.
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€8.90 per month, or €49.90 per year if paid annually — roughly a 50% saving over paying monthly. New subscribers get a 7-day free trial with no commitment.
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Yes, for Premium topos you’ve downloaded in advance. Download the crags you need while you still have signal — GPS navigation to the crag also works offline once the area is downloaded.
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Yes — as of a September 2026 update (v3.3.1), The Topo has a Collections feature: organise routes and boulders into custom lists (a trip, a project shortlist, a tick list), invite friends to build one together, and share it publicly. It’s free for all users, not just Premium subscribers. One caveat from our own testing: viewing a Collection’s routes on a map is advertised as part of the update, but we couldn’t find where to actually do that in the current app.
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It’s better for discovery than depth. The database is enormous overall, but coverage within any one specific region can feel fragmented compared with a dedicated local guidebook or regional climbing app. It’s ideal for finding out where to climb across a whole trip; less so for learning one area thoroughly.
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The company states that 50% of subscription revenue goes back to the local authors who create Verified Topos, and cites over €200,000 raised for local developers in 2022. It’s a genuinely different model to a print publisher, though we haven’t independently verified individual author payouts.
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Broadly: Rockfax Digital wins on topo polish and depth in the areas it covers; theCrag and The Topo win on sheer breadth and community coverage. We use all three together depending on where we are — see our guide on how we combine The Topo, Rockfax and Park4Night while travelling.
The Topo Review Verdict: A Genuinely Useful Discovery Tool
The Topo does one thing very well: it lets you turn up almost anywhere in Europe and find out what’s climbable nearby, without buying a guidebook you’ll use twice. For the way we actually travel — stopping somewhere for a day or two before moving on — that convenience is real and we use it often.
Where it falls short is depth. Drill into any one specific area and the coverage can feel thin next to a proper local guidebook, and the day-to-day usability has real rough edges: extra taps to browse topo images, a brand-new Collections feature whose map view we couldn’t locate, and route/crag pages that skip basics like height and up-to-date parking notes. None of that is dramatic on its own, but together it explains why app store ratings (3.0★ on the App Store, 2.7★ on Google Play) sit lower than the size of the database would suggest — even accounting for a lot of that history predating the 2026 rebuild.
Our honest take: keep The Topo on your phone for the discovery use case it’s genuinely good at, pair it with Rockfax or a proper local guidebook once you’re settling into one area for longer, and don’t expect the app experience to match the ambition of the database behind it. We rate it 4/5 — worth having, not worth relying on alone.
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