Karst
Breadcrumb trails · dead reckoning + AR

Leave a trail. Follow it back out.

Wild caves don't have signs — and GPS dies underground. Karst records a breadcrumb trail by dead reckoning: counting your steps and turns as you go. The next caver follows it back out turn-by-turn, or in augmented reality near the entrance.

Find a cave to mapSee the leaderboard
A trail's detail page with a Follow this trail button
Follow a trail

How breadcrumbing works

Recording a breadcrumb trail — steps, distance and turns
1 · Record

Start at the entrance and walk. Karst counts your steps and compass turns to trace the route — no signal needed deep underground.

Saving a trail — synced, XP earned and a badge unlocked
2 · Save & earn

Name it and rate how easy it is to follow. Saving banks XP and unlocks badges. An optional GPS anchor at the entrance enables AR.

Follow a trail — into the cave, back out, or in AR near the entrance
3 · Follow either way

Follow the way in, or reverse it to get back out — with a turn-by-turn compass & mini-map anywhere, or AR arrows near the entrance.

Because a trail is a chain of relative moves, every trail is reversible — the way back out is always there, even for routes recorded far from the entrance.

Caving, with a scoreboard

Every trail you map and every one you follow earns XP, levels you up, and unlocks badges — turning quiet conservation work into something you'll want to keep doing.

The profile Caver progress card — level, XP, stats and badges
Your caver progress

Top cavers

Live →
  1. 1Maya R.31 trails mapped 1,840
  2. 2Devin K.12 trails mapped 920
  3. 3Jordan P.6 trails mapped 410

Lv 4Pathfinder Climb from Novice Caver to Cave Master.

Badges to earn

First DescentFirst to map a route through a cave.
TrailblazerRecorded your first breadcrumb trail.
Trailblazer IIRecorded 5 breadcrumb trails.
Trailblazer IIIRecorded 25 breadcrumb trails.
PathfinderFollowed your first trail to the exit.
Pathfinder IIFollowed 10 trails.
Pathfinder IIIFollowed 50 trails.
CartographerMapped 1 km of passage.
Master CartographerMapped 10 km of passage.
Five-Star GuideA trail of yours holds a 4.5★+ rating (5+ ratings).
Deep DiverRecorded a technical / vertical trail.
Popular GuideYour trails were followed 25 times.
On a RollActive 3 days in a row.
Cave FeverActive 7 days in a row.

Glory, without giving away the cave

Trails store only their shape — a chain of relative offsets, never any coordinates. The compass follow works for everyone, while the one precise point AR needs (the optional entrance anchor) is gated to verified-grotto members and never made public. The leaderboard shows lifetime totals like distance mapped — never where you caved. Conservation first, always.

Ready to blaze a trail?

Open a caveGet the app

Recording a trail needs a free account — keeping trails tied to real cavers.