  The caloric gauge was introduced by Tao with studying large data energy
critical wave maps mapping from $\mathbf{R}^{2+1}$ to hyperbolic space
$\mathbf{H}^m$ in view. In \cite{BIKT} Bejenaru, Ionescu, Kenig, and Tataru
adapted the caloric gauge to the setting of Schr\"odinger maps from
$\mathbf{R}^{d + 1}$ to the standard sphere $S^2 \hookrightarrow \mathbf{R}^3$
with initial data small in the critical Sobolev norm. Here we develop the
caloric gauge in a bounded geometry setting with a construction valid up to the
ground state energy.
