With modern technologies advancing rapidly, are we becoming less self-reliant in the mountains?

Mobile phones, altimeters and GPS (Global Positioning System) devices are now carried by more and more people in the hills, often as security measures, and perhaps some might argue, to compensate for a lack of navigational skills. Will the GPS become de-rigueur for navigating in the near future, or will a map and compass still point most of us in the right direction?

It has become a familiar sight to see people rambling around the hills with small boxes attached to their rucksacks, in the hope that they’ll be guided to their final destination. It does therefore beg the question, what do GPS’s really do, and are they any use for navigating if you are pretty handy with a map and compass?
As for any new innovation, people are firmly split into two camps, namely the gadget-lovers versus the traditionalists. Gadget-lovers tend to see the GPS as an invaluable tool which improves their accuracy, whereas traditionalists see the map and compass as a time-tested form of mountain navigation with no extra error-prone computer kit required. For my part, for the past two years I have had a GPS and used it as an additional aid for my navigation skills in both winter and summer conditions. So you could say I’m sitting firmly on the fence for this one - and I know where the fence is, exactly.

So what’s so great about this mobile phone-sized gadget? Firstly, the GPS can be pre-programmed with your route before setting off into the hills, meaning its major advantage is that you are actually forced to spend ample time reading the map to plan your route. Of course, the downside is that every direction change must be accounted for and plotted, making it a time-consuming process, but at least you’ve primed your brain to those nuances of the route. You can of course cut down on preplanning time by looking online, where you can often find routes ready for downloading.

Having the GPS on the outside of your rucksack facing skyward is not just a good way to show off your new birthday present, but also allows the receiver to pick up satellite signals. However, this does have an impact on battery life in cold conditions so you may want to consider some insulation around the bits that don’t receive. It’s best to regularly mark waypoints, junctions or changes in direction to improve the quality of your route information, and mark your map at the same time. In addition, if you need to retrace your steps due to bad weather, illness, or you’ve dropped your keys, your GPS now has known waypoints to guide you back.

The GPS even has its uses on those rainy evenings where you’re not sure what to do with yourself. Simply (!) combine your GPS with computer map software, and routes and waypoints can be swapped between the two, transferring your route info from your GPS onto the software to gather a log of places that you’ve been. Unsurprisingly, this is becoming very popular with mountain rescue searches.

The second advantage to the GPS is that it can provide you with further information to make your navigation more fluid and consistent. Having accessible information such as height gain, time spent walking/resting, grid references and distance, to name but a few handy functions, means that you no longer need to enlist Paul McKenna’s help to improve your memory. You may also discover that like many people who are consistently not where they think they are, that you’re walking faster than you thought; or you may want to check that your idea of the elevation is really correct. The ideal time for a GPS to be used is to relocate your position. Use all your map and compass skills and then check the information against the GPS reading. Have a competition with your friends and see who comes closest to the GPS!

However emergency situations are when the GPS (in conjunction with a mobile phone) can really come into its own. It can give you a 10-figure grid reference to help speed up any assistance from mountain rescue by allowing teams to be deployed in the right places. There are many instances where injured parties are not quite where they say they are, despite their best efforts, and in the winter this can literally mean the difference between life and death.

Of course, like all gadgets, the GPS can let you down. Walking through wooded areas, deep valleys or approaching big steep faces, the skyward view is disturbed and the GPS might not be accessing all available satellites. I’ve had this happen before, and so it really does go without saying that your GPS is an additional aid and only as good as your navigation skills. Similarly, always carry spare batteries for your GPS, especially in winter – you can expect one long winter day to eat through a brand new set of batteries.

In short, navigation forms the crux of mountain walking and the competent use of map and compass should be in place for all walkers before they venture out. But once this is achieved, then the additional use of a GPS can add to your navigation, but it is not - and I can’t stress this enough - a short cut to learning those essential navigation skills.

AMI member Bryn Williams is based in Llanberis, North Wales, and holds the MIA and ML (Winter) award. He is a member of the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team and runs his own mountaineering company,
www.dragonmountainskills.com.
 

EXPERT Q&A

Gary Rolfe has navigated over 11,000 summer and winter Arctic miles with dogs. In summer he crosses hundreds of rivers, tundra, confronts bears and deals with wolf packs. In winter and spring he’s on sea ice. In his own words, “it’s cold enough to spit ice cubes.” Gary travels alone. It’s nosebleed inducing just thinking about it, and he doesn’t want to get lost. Gary moves to Greenland this winter (www.garyrolfe.com) and he’s sponsored by Garmin GPS units (www.garmin.com/uk)

Q. Is a GPS better than a map for you?
A. Sometimes the only maps available for crossing tundra are drawn up from 50-year-old aerial photographs. They’re not brilliant. Contour lines can be widely inaccurate and high Arctic river systems alter year to year. Tundra lakes appear or disappear. If a geriatric map is all I have then my GPS eradicates doubt - its information is final. Sea ice travel is also greatly improved by having a GPS. Local time and my shadow all help but it’s hardly precise navigation, and who wants to dick around with a sextant? I don’t. Phones go wrong. Believe me I know. I carry my EPIRB rescue beacon and a Vertex Standard VXA – 150 Pro V ground to air VHF transceiver at all times. With a Garmin NMEA (National Marine Electronics Association) data cable hooked up to my eTrex Vista, my precise location can be transmitted either by radio or beacon. I know this because the system helped saved my life this spring.

Q. Do I need to own a computer to use a GPS?
A. No, only if you want the most from advanced GPS features and definitely if you’re like me, an absolute sod for detail. Trip planning involves an emergency procedure and that means map software such as MapSource on a rugged laptop like a Panasonic Toughbook.

Q. How accurate are modern GPS handsets?
A. 24 navigation satellites orbit earth 12,500 miles up. A GPS must lock on to four of these satellites for a 3D fix giving co-ordinates within 15m of your exact location.

Q. When buying, what should I look out for?
A. My lifestyle determines that the gear I choose can hack more than a small bump, and I’m thinking you might be the same. I consider a GPS unit genuine survival kit, it can’t pick and choose its moments to work. Garmin offer a range of units for all levels. They’re rugged, waterproof and come as simple or feature-rich as you want. All GPS units provide waypoints - stored coordinates. Select a waypoint with a basic GPS and it’ll direct you but won’t give you the information a map will to anticipate and chose a safe route. A top-end GPS unit will. They support digitised topographical mapping with all the contour lines and land features you want. GPS units with built-in electronic compass give direction headings when standing still. Buy a unit without this feature and you’ll have to be on the move for this information. Purchasing points to consider are USB compatibility, built-in base map and MB memory for extra maps. These aren’t gimmicks, they’re there as safety back ups.

Q. Can I use a GPS anywhere in the world?
A. Guaranteed global coverage, 24/7. Just make sure to offset your GPS datum to correspond with map choice. A datum is a model of the earth’s surface based on a surveyed network of physical points. There are over a 100 map datums in use throughout the world. Select the map datum on your GPS and you’ll automatically set UCT (Universal Coordinated Time), GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) to you and me.

Q. What extremes will a GPS tolerate?
A. Mine’s been faultless throughout a temperature range of 81ºC (+30ºC to -51ºC) and it’s had the crap knocked out of it. I favour Garmin’s eTrex Vista because of its dot matrix grey scale screen - it might appear crude but performs better in cold. Batteries matter cold or no cold; alkaline batteries contain water rendering them useless below -35ºC. Energizer e2 lithiums are fearless. If you want a coloured screen then TFT screens provide the best resolution, but they do drain batteries more.

« Back