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Which topo GPS?


brown dog

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Turning my thoughts to getting a gps that'll display UK and alpine topo maps.

 

The first GPS I used was the size of two VHS cassettes stuck together. By the time I decided to buy one, things had come down to the size of a single VHS cassette (what's a VHS cassette?!) .

All I've ever used them for is OSGB and UTM grids and lat-long.

 

So I'm a little behind the curve on what's out there for recreational mountain use ....and what gps with topo maps can actually deliver - Are they useful or a gimmick? Value for money? etc

 

Grateful for any thoughts!

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I use a few different devices which I have acquired over the years.

I use a Satmap Active 10 a lot, OS maps down to 1:25,000 and very good on battery power.

I also use my iphone with Memory Map and Viewranger mapping and the Satmap which uses OS Maps they are good and full of features.

The nice thing about the above is after your "Trek" you can download the track data and replay it on a computer and see all the data, routes and distances.

I have a old Garmin GPS62 type handheld which uses "Topo" maps, they are not very detailed and in many a thick fog on Dartmoor was of no help whatsoever if I had got lost.

Most Topo maps are not as detailed as Commercial or Goverment maping, and you can get OS type maps for most of europe.

But it depends on what your needs are?

 

Mark

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I use a few different devices which I have acquired over the years.

I use a Satmap Active 10 a lot, OS maps down to 1:25,000 and very good on battery power.

I also use my iphone with Memory Map and Viewranger mapping and the Satmap which uses OS Maps they are good and full of features.

The nice thing about the above is after your "Trek" you can download the track data and replay it on a computer and see all the data, routes and distances.

I have a old Garmin GPS62 type handheld which uses "Topo" maps, they are not very detailed and in many a thick fog on Dartmoor was of no help whatsoever if I had got lost.

Most Topo maps are not as detailed as Commercial or Goverment maping, and you can get OS type maps for most of europe.

But it depends on what your needs are?

 

Mark

 

Brian (!) I'm chiefly looking for a way of carrying Alpine mapping at a useable scale without carrying all the paper maps. OS maps 1:50000 or 1:25000 would be a bonus.

I've tried a bit of google-fu but I'm no clearer!

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  • 2 weeks later...

BD, scrap that plan mate! just get bog standard gps that will give you a grid. Alpine maps best scale is 1:50000 for summer or winter use, best scale for large areas of land, (worked in the Nepali Himal for a while on MRT in Annapurnas, we used 1:100,000 as the features needed to nav' with are bloody massive).

 

If its TMB maps then there are only 2 or 3 sheets needed, and you can cut those to the areas you want, they weigh less than the colour screen topomap fancy gps and wont run our of batteries :) Just follow the yellow signs that point the way :)

 

 

Other things to note, screens need to be turned right up on brightness when viewed in very bright light, this zaps batteries rapidly.

I have been working in the mountains professionally in a number of specialist roles for over 20 years, I have had to pull a gps form the bottom of the pack 3 times in anger, and only to get a quick grid to put back on a laminate map. ( once in North Wales when I had a pager for a call out and I was out for a bimble with a buddy & 8km away, just punched in the casualties grid ref and legged it across Moel Siabod following the little black LCD arrow!, the other 2 occasions were in winter, in Scotland, when I was skiing at an unknown speed and was struggling to interpret the features I had just skied through, its hard ski touring across sloping plateau in a proper white out that makes you retch and fall over!!).

 

There was a search for a lost walker on the glyderau just the other day, female lost as batteries had failed in her fancy GPS, no map/compass and no skill - if that happened in a mountain area further than the 3km from a road, at 2500-4500m in Europe you would be either on the way to en epic, or calling 112 via the fantastic european 3G for a Helo.

 

Viewranger good, most UK MRT are now on Quo-MapyX with real time tracking to the gps enabled radios or TETRA airwave units, plus Russ Hore SARLock programme.

 

I have maps mate and your welcome to borrow them, save you a few quid from ordering them off Stanfords. Those and a £50 Garmin off flabby will do just right, even if your abbing off multi-pitch routes in to descent gullies full of ice, been there and only ever needed map and gps :) A guide book, map and compass all the way.

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Personally I like the Swisstopo maps 1:50,000 (Carte Nationale de la Suisse), contour intervals are in 20m increments with an index contour every 200m, which is nice on the eye when you consider how big the hills are in the Alps, if it was like our 1:50k OS maps it would be a blur of contour merging.

 

The French IGN maps in 1:25,000 scale are also good, but again contours in 20m increments & index contour every 100m, also they are a PITA to find index contour height markers, they will put one at say 1600m then you usually have to search a couple of grid squares either side to find the height markers either side of your initial 1600m find, so an can be a mission for the eyes in bad weather/light/ski goggles etc.

 

In the end its all - Sac a don don, cest partie, bon promenade :)

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