The hiking gear and adventures thread...

[MB140]

Carrying On from the GPS thread, anybody care to offer opinions on an Apple IOS app. Wife uses outdoor active but it has had a lot of its features removed or put behind a more expensive subscription tier.

One of the things she liked about outdoor active was reading peoples reviews of walks (things like ie don’t do this when there has been total rain as it becomes a bog (with supporting pictures). Also being able to see the routes offline.

I’ve used OS maps but never subscribed. Is it any good as a subscription nav tool. I Just use it as a basic map. I’m military so I’m pretty good with a map and compass having done multiple survival course without needing GPS.

Appreciate the suggestions.

[Faust66]

Phil. said:

Bill said:

Oh, absolutely, but you already own a (potentially expensive) device that will do the job. That's my question.

The problem I have with using my phone for navigating is how quickly the battery depletes. I could connect it to a battery pack continuously but I’d rather keep the phone dry and safe in case I need it for an emergency. The GPS units are hardy and purpose built for that task in hand.

That was pretty much my thinking: your phone is a phone (obviously), a camera, a computer, something you can play games on and a navigation device.

Whereupon a dedicated GPS is just that. Dedicated to one thing.

It's a big investment and I thought long and hard about buying one as I am far from being a wealthy chap.

[Phil.]

MB140 said:

Carrying On from the GPS thread, anybody care to offer opinions on an Apple IOS app. Wife uses outdoor active but it has had a lot of its features removed or put behind a more expensive subscription tier.

One of the things she liked about outdoor active was reading peoples reviews of walks (things like ie don’t do this when there has been total rain as it becomes a bog (with supporting pictures). Also being able to see the routes offline.

I’ve used OS maps but never subscribed. Is it any good as a subscription nav tool. I Just use it as a basic map. I’m military so I’m pretty good with a map and compass having done multiple survival course without needing GPS.

Appreciate the suggestions.

Online OS maps for use on phone, tablet, PC at around £25 pa is a steal. You get access to all the maps and a planning/editing tool. I tend to download a GPX file from AllTrails or similar, upload in to OS maps on my PC, edit the route as required and then copy it to my GPS.

I’ve used OS maps App on my iPhone for a couple of local walks and it’s been fine. Not quite as accurate as a dedicated GPS.

[Bill]

I can see the reasoning now. (Although I sea kayak so have a PLB covering the flat battery/rescue issue.)

[ben5575]

MB140 said:

Carrying On from the GPS thread, anybody care to offer opinions on an Apple IOS app. Wife uses outdoor active but it has had a lot of its features removed or put behind a more expensive subscription tier.

One of the things she liked about outdoor active was reading peoples reviews of walks (things like ie don’t do this when there has been total rain as it becomes a bog (with supporting pictures). Also being able to see the routes offline.

I’ve used OS maps but never subscribed. Is it any good as a subscription nav tool. I Just use it as a basic map. I’m military so I’m pretty good with a map and compass having done multiple survival course without needing GPS.

Appreciate the suggestions.

I appreciate I'm in the minority but I've had OS maps crash/fail to load maps/give me a blank screen (on downloaded maps) too many times when I've need it. '60% of the time it works every time' is just not good enough, so I use Hiiker which is 100% rock solid and has loads of other really helpful features (crosshair with 6 fig(yo) grid ref, height and distance from current position). The UI is slightly clunky, but it's a tool so I'm prepared to learn its quirks. £21 subscription.

On the wider GPS device discussion, I personally don't have one but if I did regular multi day hikes/extensive night nav/very remote, then I would invest in one.

[RammyMP]

Phil. said:

MB140 said:

Carrying On from the GPS thread, anybody care to offer opinions on an Apple IOS app. Wife uses outdoor active but it has had a lot of its features removed or put behind a more expensive subscription tier.

One of the things she liked about outdoor active was reading peoples reviews of walks (things like ie don’t do this when there has been total rain as it becomes a bog (with supporting pictures). Also being able to see the routes offline.

I’ve used OS maps but never subscribed. Is it any good as a subscription nav tool. I Just use it as a basic map. I’m military so I’m pretty good with a map and compass having done multiple survival course without needing GPS.

Appreciate the suggestions.

Online OS maps for use on phone, tablet, PC at around £25 pa is a steal. You get access to all the maps and a planning/editing tool. I tend to download a GPX file from AllTrails or similar, upload in to OS maps on my PC, edit the route as required and then copy it to my GPS.

I’ve used OS maps App on my iPhone for a couple of local walks and it’s been fine. Not quite as accurate as a dedicated GPS.

I use the OS maps on my iPhone, it’s always worked fine for me but I sometimes have to put the phone in airplane mode if the signal is sketchy. I always download the maps on to the phone. For £30 a year of whatever it is I don’t think it’s bad.

I’m ex Army and can navigate with a map and compass well but always use my phone. I take a map but it rarely comes out of my bag.

[Faust66]

Quick question: does anybody know what (if anything) has happened to poster 'mickeythefish'?

He always used to post about his trips and plans, but it's all gone very quiet...

[ATG]

Bill said:

smifffymoto said:

I suppose another advantage of a GPS is it doesn’t make mistakes when it’s cold,wet and hungry.

Oh, absolutely, but you already own a (potentially expensive) device that will do the job. That's my question.

A phone running an app like "outdoor active" will give you 1:25000 OS coverage of the UK and the equivalent across europe for something daft like £30 per annum. The phone's GPS is just as accurate as any other handheld device; more than accurate enough to pinpoint you on a map. Most phones have bigger screens which gives you more context when you're looking at a map. And the phone does a billion other things because it's a phone. Battery life, waterproofness and ruggedness are the potential issues ... but ... if you don't mind getting a bit of a brick of a phone, you can buy a ruggedised phone that's waterproof, shockproof and has a big battery. And they cost damn all as well. I use a blackview phone for navigation. It cost something like 200 quid. It's got a 10Ah battery that is fine for 48h of intense use, so unless you're disappearing into the wilderness for several days, it's fine.

[boxedin]

If you're doing walks in benign conditions, then a phone will suffice.

If you need something for all year-round use that doesn't care how cold, wet or hot it is, plus IME:
- drop or wash in icy water
- it's black, I can drop it in the snow and it'll stay put.
- will survive than I would rolling down hitting a few rocks here and there.
- use without removing gloves.
- doesn't care about mud.
- doesn't care about how knackered you are.
- means my phone will have enough battery for emergencies.

At glance I can see:
- temperature ( via tempe sensor )
- how far I've walked, when sunset is.
- how long I've stopped for. - You know those 2-5 minute stops for pictures soon add up to nearly an hour.
- covered elevations - use to calculate how more punishment my knees can handle!
- my average speed.

What it doesn't do is provide times for high tides, I use a phone app for that and note an emergency route on the outward in case my timings are off for the return. Photographing seals can be quite time-consumsing it turns out.

I'm hanging onto my GPSMAP 62 for as long as possible, a comparable 67 is more than double the cost.

[ATG]

A suitable phone will suffice in any conditions. GPSs are not the only devices designed to work in extreme conditions. Many people might not want to use such a phone as there every day phone, of course, in which case a dedicated GPS might suit them better.

Edited by ATG on Tuesday 22 April 13:03

[KobayashiMaru86]

Or perhaps a 2nd phone in a tougher case, a SIM only is quite cheap now for unlimited data. When I go to walks I use the work phone for the Google Maps to get there so my phone is fully charged for the walk just in case.

[ben5575]

Actually I've just remembered that I have a second ee network esim on my phone for data, as my Primary O2 data is generally crap, particularly in the lakes.

[silentbrown]

... and here's a regular reminder to register your phone for the Emergency SMS service. Texts to 999 may well get through when voice signal is almost non-existent!

https://www.relayuk.bt.com/how-to-use-relay-uk/con...

[w1bbles]

OldPal said:

Done Ben vorlich and stuc a chroin last weekend. A great day and pretty tough especially the scramble up stuc a chroin. Definitely didn’t realise how unfit me and my mates were. As usual we had 4 seasons in one day but for the most part it was sunny!

Nice pics. If they were at higher resolution I’d be able to see my house! That area is very remote (i.e., the two Munros and Glenartney) given how close it is to the Central Belt. There are bits of Glenartney when you’ll never see another person walking and it’s utterly wild.

[w1bbles]

My daughter and I climbed Lochnagar on Saturday. We had planned to do the 5 White Mounth Munros but the weather was so bad we bailed after 1. It was beautiful below 700m but grim above!



Luckily still had some great scenery once we were back out of the clag.

[w1bbles]

To add to the GPS debate above - I load up routes onto my very basic Garmin Insight 2 solar watch. Very easy to look at your wrist and see the breadcrumb trail. It’s comforting when you can’t see more than 25m and you know there are life-altering crags next to the path. I carry a map and compass (and can use them) but the watch makes life easy.

It’s quite similar when sailing. The paper charts are all there if things go awry but in all honesty I’ve not taken a bearing for about 5 years and that was at night when I didn’t trust the plotter (turned out it was my sleep deprivation that was the problem and the lighthouse bearings confirmed that the plotter was correct).

[Matt..]

I'm hoping to get a long weekend to Faroe Islands next month. I don't really believe it's very hiker friendly but hopefully I can get a few km in. I will pack all my Goretex.

[KobayashiMaru86]

w1bbles said:

To add to the GPS debate above - I load up routes onto my very basic Garmin Insight 2 solar watch. Very easy to look at your wrist and see the breadcrumb trail. It’s comforting when you can’t see more than 25m and you know there are life-altering crags next to the path. I carry a map and compass (and can use them) but the watch makes life easy.
correct).

I do this a lot now with my Garmin Fenix as I can decide on a whim to go somewhere but before I do, fire up AllTrails, either pick a route that's been done or make my own and send to the watch. Always wary of how it decides as some of it's decisions are nuts but it's been a game changer and I walk so much more now.

[troc]

I do similar, I usually use Strava (great heat maps) if in a relatively busy area or all trails or trail forks (depending on activity) and upload the routes to my Fenix.

[StoutBench]

Matt.. said:

I'm hoping to get a long weekend to Faroe Islands next month. I don't really believe it's very hiker friendly but hopefully I can get a few km in. I will pack all my Goretex.

Known as a hikers paradise isn't it? Looks beautiful, hope you share some pics.