I’m looking at getting my dad some form of walking GPS for Christmas, just wanted to get a feel of what others like and what features I should be looking for over others.

Main reason is that he has got disorientated up a mountain while walking on his own in bad visibility, and ended up walking down a different route to what he had thought, which added on about 3 hours to his walk (I’m sure he was relatively lucky in that situation compared to what has happened to others).

I like the feature on the Suunto ones where you can load an interactive 3D route of your walk onto a laptop or tablet or whatever. Not sure what else is necessary. A big enough screen to use as a map? Not sure if watch form or hand held would be better.

Talk to me. No real budget as such, 350 ish maybe.

Cheers!! 🙂

the only gps I use when walking is for just such a circumstance. Its a foretrex 101. Old box I got for £50 but it gives me an OS grid ref (can to WMTS etc for france). It lives in the bottom of the bag. It doesnt need any data, but it will always give you a grid ref and a bearing if you cant see enough landmarks to navigate with compass. Are there any watches that are pared down to do similar rather than spedna fortune on a suunto with functionality you wont use.

I’ve got a couple of GPS devices (etrex mainly). Much prefer using a smartphone with the OS maps app.

Garmin Oregon would be my suggestion. It has a decent sized screen so you can see the context of where you are. Still not like looking at it on a map, but certainly good enough to get your position and track which way you are heading.

Nothing is a replacement for being able to properly use a map (and compass) though.

If you’ve a PC then install Basecamp on it for route planning and you can see your planned route in 3D before you set out.

Oh I’ve heard some of the newer better ones also run off the Russian satellites, instead of solely relying on the US ones. I like the sound of that.

Just to be clear, he is a map user, but as we all know maps can sometimes be not much use when it’s very windy with bad viz.

Does that Oregan have the feature that the Suunto has of being able to view a 3D view of your walk?

Key question is whether you want maps on the device (or option of) or just location, tracking, bearing/distance to a waypoint etc. I have a Garmin GPSMap 64 but much more spendy than the above. My mate walked down the wrong side of Helvelyn in bad viz leading me to call Patterdale Rescue, he had my gps in his bag with waypoint of car park in it – he never thought to look at it as he was certain he was going the right way !

OP the 3D animation of your walk you are speaking of you get by uploading to something like RideCC/Strava

GPS Map 64. You don’t want to be trying to use a Garmin touchscreen device with cold hands and thick gloves in a tricky situation. Nor do you want something with a proprietary battery unless you’re going to carry a usb power pack.

My mate walked down the wrong side of Helvelyn in bad viz leading me to call Patterdale Rescue, he had my gps in his bag with waypoint of car park in it – he never thought to look at it as he was certain he was going the right way !

Well they say ignorance is bliss…, or (can be bliss) 😛 .

OP the 3D animation of your walk you are speaking of you get by uploading to something like RideCC/Strava

Stravs flattens all my rides with the Garmin edge though? Is it different with walking devices.

My gut answer is that you need to talk to him about why he hadn’t made better decisions when disorientated / lost / unsure of his position. There were a few occasions we’ve been caught out on a mountain in a complete white out (usually remote Scotland), got completely confused and just thrown in the towel and easily retraced our steps rather than carrying on regardless to potentially ending up in the wrong valley with a massive walk out.
Part of being a good climber / mountaineer / walker is being prepared to make those tough decisions where you may be admitting defeat or making a decision unpopular with others (even feeling bad because you’re the one who pulled the plug). Recently I had to do this on Bernia Ridge in Spain, where we’d been on the ridge for 10 hours, the final summit was achievable, but it was 5.30pm, we had 2hrs daylight, thick cloud and very limited visibility. Having done my homework, I knew there was an escape path below, so I pulled the plug. I felt bad about it, but knew it was the best decision.

Anyway, just saying, but what I’ve added to my navigating arsenal is Backcountry Navigator app, it has OS 1:25k maps. I prefer to use paper maps for walking, but BCN is now my ‘get out of jail free app’ that we never had 10 year+ ago.

If he has a smartphone this app is quite good and doesn’t need a phone signal.

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/shop/os-locate

(obv no good for tracking)

Swear by my Foretrex 401. Used it in places where there are no features, at night and in bad vis. Dogs dangleys.

I’ve used far more expensive GPS devices, that still comes out on top. Simple and effective. Also, get better with a map and compass!

A cheaper option would be Memory Map on a phone/tablet. You can import/export tracks waypoints etc and then there’s no need for a separate unit.

Advantages of a Oregon etc is that the battery life is much greater and you can save your phone for things that you need it for – like calling someone in an emergency.

I use an ancient iPad2 with Memory Map for work (hot air ballooning) and an old Garmin GPSMAP60S. They’ve never failed me yet, but I still carry a map and compass.

I’d still like an Oregon so that I could use it for walking/biking etc as it’s more rugged than a phone…

I’d just like to make it clear that I don’t think it’s safe or reliable for anyone to be relying on a smartphone app. I’m not a mountaineer but I’ve been strongly advised against using them for main navigational purposes, with regards to battery life and losing gps signal more easily and that you are **** if anything goes wrong with it.

So PLEASE and thanks no more app recommendations .

What you do or don’t do for your safety is up to you, but I wouldn’t personally be wanting to rely on one.

More device recommendations welcome though 🙂 .The brands I can get are Suunto Garmin and Satmap.

B.A.Nana That’s not bad advice but I’m pretty confident he’d use one if he had one, just too stubborn to admit he needs one or to buy one himself.

I use a satmap10, which I’ve had for a while, (you can either use normal batteries or the batterypack – imho changing the batterypack in the wild with cold fingers would not be fun – small fiddly connector but batteries ok) I get all day out of the battery pack (on eco settings – short display time and some facilities off). I have the UK/50,000 card. Doesn’t (to my knowledge) do 3D, I just have it on the bars and use it to check at some junctions etc/follow or trace routes. (Also use Memory Map software – that allows route making, 3d etc etc etc etc and downloads/uploads to Satmap)

GPS always works (so far)
two gripes
– bike bar mount is canvas web strap – smoothed over and now doesn’t hold grip to bar so is always rotating…
– can’t get spares (joystick rubber went awol and connector flap now held on by a Park tube patch) but I can send it in for a £40 refresh…..

*I can use it fine with winter mtb gloves )(it’s not touch – joystick and buttons), imho the screen is the right size for following routes etc but a bit small( to work out routes from as you can’t see the wider area context(*I’m getting on and close vision not brilliant)

For really crap weather you can get an rubber outer casing (I have used in Scotland but mine is mounted on bars – I think it’d be ok being in/out of pockets on a walk ) and it is sort of ok but harder to use as joystick/buttons are clumsier etc.

There are two Qs first

– is it to use for the whole route?
– is it to stop him getting lost?

to stop you getting lost you just need a OS grid reference, nearly all GPSs will give you that. Combine it with a compass you can’t get lost coming off the top of a hill

If you want to use it for the whole route, instead of a map (i.e. keep map in your bag), then you want a mapping GPS which is more expensive. But if he’s not going to use it for that, some people like using maps for nav, then this will be completely superfluous

The latest Satmap Active 12 is excellent and has a much more user-friendly interface than the Garmin equivalents. Mapping reproduction is significantly better with Ordnance Survey maps too.

The latest Satmap Active 12 is excellent and has a much more user-friendly interface than the Garmin equivalents. Mapping reproduction is significantly better with Ordnance Survey maps too.

This.

benp1 mainly to stop getting lost, and to maybe load up an of piste walking route to follow. Something foolproof and user friendly would be good! A few votes for the Garmin 64, easy enough to use?

GPS map 64s

£275 (from £350) at Go outdoors with uk mapping bundle.

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/garmin-gpsmap-64s-gb-discoverer-bundle-p305439?gclid=Cj0KEQiAsrnCBRCTs7nqwrm6pcYBEiQAcQSznELCehIplBUOpVK4xzCs1vDLFjiwByZAfZ-i4ZYW8Q0aAqsM8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

Brilliant bit of kit, water proof, rugged easy to use with gloves.

Load up a GPX of the route and you can set it to beep gently at turnings to remind you to look at the map! or use it as your main source of navigation.

I use it for winter walking, ski touring, munro bagging etc. Still have a map and compass, but the GPS is just easy.

It was my first ever GPS, I’m not very technical and figured it out mainly by watching you tube demos. It probably does more than I realise, but easy to get going at a basic level.

Another thing to decide is buttons/joystick or touchscreen, as that, again, reduces the number of options

off piste walking route means it needs some sort of map to be of any real use, he also then needs to know how to use it

When I first got a GPS and used it for walking, many years ago, I barely used it, but I always had it on and had it with me. If I was worried about finding where I was the I had it with me to give me an exact grid ref. That was really handy

I’ve since moved to using it as my nav tool and the OS map stays in my bag generally

Also factor in, the more complicated it is, the more he’ll have to learn how to use it and the more it’ll use batteries

Another Oregon user here, I wanted something to mountain bike with, ski-tour with and walk with. Does all of that very nicely. Battery life could be better, but with the big screen and mapping, it’s fair enough. Especially as it takes AA batteries.

The decision to buy the GPS was made in a complete whiteout, near a frozen-ish lake. We needed to circle round the lake and leave it at a certain point to aim for a particular gully out of a number of gullies. Drops off cliffs and into stream beds were also available. We made it round OK, but all I was thinking at the time was “I just want a map with a pointer and “you are here” written on it!”

I’ve used it for nav on its own, without a paper map backup when I’ve been travelling/ on hols and gone hiking/biking on a whim. Download hiking/biking OSM (m)aps for the whole country/countries before you go, you’ve got hi-res maps for a huge area. No hunting for bookshops/outdoors shops for decent maps before you can head out. robust, waterproof, won’t blow away. Spare AA batteries to keep it going. Don’t know why it would be any less reliable than a map.

From the description of what you want, I’d try and get something with Ordnance Survey (OS) maps on it. Many of the free maps have very little detail in open countryside (other than tracks / paths, etc.), and if it is likely to be used as the main means of navigation (i.e map in hand, rather than as a bail-out) the familiarity and detail of proper OS maps is great. Several of the Garmins come with 1:50k OS maps of the whole UK. Some come with a ‘voucher’ for 1:25k mapping, but when I was looking, the voucher only got you a fairly small area of map.

A bigger screen is better for ‘map in hand’ type use (GPS64 screen is quite small).

I would avoid touch-screens (YMMV).

Having a built-in electronic compass is handy.

AA batteries all the way.

Pretty much any GPS can be set up to save a track of where you’ve been. Once you have this, you can do 3D views, ‘fly-bys’, etc. separately – e.g. Google Earth or here.

Got an Oregon 650 and it is a very good bit of kit, but I thought the supplied 1:50k maps were all but useless for what we wanted, so ended up getting some osm ones that my mate treated me to and also the 1:25k os ones which were another £300, making this a very expensive little device.

Ah, yes – I should add that the OS (Ordnance Survey) maps are just images; You can’t do routing on them, other than by drawing a track over the lines on the screen (AFAIK).

Many of the OpenStreetMap based maps have routing information built into them (the OpenFietsMap ones have a lot of paths, tracks and bridleways as part of this) meaning you can set a start and finish point and let the thing plot you a route. Not really relevant for walking, but can come in handy for bike rides (but you often need to coax it with additional waypoints to take the route that you’re interested in).

I got my Oregon without any maps. I use open source mapping. The only thing Ord Survey maps have to recommend them for use on a GPS unit is familiarity. If you’re looking for a graphic format to display on a piece of paper, it’s a winner, but when you want to view that information at various zoom levels, it doesn’t work, and you need a separate set of maps – 1:25K, 1:50K.

With Open Source mapping, you can set your preferences to show different detail at different zoom levels, contours, pubs, rain shelter, beauty salons for mid ride manicures if you break a nail. And being able to set routes and navigate too is a rather large bonus.

I wonder if phylon will be along to tell us what OS are working on?