GPS or Map & Compass?

I was just wondering, now that 2011 is in its autumnal stages, just what people preferred to use as a navigation tool.

I know that map and compass is rapidly becoming yesteryear as far as technological progress goes and I have heard rumblings that insurance companies may not cover you if you are sans gps and run into deep trouble and requiring rescuing.

Personally, I use gore-tex, synthetic footwear with high adhesion soles on slides, and on my very next outing shall appease my spouse by carrying a Spot device. Nevertheless, I can't shake the feeling that using a GPS is lame and in that one tiny regard I still cling like some relic to clunky map and compass technology.

What about you?

(Please excuse me if this subject has already been addressed, I did a search on the topic and couldn't find anything.)

Troll!

Why not carry all 3?

I use all three--they all complement each other.

Doug

Map & compass, when your initials are MAP it comes with territory. I do tend to stick on the trails except when hitting a northeast 4K trail-less.

If I was in pursuit of the NE 100 or Cat 35 I'd consider it. Tried SW Hunter a few years ago when only a couple of inches of snow on 1/1 & I know I was close but it was real thick.

Memorize the map. Your mind is your best navigating tool.

Batteries fail, maps shred or blow away.

If you insist on technology, bring along a sewing needle for a compass. Rub it on wool to magnetize it and float it on a leaf in a bit of water, that's all the edge you need.

Will said:

Memorize the map. Your mind is your best navigating tool.

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I agree here. I am a member of the National Mt. bike Patrol here in the Augusta, GA area. I carry maps but this is to show riders where they are. A lot of the trails have excess routes to them for trail work and rider evacuation. None of these are marked on maps.

I carry all three. I like taking out my map to check out interesting features and trail junctions, that may be coming up on a trail I haven't been on before, etc. (My initials are MAP as well).
I started with the GPS a little over a year ago. I find it very usefull when doing bushwacks where I want to follow someone elses tracks. I think it's nice to have a GPS above treeline in inclimate weather. It has been very helpful in Winter when trying to find a trail that has been blown over and fairly unrecognizable.
Plus, I like using the altimeter to torture myself with how many feet of elevation gain to go!

Petch

Map & Compass. Camel's Hump in Vermont is not 5500' per my Garmin gps.

I use, in this order:

• map (constantly)
• GPS (sometimes I might use this once on a hike, if I'm confused)
• compass (once in a blue moon; I haven't pulled it out of my pack in at least 3 years)

On trailed hikes, I never really use any of those tools, so this really only applies to bushwhacking.

I navigate mostly by terrain features. So I use, in this order:

Map - all the time, to correlate to what I'm seeing on the ground. Agree on memoriznig the map - I do a lot of this too.

Compass - often during a trip. Less for navigation; more for an occasional verification that I have not gotten turned around, or made some kind of mistake.

GPS - almost never. Only used to mark a waypoint at an interesting feature, so my "compass impaired" friends can find it. I do not have any "mapping software."

A lot of these choices depend on the terrain you are in. Here in the Adirondacks, there are lots of features. On the other hand, I'd probably use a GPS if I were geocaching in Kansas. (But why in the world would I want to do that?)

Will said:

Memorize the map. Your mind is your best navigating tool.

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Memorize the map, carry it with detailed knowledge of what is on it and a spare compass (or two). I mostly visit remote areas, generally thinking of trails only as a means to get off the trail to where I really want to go via bushwhack. For a major trip to an unfamiliar, or even a semi-familiar area, I like to spend hours going over the map in considerable detail, memorizing major features and their relationship to each other, then begin again going back over the route to pick up on successively smaller features. A sense of direction at each is extremely important. I try to memorize what I would do when encountering each landscape feature, as well as possible alternate choices. I find that when I get out there and at the end of the day or when I am extremely tired and perhaps also dehydrated, the mind may not work so well. If I have a layered approach to memorization, the major landforms will be obvious, and they will trigger memory of smaller details. That's when those hours spent on map study really pay off.

Some people hike primarily just to reach a destination. Usually from what I read here it is some kind of summit. Want to use a gps to get there? Go ahead. Just be sure you are as capable of getting yourself back home again without using the gps if it should become lost or break. Total reliance on such a single mode of total failure is foolish. Other people (like me) find far more enjoyment in observing the landscape and figuring out where I am by using my own continuously developing skill and brainpower. I would much rather know where I am every step of the way by looking outward, using my mind with the aid of map and compass, than to focus on a machine to take me to an endpoint as the goal.

I do own several gps devices. I use them in two ways... first as a long distance canoe racer I use a gps to monitor my speed both when training and during a race. Rarely would I need to use it to navigate, except in very long distance races in a new area or to otherwise gain racing advantage. I programmed 768 waypoints in routes around islands and current during the Yukon 1000, for example. Even there, visualization on the spot with prior knowledge of the map would take priority over following the gps arrow. The gps is a tool during a competitive race.

The second way I use a gps is as a SAR Crew Boss. I work very closely with DEC rangers during a lost person search, and of course the gps is central to search grid navigation and end of day coverage monitoring, to ensure complete coverage in precisely the correct area assigned. You had better know in an instant how to program an assigned search block when a ranger tells you to go there. Even so, completely understanding of use of map and compass is still primary when navigating and leading a crew through the terrain and reporting findings to incident command. The gps is a necessary adjunct tool during SAR.

However, I do not use a gps when hiking for personal recreation. To me it is no more than an unnecessary distraction. It is far more enjoyable to take my time and experience developing use of natural clues along with map, compass, and my brain. I never stop learning, I always know where I am to any reasonable and necessary degree of accuracy, and where I am going. I don't need the gps as a tool to do that.

On summer hikes in the Whites I rarely even bring a map though the compass is always in my pack pocket. I figure if I can't find my way on a well defined set of trails with accurate trail signs I don't belong out there in the first place. I rarely do bushwhacks so that doesn't enter the discussion. On winter hikes I take a more conservative approach to my outing, a keen sense of judgement and a rigid discipline of safety. I/we've turned around many times and never regretted any of them. I don't own a hiking GPS. Probably never will.

JohnL

I'm only referring to off-trail hiking.

I could never memorize a map but can remember things like "go left at the second tributary".

Like hunting bear with a muzzle loader or deer with a bow and arrow using map and compass is now a deliberate choice that makes it harder. People have always embraced new technology when it simplifies getting a job done.

It may once have been a necessity but could it now be just a value or a method of increasing the satisfaction of the "hunt".

What's a compass?

Interesting Responses

It's a mixed bag of responses here. It's all about your objectives and you intended route. I almost never use navigational aids on a well blazed trail. I am doing more and more whacking these days.
I don't "memorize" a map. I am very visual though. Once I've been a certain way, I can always find it again by recognizing the terrain and surroundings. That's why I never use a GPS in an automobile.

Interestingly, I had a chance to explore logging roads earlier this month. They aren't on maps, they come and go, the dead end.There is no rhyme nor reason to them and no certain destination. It is very much tantamount to whacking, you just don't shred your pants!

I don't need to have a "goal".

What do I use?

1) Paper topos and large computer screen rendering for planning, with a few data points plotted. I bring them anyways, since my memory is squat for memorization. The batteries never run out on paper maps!
2) My wits - I am very, very aware of my surroundings, mostly because I hike solo. Where is the sun, what is the arc of the sun? What side of the tree is the moss? Where and how are the brooks oriented? What is the terrain like? And so on.
3) A GPS for entertainment. Mostly for tracking. A few points of interest. I use the internal compass a lot.
4) Compass for backup.

I really would like a transponder, in case of serious injury, but I simply don't have the bucks.

I have learned that while a cell phone doesn't work in the woods, climbing to a hill, mountain top or outcropping often finds a signal. For emergency use only.

When I hiked up the Air Line last Thursday, I must have shown my map to at least 7 different sets of hikers who asked if they were going the right way, or where the hut or the Valley Way tent site was. Amazing!

I don't own a GPS, but with my altimeter watch and a map, I'm good to go.

PA Ridgerunner said:

What's a compass?

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It's that two legged pen and point thing in geometry sets. I never learned how to use one properly.

I have made a conscious choice not to carry a GPS. First, I think that looking at an electronic box and using it to tell me where to go would prevent me from being as focused on, and connected with, the place I am walking though. Forced observation is a valuable thing. Second, it reminds me too much of everyday life (the Garmin in my car; Google maps on my computer; all of the electronic devices that beep and tell me where I need to be next), which I'm generally trying to disconnect from. Third, I feel like I am being coerced into spending another couple of hunderd dollars on something that I really don't need by another company or system out to make a huge profit.

I am very good with a map and compass, and that is what I rely on for navigation. But I recognize the GPS's utility and could imagine myself, someday, throwing one in the bottom of my pack - if I got it for free, that is.

IMVBO (In my very biased opinion), any of the people using GPS for bagging the trailless 100 highest summits should have an asterisk affixed to their scroll . It used to be that planning the approach and picking intermediate points and terrain hooks to head for using a map and compass was the majority of the challenge to do many of the 100 highest bushwhacks.

I have a Garmin 62 and I find that planning a route using the GPS map on the screen is an exercise in futility as the screen size is so small. Zoom it out to cover any area and any close up resolution is long gone. Sure I can follow pre-established way points by following an arrow until the device beeps, but to me that is the equivalent of following a flagged trail someone else laid out. The concept of following someone elses track log just doesnt interest me. My batteries last a real long time as the only time its on is to mark a starting point and to get coordinates of AT boundary markers.

I expect it goes back to I like the challenge of the journey not the destination. Gene Daniels used to include humorous stories in the summit cannisters and occasion they would be about a prior trip to the summit that went wrong, including a couple where they ended up on the wrong side of the mountain miles away from the cars. These events were not in life threatening conditions so it was merely and inconvenience to be remembered. Some of my better memories are on bushwhacks that got "interesting" due to difficult navigation. With a GPS they would have been easy, but we had a lot more fun figuring out where we thought we were and then figuring out how to get back to where we supposed to be.

I guess I should be smashing textile machines next (see how many folks get that obscure reference)

I nearly always use a paper map to plan the trip out in advance, sometimes an online map

I rarely use a compass on trail hikes, sometimes on bushwhacks - most bushwhacks I do by map and feel of the ground

I rarely use a GPS for anything, but they are better than a compass for finding a point in featureless terrain - and anyone who thinks they need a Blackberry or a Spot will think they need one. And if I use a GPS I navigate with the map screen not the pointer - any GPS without a map screen is a toy.