Can a GPS ever replace a map and compass?

[Bush Walker]

Ever thought that with the purchase of your upmarket colour screen GPS (or for that matter an iPhone) that you don't need to take a map with you any longer? Wrong, wrong, wrong .....

Many years experience with using GPS on bushwalks has convinced me otherwise.

Ever had your batteries go flat at a critical time? Ever had your GPS freeze and then reset itself to factory settings wiping all your waypoints and routes when you have rebooted it? Ever dropped your "waterproof" GPS onto rocks and had it bounce into a nearby waterhole and then slowly sink as it fills with water? Ever struggled with the buttons on your GPS in the dark while wearing gloves and with your glasses covered in condensation?

Well I have and that's why I always take a map as my primary navigation tool. In fact the more I walk, the less I use my GPS and the more I use my map. Hardly ever use a compass, although I always carry one for when my electronic gizmos fail.

More info http://www.bushwalkingskills.com/2010/08/can-my-gps-replace-my-map.html

[Nuts]

You could carry 2 GPS's ?

[Bush Walker]

You could carry 2 GPS's ?

Or 1 GPS and an iPhone with Bit Map loaded!!!

[Nuts]

Yes... or 2 iphones! I still prefer the large view of a paper map, understand how to navigate but almost would never bother with using it if im carrying a GPS also..
Personally as an aid to 'not getting lost' I think it may be possible for a GPS to replace a paper map. If just the one option though I think you (and Everyone in a group) would need to have a good understanding of where you are, exit routes and direction and updated regularly through a walk.

[sailfish]

I am sure that in some peoples minds it already has. However, what do you do when your only nav aids have a flat battery or get wet and short out? The great advantage of map and compass is they pretty much just always work because they don't rely on external resources like power. This is why nav courses still always just use GPS for confirmation. In fact good nav practice relies on redundancy.


Regards,
Ken

[walkinTas]

Ever had your batteries go flat at a critical time? carry spare batteries.
Ever had your GPS freeze and then reset itself to factory settings wiping all your waypoints and routes when you have rebooted it? carry a backup memory card - they are cheaper than a second GPS
Ever dropped your "waterproof" GPS onto rocks and had it bounce into a nearby waterhole and then slowly sink as it fills with water? duh! Put all your eGear in waterproof ziplocks
Ever struggled with the buttons on your GPS in the dark while wearing gloves and with your glasses covered in condensation? No, but I doubt you can read a map under those conditions either

Ever had your maps get soggy in the rain?
Ever had your maps blow away in the wind?
Ever had the ink run on your inkjet printed maps?
Ever had widely varying reads from your compass?
Ever dropped your compass onto rocks and had it bounce into a nearby waterhole?
Ever go lost in the bush?

... but nothing is safe from ID-10-T errors!

My answer to all of the above! NO.

[ILUVSWTAS]

My answer to all of the above! NO.

Ditto

[photohiker]

Being able to read a map or GPS would rate higher than any of these questions.

I've met people on the trail that constantly check their maps (or GPS) and yet still get horribly lost. They don't need to break it to get lost.

I prefer compass with GPS for reference. Maps in the backpack where they are safe, I wouldn't want them to wear out

[ollster]

Being able to read a map or GPS would rate higher than any of these questions.

Just as important, learn to read the terrain and see the signs. Not much use having maps/GPS if you can translate that to what you're seeing, and then make good choices based on the terrain/pad/track in front of you.

[corvus]

I am with you ollster,if you cannot read the terrain or know where North/South is without aids you are a wee bit behind the proverbial 8 ball.
c

[Bush Walker]

Ever had your batteries go flat at a critical time? carry spare batteries.
Ever had your GPS freeze and then reset itself to factory settings wiping all your waypoints and routes when you have rebooted it? carry a backup memory card - they are cheaper than a second GPS
Ever dropped your "waterproof" GPS onto rocks and had it bounce into a nearby waterhole and then slowly sink as it fills with water? duh! Put all your eGear in waterproof ziplocks
Ever struggled with the buttons on your GPS in the dark while wearing gloves and with your glasses covered in condensation? No, but I doubt you can read a map under those conditions either

Ever had your maps get soggy in the rain?
Ever had your maps blow away in the wind?
Ever had the ink run on your inkjet printed maps?
Ever had widely varying reads from your compass?
Ever dropped your compass onto rocks and had it bounce into a nearby waterhole?
Ever go lost in the bush?

... but nothing is safe from ID-10-T errors!

My answer to all of the above! NO.

I like your solutions as they are very practical but they are not universal. Many GPS don't have cards, my batteries always go flat in bad weather when its getting dark and why put a GPS in a snaplock bag when it is supposed to be waterproof and float.

My solution to three of the problems you raised with maps is to laminate a series of A4 photocopies and attach them to yourself by a lanyard.

[Bush Walker]

I think another problem with using a GPS with or without internal maps, is that you often miss the big picture that a map gives you. Often key navigational features are off the GPS screen making it very difficult to read map to ground. This is one of the joys of navigating with a map!

[sthughes]

Just as important, learn to read the terrain and see the signs. Not much use having maps/GPS if you can translate that to what you're seeing, and then make good choices based on the terrain/pad/track in front of you.

Yup, well said.

Ever thought that with the purchase of your upmarket colour screen GPS (or for that matter an iPhone) that you don't need to take a map with you any longer? Wrong, wrong, wrong .....

Yup well said.

... but nothing is safe from ID-10-T errors!

Yup well said.

I agree with almost everything on this thread

I do think a drop proof, waterproof Ipad with changeable batteries and an integrated high sensitivity GPS combined with Bitmap 3.0 would kick some serious butt.

[photohiker]

I am with you ollster,if you cannot read the terrain or know where North/South is without aids you are a wee bit behind the proverbial 8 ball.
c

+1

You should have seen me floundering around on the first day of my Scotland trip. My innate sense of direction went AWOL in the Northern Hemisphere - I couldn't reliably guess north within 90 degrees - as a result my compass and I became very close pals up there...

[Bush Walker]

I do think a drop proof, waterproof Ipad with changeable batteries and an integrated high sensitivity GPS combined with Bitmap 3.0 would kick some serious butt.

mmm perhaps with a follow route button and Google Earth I wouldn't actually need to go

[MJD]

photohiker: You should have seen me floundering around on the first day of my Scotland trip. My innate sense of direction went AWOL in the Northern Hemisphere

I had the same thing happen to me on a trip to London many years ago. While walking around sightseeing I would get the street map out and invariably orientate it 180 degrees out from reality. My theory is that in the other hemisphere the sun is on the "other side" but your sub conscious has kindly told you that the sun is always to the north when, in this case, it was actually in the south. That's also the reason that using your watch to find north uses a different method in each of the hemispheres. Of course some people are always lost or have no sense of direction anyway, and if you have a digital watch then it doesn't really matter where you are

[napalm donut]

Ollsters point about relating the information to things that are actually out there is spot on for me, if you had to, you could even dead reckon with only a watch if you had no choice and live to tell about it in some situations.
A map and compass doesnt need batteries, but is not convenient and needs more effort. I think the 'vs' thing overlooks the fact that they can be a real complement to each other, both in safety terms and actually in operation; the thing thats always annoyed me about GPS maps is the scale toggling and scrolling to see where you are in relation to somewhere else.
Even a folded map is easier(out of the wind) because its so much bigger and has it all available at a glance, but using it with even just lat long from a GPS speeds it all up and takes a lot of work out of the process. Early pre map screen GPS was like this.

[photohiker]

This is quite true, Its a lot easier to visualise the terrain on a map. When using a mapping GPS, I always have maps and compass at hand. I review the route on the map at night and/or in the morning and use the GPS and compass during the day. Maps only come out during the day if things get tricky.

[kanangra]

Nothing quite like a map sheet spread out on the table or floor to facilitate day dreaming.

K.

[normclimb]

I must admit that I wholeheartedly agree with the comments above by Ollster regarding knowing how to read the land infront of you, and of course behind and on both sides. I'm not really one for gizmo's though I appreciate that they may have a place to play in today's modern society, but like most people here I think there is still the greatest value in knowing how to read a map. It might me that having done so you might find that you're not where you ought to be, but at least it will tell you where you are (always a good starting point I think).

My own experience with GPS has shown them to be limited when in canyons and subject to all the 'failures' mentioned above. That's not to say that I dismiss them totally, simply that personally I believe that if you have to rely on them as a last resort than maybe, just maybe, you shouldn't have been out there in the first place. No doubt a contentious remark.....?