As a keen mountaineer for over 40 years and an avid orienteer and map reader I've been using GPS devices since their first appeared in the late 90s.I've always been a gadget man, andmuch deliberation I eventually decided on a Garmin 12 Personal Navigator, cost then was £160, and it was a well built, heavy device powered by 4 AA batteries (which didn't last very long!). When you switched it on it took several minutes to obtain a fix and had a monochrome LCD screen which showed a rudimentary map in plot form and various other information screens, easy to use but very crude compared to today's gadgets.
I remember once spending a whole evening inputting information for a long trek over 20 tops in the Berwyn in 2000 only to realise on the day that I had forgotten to change the grid letters from my local 100 km grid square, SH, to the Berwyn SJ, which meant that all the summits had the correct 8 figure grid reference, but were a 100 kilometres out! However, it proved to be a quite useful standby to a paper map, and I used it mostly just to get an instant location fix.
I eventually sold it a few years ago for £48 – it was so well put together that it looked in pristine condition even though it was 10 years old. Modern devices are much flimsier in comparison.
In the meantime several software companies had brought mapping apps to the market that could be used on computers, their own dedicated handsets or on mobile phones. I did look into buying the Satmap handheld device but was put off by the initial cost and of carrying an extra device, and eventually found a secondhand Nokia 5800 phone which had the Viewranger software and several maps installed. Before buying I contacted Viewranger re any licensing problems with ownership of the installed maps and to future updating to any new hardware. They were very helpful and replied to all my queries almost immediately – via Mike Brocklehurst or Craig Wareham.
The installed maps included the whole of Britain at 1:50,000 and several pockets of 1:25,000 dotted around the country. To these I added a 1:25,000 map of the Snowdonia National Park (£58 then but half price by now) and downloaded several tiles at 1:25,000 scale of various other areas that I visited or required more detail. The software worked very well, was updated frequently, and I carried the phone with me on all my travels. However, the Nokia phone was very glitchy and in 2011 I updated to an iPhone 3GS 16gb and after some technical advice from Viewranger re map file transfer, all the maps from the old handset magically appeared on the iPhone.
The Apple phone is a lot more intuitive to use, its only problem was battery life! On a long day in the mountains, without any power backup, the phone usually died by mid-afternoon. I bought a Powermonkey backup device, but this proved to be a bit fiddly in use. In the meantime, as Viewranger updated and improved their software on a regular basis, the power problem, by today, had virtually disappeared and I can use the app, track a route, download any extra map tiles (if any signal) and spend a long day out without any fear of the phone dying on me. The Viewranger interface has also developed over the years, is intuitive and easy to use and has many features that I don't use.
Viewranger also allows you to view the maps on 4 devices. I used to be a meets secretary for Clwb Mynydda Cymru and using Viewranger to plot a grid reference for an activity proved a godsend – it was as easy as placing the cursor over the starting point and reading off the reference. At home I can view all my maps on an iPad, but have not ventured out with it! An iPad mini in a waterproof holder and with a 3G connection might be the next logical step – but always with a paper map in your sack as a backup! It would be interesting not only to find out how these new devices have affected the sales of OS and Harvey maps, but also if people new to walking actually know how to use a map and compass – do they rely too heavily on their phones to get them out of trouble (as they do with their prat-navs before starting on any road journey)?
Many Mountain Rescue teams use Viewranger in the field and the software's Buddy Beacon feature lets others keep an eye on where you are.
Chris Townsend recently reviewed Viewranger on a tablet device in the field …
http://www.christownsendoutdoors.com/2012/09/nexus-7-tablet-for-outdoors.html
Viewranger now (December 2013) sell the whole of Britain at 1:25,000 scale at a cost of £250 or one can buy maps which cover the National Park from £20 upwards, or download individual tiles for the cost of a music download. These can be used on the iPhone, Android and Symbian platforms … but not on Windows phones.
Here is a link to their website … http://www.viewranger.com/en-gb
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