Walkhighlands

Hi

My lovely lady wants me to have a tracker on my phone to share my location whilst in the Cairngorms. Any suggestions for best app please? Ideally free too. Cheers.

Garmin inReach mini

You'll struggle to get a signal in a lot of the cairngorms, as above, if it's really important to her, inreach mini.

As above, for tracking in the middle of nowhere, like the Cairngorms, a phone on its own won't do it AND send to a website for your other half to see it, as this requires a mobile signal on a phone. Many places, especially the glens, will have no or poor signal.
A satellite tracking device, like the InReach Mini, will talk to satellites and therefore if you share a link to their website, people can follow your track. Its a fairly big investment though.
I have one, but its arguable as to whether their necessary in the highlands; I bought mine with Scandinavian canoe trips in mind, but it also offers a bit of peace of mind when out solo or with a group inc kids. I don't use it as a tracker often though, just as an emergency device I hope I never need.

Thanks for advice all, being a tight arse I'll have a think lol.

Mendonca wrote:Thanks for advice all, being a tight arse I'll have a think lol.

Ask for it for your birthday/Christmas!

had the same issue and went with a SPOT gen4 - cheaper with a longer battery life - but cant do 2 way comms.... can only send out texts/emails confirming you are ok, going to be late etc...

If you want to try one out you can rent one for a week/month to see how you get on with one.

https://gtc.co.uk/garmin-inreach-explorer-tracker-rental

I tried WhatsApp once for showing Rudolph where I was on a snowpatch hunt on the North York Moors. It was worse than useless and placed me in a pub a few miles away! And it emptied my battery. So don't use that!

I have the Inreach Mini and love it.
But it's a monthly outlay on top of the cost of the device.

It's worth considering that the loved one will not be following your every move and really only wants to know that you'll be back safe.
Only yesterday I forgot to set the tracking at start of my walk. Did my boyfriend notice that it wasn't tracking. Nope. He got my message to say I was starting my walk and my message saying I was at the summit and the message to say I had returned. All of which he responded to without him commenting he couldn't see my track. He was at work and was only concerned I returned safely and was checking in.

It's also a learning curve getting the best out of any device you do get. For example the map screen that you share with the Inreach can get confusing if you don't filter the previous walks out, but if you accidentally set the filter wrong it won't show that days walk either. All simple mistakes to make and sort out for next time.

I think it's worth having a honest talk with the wife to discuss what her concerns are. Give her detailed plans of your trip and assure her of your back up plans for poor weather and generally make her aware of your skill level.
I like to point out to my mum that I'm more likely to die on the drive to the hill than on the hill. (I don't have the stats to back this comment up)

You could point out that you don't track her when she goes out. (If this is something you'd both like to set up here a link to some apps that will do that
https://wearehomesforstudents.com/blog/health-and-wellbeing/10-best-apps-to-help-you-feel-safe-when-walking-home-alone-at-night)

I also have a Garmin cycling computer which can send live tracking over mobile data. It works pretty well for cycling in mobile phone reception but you just get a spinning circle on the map when you're out of reception. Works pretty good in the Pentlands but I couldn't even start the track when walking up Ben Lui as there is no phone reception at start.

So I love gadgets and they give me and my loved ones some peace of mind but there is a cost and a learning curve and it's worth discussing whether these outweigh the concerns.

Yeah you don't want to rely on your mobile phone for tracking, a) you need a mobile data signal and b) it will drain your battery much quicker, even more so when out of signal. Best to keep the phone in flight mode.

My missus went halfers with me on a Garmin inReach Mini, keeps her mind at ease. I'm on the basic £15pm plan I can send unlimited preset messages or 10 personalised SMS messages, if she messages me that comes off my 10 SMS messages.

With the garmin you can start and stop the monthly plan and there is also an annual fee. There is also an option for an annual plan. I use the monthly plan currently but may change to the annual one next spring.
Be aware that on the basic (safety) plan, there is an additional cost for tracking points. Doesn’t matter if you don’t use them but make sure they are switched off or it could become expensive.

mrssanta wrote:I tried WhatsApp once for showing Rudolph where I was on a snowpatch hunt on the North York Moors. It was worse than useless and placed me in a pub a few miles away! And it emptied my battery. So don't use that!

Phone locators are built-in and will have the least battery drain; on Google it's "Android Find" on iOS it's "Find My".

Each will require the phone to be on, not in airplane mode, with mobile data on, location services on, and a two-way communication with mobile reception. But if nothing else they'll tell the person doing the FIND at home the last place "the network" saw that device.

What sort of frequency are you looking for?
Does she want a real-time "he's here", or just a daily "he's still alive"?
If it's the former, then the Garmin inreach or a Spot device is probably what you need. If it's the latter, then the OSlocate app has the option to send your location in a text message. You could use that on summits (which is where you're most likely to get signal), so she'll know you got safely to the top of Cairngorm. Unfortunately, there's not likely to be a signal in the glens, and some of the more remote summits may be too far from the nearest transmitter to get signal.

I find this obsession with tracking peoples' location 24/7 both completely weird and quite disturbing.
Time was when folk went to the hills for a bit of personal freedom. Some of us still do.
Now the surveillance society wants to follow us even there.