Hi Alex,
alexpdjdj wrote:we are having group navigation mishaps... on Ben Nevis we had to abandon on the summit plateau in a white-out; on Fairfield last week in total mist we thought we had summitted but on getting home we only reached Cofa Pike, the list goes on. I think a GPS would be beneficial to our group so I am thinking about buying a basic one like a Garmin eTrex 20 or 30.
Yes, a GPS woud be beneficial, especially in whiteout conditions or fog. But I would start with getting some navigation experience. What if your GPS's batteries die, and you're in a whiteout? You still need to be able to navigate safely off the mountain, just using a compass and a paper map. So get a GPS, but also improve your navigational skills.
Gareth Harper wrote:There is a bit of learning to do if you get a GPS, but it's mostly a matter of sitting down and playing with it.
Agreed. And there's always folks on here willing to help out
Gareth Harper wrote:Android? My Galaxy S2's battery positively eats itself. Nor are these phones particularly robust. It also has a nasty habit of switching itself on when in my pocket. I would not recommend mobile phones for GPS.
Definitily not reccommended to us only a mobile/smart phone for navigation. They eat batteries, and (due to antenna restrictions, chip restrictions etc) they are less accurate (which on a ridge in fog/whiteout could be enough to drop you off the ridge). Plus, phones are generally less robust physically. I've dropped my GPS (an 8 or 10 year old Garmin eTrex Vista) a number of times, on rocks and in water. No problem whatsoever. If I did the same with my phone, it would have been dead, and then where does that leave you (no pun intended)?
BobMcBob wrote:As for the GPX files - the ones on user's walk reports may have been recorded using a GPS, in which case they should be followable. But some may have been drawn using the WH route planner, in which case their accuracy at ground level could be questionable.
If the GPX-files have been drawn with the WH routeplanner, I think they only have an X and a Y, and no Z (no elevation). That could indeed throw them off a bit, so you'd need to watch out for that. I tend to download them, convert to KML and look at them in Google Earth. That way you get a pretty decent idea of elevations, steepness, ridges etc. Converting from one format to the other I do with GPS Babel:
http://www.gpsbabel.org/. Nifty little tool that allows you to convert GPX files downloaded from here into almost anything, and most likely the native format for whatever GPS you are going to get will be in there too. You can then modify the route in Google Earth, save it, convert back to whatever you need.