Using digital maps/navigation in backcountry?

[steiny98]

Since you are asking the question...

I have both. But as the under 30 demographic, I use the paper as backup, and digital as primary. I find it faster to just use my phone (I use Gaia) to confirm where I'm going. I do find paper maps easier for details on topography.

[Wandering Daisy]

Totally old fashioned here-nothing but paper maps. Do not even take a compass in the Sierra. I firmly believe that GPS is for those who already know how to navigate. It is dangerous when it becomes a means to rely totally on dot-to-dot hiking. One issue for me with GPS units is that I have difficulty seeing the screen. I also do not like carrying extra batteries. I grew up reading maps and see no need to do anything differently. Perhaps when I go senile!

[maverick]

Don't need no f ing electronic device to navigate in the Sierra!

[Tom_H]

Electronic navigation should be nothing more than a last resort backup at the most. Personally, I think carrying one is a waste of unnecessary weight. No one should be going into the backcountry who is not trained in orienteering/map and compass. Since you can now custom print the exact area you need and have it waterproof coated, there is no risk of a wet map deteriorating. No backcountry ranger should be relying on an electronic device for navigation, (and frankly, neither should anyone). If she or he cannot navigate by map/compass, the sun and the stars, then he or she is not fit to be employed as a ranger. And this is only one of numerous requirements.

And by the way, we are not campers, we are backpackers.

[TahoeJeff]

Totally old fashioned here-nothing but paper maps. Do not even take a compass in the Sierra.

X2

[maverick]

What's a compass?

[Jimr]

We are Devo

[rlown]

What's a compass?

Had one back in the day when I was 14. I don't carry one anymore. Sun rises in the East and sets in the West. If cloudy, hunker down for awhile. It'll change.

To be clear, If one needs the compass, they should take it. You still need landmarks to orient yourself. That is part of the trip prep anyway.

I admit I do take my GPS when in new off trail areas (Trinity). Garmin MapSource is my tool of choice with my GPS. I don't do tracks, but I do waypoints during route planning. They and the appropriate maps get uploaded pre-flight. turning it on once in awhile calms the victims with me.

[AlmostThere]

I use a compass. Not just a baseplate but a full clinometer-mirror-declination adjusted orienteering compass, with which one can take a bearing from the map and navigate through a forest, or a fog bank, or a storm. Save a lot of arguing about which way we're supposed to go -- if someone swearing by their GPS is wrong, I ain't following him, and I can show him why.

[Wandering Daisy]

I must revise my comment. I do use a "digital map" (TOPO software) in my trip planning. The feature that allows you to draw a route line and automatically get a profile is very useful. I have all sorts of spreadsheets that allow me to do many versions of a route to determine the best logistical plan. BUT, that is pre-planning. I then print the paper maps. These are my backup. I use the real 7.5-minute USGS topos to actually navigate. At each rest break, I then draw my actual path and time of the rest break on the USGS maps. I also write notes on the back. This gives me my trip journal- my actual "track".

I would take a compass in more timbered terrain or did when I was mountaineering where there was a chance of a white-out. In fact, on some snow climbs we used to mark our route with wands and florescent flags, to find our way back in a storm. For simple backpacking in higher altitudes like the Sierra or Wind Rivers, I just use paper maps. After 20 years carrying a compass I used it once. I then decided to ditch the compass. There were times last summer in the Wind Rivers where I decided on a different route and walked off my maps and winged it. But I have stared at the maps so much that I just about have them memorized.

By the way, you really need to study maps enough that you have a real sense of the lay of the land for areas off the maps you have. You never know when you will need to bail. In this respect, a GPS is useful because you always have maps of the entire range. Cell service just is not reliable enough at this point to consider your phone a GPS. Even with a GPS, you really need to understand and be able to conceptualize contour lines. When I look at a map, the topography literally pops out at me. This is the skill set that I think the young who rely on GPS really need to learn.