The other day we tested pretty much all the GPS solutions out there which run Ordnance Survey mapping, there's a fair few of them now of varying levels of user friendliness, but if I was going to generalise - and hey, why not - I'd say that the point where OS maps started appearing on GPS was sort of break through.
Up until then, GPS units were things you really needed to use in conjunction with a map and they were nerdy, geeky things that were so complicated to use for ongoing solus navigation that people actually offered courses to show you how to use them...
OS mapping on a GPS should stop all that because in effect it is a map, albeit one with a nice red dot - or maybe a blue one - telling you exactly where you are. You still need a map as back-up and maybe to give you a wider picture - just what is that peak in the distance shaped like a reclining orc - but with a pre-loaded route, you can go all day without taking your map out if you choose to.
And in some scenarios, the effortless accuracy of GPS simply moves things on. Micro-navigation or a mapping GPS in a 70mph blizzardy white-out on the Cairngorm plateau? I know which I'd choose, thanks.
Then, right on queue, the Mail and Telegraph publish an article blaming walkers using smartphone nav apps and other new-fangled technology for an increase of 50% in mountain rescue call-outs in the Lakes since 2006. Apparently there's a whole generation out there who can use a phone but collapse into whimpering uselessness as soon as they leave the car park and it starts to rain.
Cue much forum hurrumphing about how GPS is just a back-up for proper map and compass use, which might have been true five years ago, but these days, things aren't quite so clear cut. Yes, you indisputably must carry a map and compass and know how to use it, even if your GPS is your primary chosen means of navigation, but the reality is that you don't have to choose between the two.
Maps and GPS units are converging and while GPS is limited by screen size and the possibility of catastrophic failure or power loss - it's never happened to me, but I accept that it might - it's now vastly better than it used to be. Yes, traditional maps place you in a wider context and make it easier to visualise the terrain you're passing through and there's a unique pleasure and satisfaction to using real maps, and yes, they're arguably easier to use if you need to change routes in the middle of a day, but for simple route following and just knowing exactly where you are, they're hard to beat.
But the thing is, you're not limited to either a GPS or a paper map, you can have - whisper it - both. Use them according to your preferences and their strengths and weaknesses and you get the best of both worlds.
That said, peep into the future and who's to say that we won't see a weather-proofed, GPS-enabled, lightweight iPad-type device showing a bigger and better slice of mapping? It makes sense...
And as for those smaertphone-reliant rescuees in the Lakes, my money says that they'd be just as incompetent with a map and compass as they are with a mapping app...
