Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board GPS Units

I've been using a Garmin GPS II+ for a number of years. No fancy maps, monochrome display, but it 2x as long on a set of batteries as the GPS III that was available at the same time, and for backcountry use, a road map is superfluous.

Definitely buy a 12V cigarette lighter adaptor cord for whatever GPS you buy. You'll find the GPS at least as useful driving as on the trail...especially when searching for ill-marked or obscure Forest Service roads to trailheads.

Next, familiarize yourself with <a href="http://www.topozone.com">Topozone</a> and learn how to manually enter waypoints into your GPS. That way, you can set waypoints for intersections (road or trail), trailheads, etc., and have a good idea of how close and what direction you need to turn.

Finally, remember that a GPS measures "crows", that is, straight-line (well, great circle) distances "as the crow flies", but your feet deal in "hikers", or actual trail miles. For instance, Portal to summit on Mt. Whitney is between 3 and 4 "crows" but is 10.5 "hikers" along the Main trail.

Also, never depend solely on your GPS. You will still need a topo map and compass as backup for dead batteries, to figure out your way around cliffs, lakes, etc., (straight into which the GPS will tell you to go!!) and to identify landforms and landmarks along the way.

The GPS is a great tool, but only when used with the brain in gear...

Thanks, DH Meieio. I don't think I'll start looking for a GPS unit this year; I'm not going to be able to take as much time off this year for any long hikes,and I don't think I'll need one for Whitney :-) or Rainier. I do think I'll keep watching the GPS units as they evolve, though... with technology changing so fast, it probably won't be long before they are able to add the locator beacon feature.