As a confirmed luddite with a stubborn William Morris style streak of resistance to most new technologies, yesterday was something of a watershed moment for me......my first ever use of a smart phone on the hill! :-o
I recently undertook summer mountain leader training, and obviously navigation is one of the core components that you really have to work on before going for assessment. My nav is pretty good in so far as I can safely find my way around a hillside without a GPS and be confident that I'm unlikely to get lost, but I'd be the first to admit that the level of proficency you need to be operating at for an ML qualification, where you can relocate yourself using subtle changes in contours, pacing, timing etc, is beyond me just now.
I understand it and I can do it, but the whole process is slow. It takes me a while to think each leg through and I get mixed results. It's going to take lots of practice on windswept hillsides before I'm experienced enough to make this kind of thing second nature and swift, but I like the challenge and, to be honest, the actual process of navigating successfully from one point to another is immensely satisfying :)
And so yesterday I was up on Bishop Hill in Kinross-shire, which was excellent for navigation practice because it has loads of reentrants, spurs, undulations and wotnot. I spent three hours navigating & pacing from one topographical feature to another, and while getting from one place to another is all well and good, when your target destinations are tiny features on the hillside, such as mere bumps on a contour line, it helps to be able to confirm whether or not you've successfully navigated your way to the feature in question.
In this case, having a GPS with OS maps via Viewranger, on the smart phone, was enormously helpful in doing just that. Now I need to head up there at night time and have another go ;-)
Oh and yes, I made sure I kept the compass away from the phone ;-)