As of 2019, why do mountaineering courses still teach how to use a paper map?

I'll answer both as a geomatician who makes maps (both paper and digital) and deals with GIS data for a living. I'm also a mountaineer, trail runner, backcountry skiier, and outdoorsman with extensive experience both of GNSS receivers and paper maps.

Reading skills

First off, reading maps is a skill that needs to be practiced and as for many other fields, like architecture and graphic design (both fields in which I studied in school), the basics are still learned manually, sketching on paper to remove the clutter of learning a UI at the same time as you learn theory.

It is difficult to read properly if you don't have a decent overview. Try reading the fine print on a contract, well if you want to read a large area on a digital handheld mapping device, you'll have a similar experience and I wouldn't trust the results unless you spent enough time to zoom in and out a few times. It's actually way faster with a paper map.

The data (quality over quantity)

As far as geomatics go, you quickly learn that you are limited to the quality of your data. Many digital products are not very good in that department, with several extremely dangerous situations that lead to deaths. The most recent being a Montreal man who died when his car GPS led him on a private unmaintained road instead of the main road. Don't assume it was entirely his fault. If the attributes in the data don't differentiate between road classes or incorporate recent changes to the physical reality, the fault is entirely on the data provider.

He got stuck on a broken bridge, walked 20km and died of exposure. People rely blindly on services like Google Maps, that have a massive database, but the scope of their data prevents them from addressing the details that can mean life or death. That's why a paper map crafted individually will always beat a global coverage digital product. The designer will know much more about the content of the map whereas if you ask Google to correct the data, as in the George He story, they simply don't even respond.

The scary thing is that a professional trucker ended up in the same situation only a week after George He, on the same road, but he was saved only because his employer was tracking his schedule.

Situational awareness

Another aspect that is often overlooked is that if you rely on an electronic device with GNSS positioning, you never really need to look up from the screen to know where you are. This leads to the dangerous idea that you can move inland without even looking at the terrain. One of the best ways not to get lost is to always take a look at the scenery behind you when on your ingress. Having snapshots of the scenery in your mind for your way back will help tremendously if you lose both your GNSS receiver and your map and compass.

This reflex is much more natural if you are forced to look around in the process of reading your map and placing yourself on it.

Situational awareness is probably the most important point I'm making here

Discounting this only shows your ill-preparation for the backcountry and lack of knowledge. Unfortunately, without a good mountaineering course, this knowledge has to be learned the hard way, which is through your mistakes.

Some mistakes can be fatal and if the overwhelming majority of outdoors professionals tell you that you need to know how to read a map, there's a good reason for it.

When a GNSS receiver is logical

I do a lot of bushwhacking in dense boreal forest. Then, using map and compass is not very efficient. GNSS is the best way to reach specific spots. A good technique is to get a bearing with the device, set it on the compass, then plow through the forest, adjusting from time to time. Maps are not very useful when you don't have landmarks to identify and this is one of the only times where they fail compared to a GNSS receiver.

Extras

For the sake of completeness, I'll add other details that have already been mentioned in other answers:

• Screen devices are too small to see the big picture.
• Devices do break. You need a backup and you need to know how to use it. Then, why bring the device in the first place?
• Energy is not unlimited because it weighs a lot. Instead of wasting that weight on batteries, you can bring other comfort items (nothing like a gin flask) if you don't rely on electronics.

posted over 4 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Gabriel C.‭

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