BGR and GPS

[daz h]

can you recharge one at honister??

[Mark Smith]

I took 2, the first ran out 5 mins before getting into Wasdale and the second ran out at Portinscale. I borrowed one off a mate who has the same one.

I used a Garmin Foretrex 201 - nice and small and easy to use

ST

[SteveS]

On the day, won't your helpers be navigating, thereby taking the responsibility away from you? Is that cheating ?

I wish, I've had enough trouble getting a band of local fellrunners together as support, only a few of them know the route intimately enough to rely on for navigation, and a couple of them are notorious for going wrong!

What it was good for was plotting the line i took and timestamping each summit. That tracklog is such a terrific momento from the day and so i'm so glad I took it.

Right, that's decided then - safety was a good persuader but never really thought about the souvenir aspect of a tracklog, that's something well worth having.

I think I'll take one, but I'll looking at the back of a pacer for the bits they know the way instead of the unit. I should be able to avoid looking at it anyway based on my past experience of long days out walking/running on the fells, forgetting it's even there.

[alwaysinjured]

Also did Bob Grahams team drive from all over the country in modern motor cars with perfectly smooth sealed roads and direction signs on every turn to get them to The Lakes. Did they arrange recce runs via the internet and use forums to get training and route information. Did they use the modern sports science knowledge base that has created isotonic drinks, energy bars and gels? I am just curious about this selective use of technology and what pure really is?

The two will never be comparable.

For one thing, in the last 10 years the BG route paths have grown massively!

There used to be just a small snaking trod up great calva, which was really hard to follow. Now it is a big scar on the hillside!! The paths make a considerable difference in places.

A GPS may be a good way to record - it is no substitute for a good navigator who knows exactly the right lines to take, and keeps you out of the rough stuff. The "best route" on something like leg 4 rarely even touches the paths

[SteveS]

For one thing, in the last 10 years the BG route paths have grown massively!

There used to be just a small snaking trod up great calva, which was really hard to follow. Now it is a big scar on the hillside!! The paths make a considerable difference in places.

My club mate who is supporting me did the round about 5 years ago, he was amazed when recceing with me how much some of the paths had grown just in that time.

A GPS may be a good way to record - it is no substitute for a good navigator who knows exactly the right lines to take, and keeps you out of the rough stuff. The "best route" on something like leg 4 rarely even touches the paths

Agreed - knowing the route and trods is much more use that trying to follow an electronic line that is only accurate to within 50m or so on steep stuff.

There's paths on leg 4? Maybe I am doing something right after all...

[Bob]

I think, like most people, that I'm in two minds about the use of GPS as an aid for BGRs.

Firstly, providing that there are enough satellites visible and the system is up and running, you are never lost and if you have reccied and stored the route into a unit then on the day it is just a matter of following what the unit says.

However I have both used and carried a unit (not the same thing) on attempts. On my first attempt we used it to find a couple of points in the back o' Skiddaw in the dark. On my second attempt a pacer on leg 2 had a unit - we didn't use it coming off Great Dodd and got lost in the mist until we stopped being headless chickens and actually used it to get back on track - use of a map and compass in the first place would have been advantageous. Finally, last year I was supporting on a very misty Helvellyn leg and had a GPS unit put into my sack. I never got it out - it kept beeping occasionally but I don't know if they signified waymarks that had been entered or what - despite low visibility for most of the ridge we gained time. I was just using a map printout with bearings written on.

As for paths - not been in the back of Skiddaw since my round but the direct route up Clough Head now has a track where four years ago it did not.

[IainR]

I just can't help but feel it's cheating, by reducing the mountain skill required to solely keeping moving...

Steve

But what's the difference between running solo with a GPS guiding you, and running, without GOS but with pacers guiding you. I bet some poeple are literally guided around a round without ever really knowing where they are, still wouldn't call it cheating. Not for me, but not cheating IMO.

I don't think you can 'cheat' these rounds. You just run them and record the assistance you had, whether that be pacers, GPS, solo, road support etc.

[Marvin]

can you recharge one at honister??

No need to with yours Daz, just change the batteries. I'd need a lot of time in hand to recharge mine at Honister, anyway the batteries will be flat by Wasdale.

[daz h]

No need to with yours Daz, just change the batteries. I'd need a lot of time in hand to recharge mine at Honister, anyway the batteries will be flat by Wasdale.

ooh eck its all very complicated this GPS stuff
batteries i think we will both need new batteries by honister

i dont personally see a problem with using GOOD PERSONAL SERVANTS on the BG, we got some great ones at Pennine.

that is what we are talking about isnt it.

[Fellhound]

Given the unavoidable fact that 2008 is what it is and new roads, new cars, new paths, new nutrition etc exist whether we like it or not, the pure way to do it remains the solo, unsupported approach. It's still the most challenging and thus the most satisfying.

The approach used is obviously the choice of the individual but there is a "hierarchy of purity" at work here!