Contents: Why use a phone app?

Many of us carry a smartphone
Apps and maps for free
Just stay on the line
The skill required is low

Many of us carry a smartphone

If you carry a smartphone on your adventures anyway, why wouldn’t you put a nav app and map on it? They don’t weigh anything and you can get them for free.

A modern phone’s GNSS receiver enables a navigation app to do something that no map & compass can. It will show you exactly where you are on a map, however bad the visibility is. Under an open sky, a phone will typically show your position to within a few metres of where you actually are. Amazing!

You don’t need a phone signal. Adding a navigation app to a phone converts it to a great GPS navigation tool. The speed and ease of use will make many dedicated handhelds feel very clunky. If you’re forced to change your plans a phone can plot a new route fast and transfer it to other GPS devices you may have, well away from the internet.

Even if you have no intention of navigating with your phone, it could save the day if your map blew away or compass broke. Even if your magnetic compass is working perfectly, areas containing magnetic rocks could ruin your day. eg The Cuillin on the Isle of Skye are notorious for causing compass havoc. The following quote is from the Wikipedia entry on the Cuillin. “Navigation on the ridge is difficult due to jagged terrain and magnetic abnormalities that make compass reading unreliable”.

Everyone heading out into wilder country that carries a smartphone should load it with a nav app and topo map. Those that do, will be better equipped than those that don’t.

Apps and maps for free

Cost should not be a barrier as there are completely free solutions that offer excellent navigation with good topo mapping. Mapy.cz (Android and iOS) is currently completely free. The Mapy.cz platform doesn’t even have an option you can pay for. Zoom in to your favourite adventure playground and see for yourself how useful this free mapping is.

The free versions of Locus Map 4 / BackCountry Navigator Pro / Oruxmaps (all three are Android only) and Cartograph Maps (iOS & Android) will work well with the excellent and free OpenAndroMaps.

The OpenStreetMap specialist, OsmAnd (Android & iOS), is a powerful app and only a few pounds is needed to download the whole of the UK.

All six of the above apps can provide maps for the world.

Just stay on the line

With good nav apps you only need launch the app and it will open to the map with your position shown, moving accurately across it. Navigation is even easier if your route is already highlighted with a coloured line. If you start going wrong, it’s immediately obvious as the icon representing the phone will drift away from your coloured line. 

Following a planned route is as simple and intuitive as following a real path. Just stay on the line.

The skill required is low

I have looked through many mountain rescue incident reports. Not one of the ‘lost’ incidents I saw included anyone with a working smartphone, loaded with a good app and offline topo map. The same could not be said about those lost with a map and compass.

To navigate accurately with a map & compass over bigger distances, on difficult terrain and in bad visibility, requires experience and confidence. Some of us get caught out before we have acquired those skills.

The level of skill required to navigate in terrible visibility with a phone is low. If all our phones were loaded with a nav app and topo map, many SARLOC and Phonefind mountain rescue call outs to people who are simply lost, should be avoidable. Maybe a few lives would be saved too.

It is impossible to be lost if you know exactly where you are. Don’t just take a map and compass. If you already carry a phone, then add a nav app and topo map to your navigation toolkit. It’s a no-brainer.