UKC

I was once given a tip by a Guide for making navigation less faffy in Scotland. She said to cut a 1:50000 map up into sections and laminate them, meaning that you could just take out that section when going into the mountains and avoid carrying a bulky folded map.

I liked this idea but I haven't done it yet. What 'areas' would you pick if you were to take this approach, say in the West Highlands and the Cairngorms?

So perhaps:

Nevis, Aonach Mor, Aonach Beag?
The Mamores?
The Grey Corries?
Glencoe
Ballachulish horseshoe?
Around the Cairngorm plateau?
Errrrhhhh??

Can you help?

Many thank

In reply to iamaclimber:

Are you sure you are asking this the right way round?? Decide where you want to go then cut the maps, not cut the map then decide where you want to go. Orchy area, Ben More to Falloch, Blair Atholl, Meaghaidh group, Pitridh group...... the world is your oyster ....decide where you want to go, look at the map, cut, laminate, job done.

In reply to iamaclimber:

Buy Memory Map

http://www.memory-map.co.uk/

Then you can print out and laminate the areas you need. Also great for leaving copies at the local Police station with your route drawn on it. It looks expensive but I can assure you that buying it will save you in the long run if you're planning on purchasing OS maps at £7.99 a pop or whatever and cutting them up.

There are others on the market, but this is the only one I've used and I love it.

In reply to iamaclimber:

Hi,

Are you sure you want to chop up all those maps? It would be cheaper to get a subscription to OS Get A Map and then print off the maps for wherever you are going. You can centre it wherever you want and and waypoints /routes if you want.

I like having a 50k on one side and a 25k the other in a taped up plastic envelope.

Al

In reply to iamaclimber:

It would be cheeky but maps.bing.com do all the 1:50 and 1:25s!

In reply to iamaclimber:

Bing maps has os maps, just print screen and paste in powerpoint, remember to add map square letters and grid ref numbers otherwise you make an MRT call more difficult.

In reply to iamaclimber:

Local library & colour photocopier did for me as a student.

In reply to kwoods:


This. Just do a screen grab of the areas you want, crop it to remove all the gubbins, print it out and pop it in a poly pocket. I've got quite a large number of these now.

In reply to iamaclimber:

I hear you... the ideas above are good. But humour me anyway? What areas would you go for?

Thanks!

In reply to iamaclimber:

Am I missing something? I decide where I'm going then print a map centred on that area.

Do you want us to recommend you places to go climbing? If so you've already named many of the good areas.

In reply to iamaclimber:

Another vote for memory map. Buy the entire UK1:50k for £60 and then you can print as many as you like .

In reply to DaveHK:

I just want to create a library of maps of distinct areas. I am trying to figure out what those areas should be.

In reply to iamaclimber:

Look at the BMC map areas - cover lots of the main climbing areas.

Fwiw when I did this I had Ben Nevis to grey corries, glen Coe, and snowdownia - just at 50k so really compact. Worked well - need to watch out for location of grid numbers, and ensure you have enough of the edge of areas to allow alternate approaches/escapes.

Also if not double sided write contact details, and nav data (grid/mag variation) on the reverse.

In reply to iamaclimber:

http://www.az.co.uk/?nid=60&iid=10537

These are basically the 1:25k OS maps in book form, They're really well designed: folded map size, bookmark flap covers, not printed in the centre creases so no detail lost. They cover large areas in each such as the Dark Peak in one, or The Lakes in 2 vols.

In reply to iamaclimber:

I cut mine up into those little squares they handily draw blue lines round

In reply to doz:

Good idea. You can then just carry the squares you need in your pocket.

In reply to Turdus torquatus:

And the resulting jigsaw puzzle will help to pass the long benightment.

In reply to iamaclimber:

I carry a printed copy of the area in question in my pocket for handy reference, and the original map (s) in a map case in my rucsac. That way, if you lose the copy in a gust of wind, go off the edge of it or need to plan alternate routes you have a backup

In reply to iamaclimber:

A laminated map does not fold up smaller than a standard folded map!

In reply to iamaclimber:

I wouldn't do this. Seems a great way to destroy otherwise useful maps since 10 to a penny, the area you cut out and laminate for this weekend, WONT be right for next weekend and you'll end up juggling between 2 laminates sheets.

Better idea as someone above suggested would be to buy mapping software (Memory Map, Anquet etc) or subscribe to a service like OS get a map or grough route. These will all let you print off the exact area you want as often as you want. It also allows to you do stuff like print at 200% scale, which doubles the size of your 1:50k scale, which I find helps for fiddly or congested nav areas.

You can also print out a large sheet at 1:50k scale, and on the flip side of the laminate have 1:25k, 1:12.5k etc sections for any areas you'd appreciate the additional detail on (or even print a Harvey map back to back with your OS).

Much better approach than butchering your OS map, and you can then still use the full size OS map for planning long routes etc where its handy to be able to see the whole sheet.

Cheers,

Stu

MBE (Mail boxes etc) - there is one in Glasgow - print and laminate any OS maps you want including sections.

In reply to iamaclimber:


It's what I was doing until I realised it's a waste of money to buy all these maps and then use only 20% of it and pretty much destroy the rest with scissors.

I must do a bit of free advertising for these guys because I found their service to be great so far:

http://www.myminimap.co.uk/

Basically they print you an ideally sized section of OS map on waterproof paper, and it's very cheap, about 5£.

In reply to Kirsticles:

I agree with this and offer Grough Route as an alternative for printing A4 sheets of 25k or 50k maps. Cheap subscription and enough printing allowance to cover even enthusiastic walkers. As suggested by Dave Kerr you can also do screen grabs and enlarge the congested areas in Photoshop.

In reply to iamaclimber:


How does carrying a smaller section of map reduce faff? Reduce weight/bulk maybe

In reply to Michael Gordon:
It avoids having to unfold & re-fold 50k maps in high winds or wet conditions. In my experience the walk I was doing rarely fitted nicely onto a neatly folded 50k map that could be encased in a poly bag. Even more so with 25k maps.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

I guess that will be true if you're covering a long distance, but it's certainly rare for me to be walking off the edge of a folded map.

In reply to Michael Gordon:
I know what you are saying but I found that re-folding even 50 k maps to centre my walk on one panel led to fraying and damage and I disliked the classic map case - too large & cumbersome. I did a walk with an instructor from Glenmore Lodge and he had a neat little waterproof Ortleib mobile phone case with a cut down 50k map folded to cover a day on the plateau. It sat inside his jacket and was so unobtrusive that I adopted it for my own use on the hills and using tailored prints from Grough this has served me well over the years. I have never yet had to be rescued from the clutches of a strangulating map case! Each to his own - it works for me.

In reply to iamaclimber:

I'd agree that the need to cut up "proper" OS maps has disappeared now it's so easy to print off the parts of the map you need (onto waterproof paper, or to laminate).

Which makes it a whole lot easier to decide on areas (or perhaps just opens up a whole lot more options, making it harder to decide?) as they don't need to mutually exclusive, but can overlap each other.

Mind you, I'd also tend to argue that a small chopped up piece of map is largely redundant now you can have a similar size piece showing on your GPS or smartphone, with the added advantage of showing your current position - but I'll admit there's the odd time when a piece of paper might win

In reply to iamaclimber:
Www.Streetmap.co.UK

Also has os maps for free to print.
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/idld.srf?x=468000&y=298500&z=115&sv=468000,29850...

Gives you a lovely map of Scotland Leicestershire. Don't ask me.

In reply to iamaclimber:
i have always just scanned and printed the section of map i need onto plain paper and taped it into a clear plastic wallet. cheap and easily replaced if damaged also folds up to whatever size i want and can shove it in any pocket to hand.

In reply to Carolyn:
I think we are in a transition state regarding mapping options. In a few years things may be clearer & more affordable. Let me explain. For many years I have collected maps and relied on them - then I embraced on-line mapping through Grough Route that allows me to print maps (with routes) for use on the hill at a very low annual cost. I have a basic GPS unit that reliably indicates my position but is dire in terms of mapping. The investment to combine the two is quite large so I stick with my hybrid system of paper maps & GPS. I have seen other people on the hill using their smartphones with mapping and the main restriction I see is that the size of the screen does not allow a good interpretation of more expansive views of the landscape. I did share a walk with a tablet user that gave a better view but it dropped out in a very wet day. Perhaps in a few years the technology will have become more reliable & affordable and I will switch.
However, I am still mindful that the key skill in route-finding on the hill is the ability of a walker to interpret the terrain & their surroundings and, advised by a map showing that area, make appropriate choices of the way forward. In the end it comes down to the human elements rather than the technology.

In reply to iamaclimber:

Use laminated A4 maps all the time for sea kayaking but can't get on with them for hill walking, their to stiff to slip into your pocket and their slippy. Also you can't open up the map to identify that hill the other side of the next valley. I like the waterproof BMC maps but where they aren't available I use an ortlieb A3 map case and roll it up so it fits into my thigh pocket.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

That is true. It may be in future that panoramic views and 3d rendering become used more, slightly changing the skills, but the human interpretation will still be needed.

In reply to marsbar:

That's what I do, then I use all the pages to light my fire when I get home.
Dual purpose!

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

I'd agree with all of that - a smartphone/GPS with mapping has certainly limitations - not least the size of the screen, which is why I was comparing it to small chunks of an OS cut out and laminated, rather than a whole map. And definitely, it doesn't do away with the need to be able to match watch you see on the ground with what's on the map and then choose a good route - it just makes some of the steps quicker, most of the time.

Where are rugged tablets with a good waterproof setup. Usually IPX6 or better.
The downside is the weight. With additional batteries it can easy make half a kilo. To be honest I saw only one in wild. In Ural mounted to snowmobile.

Personally for last year I am using a rugged phone with dual navigation module on the hills. It felt to the river once. With it's owner! Dropped it few times. And it is still running fine. One battery last for 10 hours of logging and navigation for me. Or 2 - 5 days without logging. Screen is much better than anything Garmin has to offer. And since it's a full scale Android you have a big choice of maps and areal photography for navigation. Biggest application pool to choose from. And most of it is free.

In reply to iamaclimber:

Thanks for the replies and the tangent to the future of mapping!

I can see the benefits of printing maps. My friend uses Route Buddy, which seems good, but despite printing on the 'best' settings on her computer/printer, the contours and other features are nowhere near as crisp as they are when you look at an original OS map. I've found this can make a difference when navigating in poor conditions.

Has anyone found a solution to this? Is it better ink, a better printer, better paper, or is there an HD version of things like Route Buddy?

In reply to iamaclimber:

I don't use route buddy so can't say on it's resolution, but Anquet mapping prints out absolutely fine on my bog standard printer and paper. Only real irritation I've discovered is that Anquet doesn't print a scaled border so unless you have easting/northings on the map tile being printed you need to write them on by hand. Though apparently this will be fixed in their upgrade to OMN2 later this year......

Anyway, if route buddy is printing out badly, then try one of the others (grough do a free trial) and if it still prints out as low quality then it's most likely a crap printer.

Cheers,

Stu

In reply to kwoods:


Only thing about bing, does any know what zoom levels relate to 1:25000 and 1:5000?