Re: Basic navigational skills badly missing

Peter Clinch wrote:

> There are all sorts of things that can save your life that cost
> considerably less than £90. So it really doesn't pay to start
> criticising like this for equipment choices or you start off down a
> *very* rocky road.

We're not talking about "all sorts of things", we're talking about
navigational devices. There isn't a lot of choice - map, compass, GPS.
That's it. All those other equipment choices are only necessary if you
become hopelessly lost. If you don't, then you don't need them. The three
key navigational devices are the things that help ensure that you don't need
them.

> Listening to Tayside MRT folk talking about this incident at the DMFF
> on Friday nobody seemed to be mentioning GPSs, but a general level of
> Cluefulness seemed to be me more on folks' minds.

And that's a big part of the problem as I see it. The general concensus
amongst MRTs that a GPS is not essential is a major problem in its own
right. Clearly walkers getting lost is a big issue, but walkers carrying
the most amazing navigation device the world has ever seen? Apparently
that's not important! They'd rather criticise people for not having real
navigational skills with antique equpment, rather than for not spending a
few quid on something that would give their precise position, irrespective
of whether they had any navigational skills or not.

This is clearly a case of luddite pride vs. high-tech efficiency. All
modern commercial aircraft navigate by GPS. Ships navigate by GPS. The A-Z
update their maps using GPS. The OS map by GPS. Everyone who's anyone uses
GPS these days. But walkers? Oh no, map and compass is better... gimme a
break!

You're starting to sound like those new age weirdos who like to live on
farms with no electricity, chop down trees to fuel their fires, plant their
own vegetables, rear their own animals and so on. All of that stuff is
great as an historical exercise in how things used to be done, and it's also
commendable as a romantic ideal, but it's hardly practical in the modern
world.

Paul


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Relevant Pages

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