altitude etc watches

[Kumapix 0]

any recommendations for one of those super duper hiking/skiing/climbing watches?

 

Just looking at the suunto s6

 

found it for 50% off...

[damian 0]

I have a suunto, bought it on sale. I think these types of watches are overrated, too big and too expensive, but the altimeter is very helpful for navigation in a storm.... so long as the change in weather does not screw with the altitude reading, which it will. The buit in compass is also good to take rough snap mag bearings.

 

It is worth having one, but you pay for more than you need and also carry more bulk than you need.

[nzlegend 1]

 Quote:

Originally posted by le spud:
too big and too expensive...carry more bulk than you need.

what is too big and bulky about this watch?
looks pretty slim and streamlined looking to me.

Dude I think you are just way too fastidious!
(your technical shell thread more than confirms this)


(I will agree on the too expensive angle though, but if you have the dough, its a cool toy to have)

[marnix 0]

I have one from Oregon Scientific. Half of what a Suunto cost and same functionality, but they stay big. (also with heart rate monitor) I think it is a rp109 or rs109

[Ezorisu 0]

I've got a recent Casio "ProTrek" or something with all the bells and whistles. The altitude reading is heavily weighted by transient ambient atmospheric conditions - last time I was at Kansai International Airport, I was -35m below sea level (which is maybe 30m too low)!

 

One of the reasons I got it was for the thermometer, but unless you wear it on your B/C pack strap or somewhere else it could get lost, you get toasty warm "wrist temperature" readings...

 

I saw an advert for a small GPS, I think it was a Garmin, in a cycling magazine. A GPS unit will give considerably more accurate altitude readings since it is not using atmospheric pressure as a determining factor. Is there something like this that is "wrist mounted" out there maybe?

[nzlegend 1]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Ezorisu:
I saw an advert for a small GPS, I think it was a Garmin, in a cycling magazine.

yep, its Garmin and its wrist mounted, a little bulky but quite reasonbaly priced at about $120 bucks

[Kumapix 0]

that's cool.

 

the suunto s6 has a clinometer as well which is neat. I like the features but the face looks bad imo. I'm not going to drop the 170$ on it.

 

http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?PAGE=PRODUCT&PROD_ID=1179309&cid=25608&fp=F

[bushpig 0]

yeah, looks kinda cheap eh?

[NoFakie 45]

I've got a polar heart rate monitor that has one built in. I wouldn't navigate with it, but its nice to have "this far done" feedback when you're slogging it uphill. Its faster than getting the map out anyway.

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by snowglider:

 Quote:

Originally posted by le spud:
too big and too expensive...carry more bulk than you need.

what is too big and bulky about this watch?
looks pretty slim and streamlined looking to me.

Dude I think you are just way too fastidious!
(your technical shell thread more than confirms this)


(I will agree on the too expensive angle though, but if you have the dough, its a cool toy to have)

So you have never actually worn one, just found a picture on the internet? Great post.

They are way too bulky on your wrist when buried under the tightened gauntlet of your glove and beneath that, the tightened velcro writs strap of your jacket, and beneath that, the sleeve of your one or two thermal base layers with tight elastic wrist closures[1]. These are things you don't want to be always undoing when you are short of energy on a long cold tour. The size of the thing means you have to take your glove off and undo the jacket wrist closure then peel back your base layer wrist just to see and operate the functions. You cant simply pull your sleeve up and glance at your streamlined watch.

It is also big enough that, if you are just touring in a t-shirt, as you drop your pack off your back the shoulder straps can and do get caught on the watch. I saw a guy rip his watch off his wrist by doing just that.

The very first thing that comes to my mind with my Suunto Vector is the bulk. It is a massive watch. Way too big because it is full of features that you paid for but don't need.

As for being fastidious: I don't like paying $600 for a jacket unless it has the features that I want. I have now found a great jacket and it makes touring easier and more comfortable. Neither of those are benefits if you are riding the lifts all day and looking up pictures of a mountaineering watch on the internet.

[1] through hours of physical movement your base and jacket sleeves tend to ride up your arm an inch or so. Because of the watch's bulk, it gets pushed up your wrist until it jams on the skin and meat and causes the veins in your upper wrist to pop out like they will explode. At the end of the day when you take it off there is a blue watch imprint left a inch higher up your arm where it got jammed. This is also quite uncomfortable and noticeably reduces your comfortable ability to use the lower forearm muscles for when forming a tight grip with that hand. Gripping a PC mouse shouldn't be a problem though.

Perhaps I just made that up, the picture doesn't support my experience.

And wearing it on the outside of layers as a partial solution is not so great either as it restricts their free movement and means you have to take your watch off every tim you add or remove a layer, which is the whole notion behind layering.

[Kumapix 0]

though spud, some of your complaints would apply to any watch (the riding up the sleeve part). That was one of the things I was wary of: I hate wearing watches, especially snowboarding. Maybe sticking it to your backpack would be a compromise.

[damian 0]

Very true. As a rule, watches in general are a hassle when snowboarding/skiing. Being a bulky model doesn't help.

 

I have been tempted to put it on the shoulder strap of my pack, but concerned that I am cruising around with a $250 watch protruding out into thin air with a strap that makes a catch-on-everything loop. My pack gets quite a bit of rough treatment, especially on the floor of the cable car that you use to access the start point of a bc tour.) A few times I have seen people walk out of the tram to find that a vital clip has been broken after being stepped on by a hard ski boot. I will probably try attaching the watch to my strap when I start the tour (after setting the altitude, starting my stop watch etc).

[bushpig 0]

Nice post spud! (Third one above)

[nzlegend 1]

well actually I have worn a fancy pants altimetre watch before - a casio protrek that I borrowed from my friend, but it was worn during a plain old regular hiking trip and its bulkiness didnt really bother me. I guess I showed my naivity and foolishness when comparing a trivial hiking trip while wearing a bulky watch to an epic mountaineering trip in the Alps while wearing multiple layers. Silly me.

Multifunction watches are still very useful for Hiking and mountain biking which I will do when not glued to my computer.

I sorry Kumapix that my opinion was deemed worthless.

[damian 0]

dont get shitty, I was just teasing you.

[marnix 0]

You use the watch for the hike up. Just put it on your pack and once on it put in on your wrist on in your pack.

My first altitude watch had a normal wrist strap but also a strap specially designed to hang on your pack. So i used to have it on my pack all the time. The one I currently use i have on my wrist. Really now complaints sofar.

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Sanno:
You use the watch for the hike up.

Dunno if I agree with that, Sanno. Low vis and the need to navigate out can happen on the descent as well as the ascent. In fact, on the ascent you are going so slowly that you nearly always know your exact position when bad weather closes in. But on the descent you are going so fast that at times you navigate on the fly using yoiur eyes rather than knowing your exact position on the map. The altitude function is invaluable in bad weather nav. Example: you are riding down a steep glacier or other clearly defined linear feature on the map. In a few quick moments the clouds close in and you can only see 20m in any direction. You need to get safely off home. If you know your altitude then you know exactly where you are on the map and can avoid cliffs and crevasses that are marked on the map. You then very carefully take magnetic bearings and follow them in short legs, constantly watching the altitude reading on your watch, using it as a warning indicator as to when an obstacle is coming up. Without a GPS (which I am buying asap) it is otherwise impossible to find you exact position on a topo map during low visibility conditions and to then plot a careful course out of there.

 Quote:

Originally posted by Sanno:
Just put it on your pack and once on it put in on your wrist on in your pack.

Say that sentence three times very quickly.

[marnix 0]

I see your point.

 

And I see my impossible typos misspellings and some more language wrestling.

[damian 0]

Side topic, but my (incredibly good and accurate) Pieps beacon has all the functions of an altitude watch but I have never once even used them, what with the beacon being tucked away under the layers in its harness. I don't think it is a good idea to use a beacon for these tasks, but worth keeping in mind if you are in the market for a beacon (if so, consider the 3 antenna Pieps, it is amazingly good).

[Yuki's Passion 1]

I was lookin at one of the Casios myself until Toque gave me his old model over the weekend - Just gotta get a battery for it

 

Cheers Toque

[mattlucas 0]

No problem CB

I hope you can get it working

 

This is my watch

 

 

Big and bulky

A few times when I'm getting up off the ground it digs into my wrists and hurts because it is so big

 

Not that expensive either

I think it only cost my parents about 150cdn

 

But I like it. I only wear the thing when I'm in the mountains. I find that I have become obsessive about alitude. How fast I climb and whatnot. Always trying to compare that to other trips.

Thing about altimeters is that you always have to reset them. So whenever I know my correct altitude I reset it up again. I don't mind. As long as you know thta it could be way out and live by that then they are good.

 

The compass comes in handy for quick sitings. I've even got the declination set. Although in Japan it's only -1 or something small like that.

 

Thermometer works really well once it's been off my arm for a while. I usually wake up all through the night in the BC and check it just to see why my toes feel like iceblocks.

 

And it's solor powered to an extent. So I don't have to worry about changing the battery for a while.

 

I love altimeters

[Fattwins 0]

yeah i need one or a gps that has one. I think ill go gps though with a radio maybe tats old one if he decides to sell it.

[mattlucas 0]

Thing about GPS is that they are never a replacment for a real map and to use it fully you have to understand map reading

But they are cool things and will probably be my next techy thing to buy. They eat through batteries though.

[Fattwins 0]

Its just a good combo. i want to start marking places in hakuba with a gps. that way if i get lost i can do a point to point back track.

[Kumapix 0]

I was all set to get the suunto s6 after reading the specs but then when I saw what the face looked like I decided not to drop the 170 us$. I wish it had a face like the vector. At least make it look cool!

I think I'm thinking more like FT. May as well save that money and get a gps, which does the same thing and more.

I was looking around before at the Garmins and found that the us versions were way cheaper. Does anyone know if the Japanese software (which costs 2man I heard) works on the US gps?