The Hidden Dangers of Modern Trail Technology

With great power comes great responsibility. In the second article in our Relationship with Risk series, Josh Hamill of Better Hiking dives into the deceptively convenient world of rescue devices and GPS navigation.

Tools such as modern GPS, satellite communicators, PLBs, and now phones with similar capabilities, have transformed how we approach the outdoors – our risk assessments, preparation, and the skills we prioritise.

GPS (Global Positioning System) allows anyone with a smartphone to become an expert in navigation with a reliable and supremely accurate blue dot to guide the way. PLBs (Personal Locator Beacons), on the other hand, allow for instant transportation to your nearest hospital, so you’re free to run wild and disassociate your actions from their consequences.

This is, of course, not how either of these tools work, or how we should integrate them into our approach to bushwalking. So why are they used as such?

Because it’s easy to become blind with power… aren’t you familiar with fantasy (or reality)?

Read part one of the Relationship With Risk series: What’s Causing the Increasing Number of Rescues in the Aussie Bush?

Modern tech can make getting to places like this deceptively easy | Sian Brain

The purpose of GPS and PLBs is somewhat easy to understand, but also easy to misuse. With how widely accessible each are nowadays, it becomes the default choice and many view it as a replacement for traditional methods. 

Sure, GPS is accurate within range of reception (and while you still have battery in your phone), but does this mean that it serves as a replacement for map, compass, and navigational ability? And by having access to a PLB, are you free to try more hazardous activities and disregard risk because you have the certainty of rescue?

No, it doesn’t.

Let’s discuss why these incredibly powerful and useful tools, designed to reduce the risks of bushwalking, have inadvertently had the opposite effect, giving modern hikers a false sense of security.

The Trouble With GPS

Modern hiking apps have instilled a dependence on unreliable GPS technology for navigation. You can probably guess which app is the most prolific of the bunch. This technology has two main dangers:

1. It isn’t a replacement for traditional map reading as it’s not yet 100% reliable in all scenarios
2. It’s mostly utilised as a passive form of navigation that degrades and undermines the importance of traditional navigational skills

Most hikers nowadays use GPS for navigation to some extent, though it’s those without much experience who are the most dependent on it and susceptible to its shortcomings. 

GPS is an excellent supplemental tool, but not an outright replacement for the ability to navigate via a topographic map. Each has their own flaws: maps degrade and can be difficult to read in poor weather, and GPS is dependent on strong satellite connection and the ability to keep the device charged. 

The two mediums work quite well when used together, though you can safely use just a physical map and compass alone in more scenarios than you can use a GPS, such as under dense tree cover, around huge cliff faces, or simply without any battery life.

The potential inaccuracy of GPS is only a problem when it’s relied upon as the sole means of navigation, as this is largely a non-issue if you have orienteering skills and are using an offline GPS tool that features a topographic map from which you can reference your rough location against terrain (as you would with a traditional map). 

If, however, you’re glued to your GPS device, and unable to recognise terrain features, inaccuracies of the device are going to be a big problem. Without backup information, or the ability to navigate without GPS, solely relying on this tool is a very dangerous scenario that most inexperienced hikers ignore.

Phone-based topographic maps still carry many risks | @betterhiking

When GPS fails, the inadequacies of your navigational ability become overwhelmingly apparent. GPS can easily mislead beginners into thinking that they know how to navigate – when really they know how to follow a GPS. What GPS doesn’t do is teach you any real, transferable navigational skills, like how to read a topo map or use a compass.

Navigating by GPS, especially with turn-by-turn instructions or an automatically orientated map, is a passive form of navigation that demands only minimal mental input. The tool is essentially navigating for you, eliminating the need to reference terrain and proactively analyse your route, navigational skills that are necessary for challenging alpine terrain and inclement weather. 

This lack of mental input may seem beneficial, though as GPS doesn’t engage the region of your brain responsible for memory and navigation, it atrophies, lowering your capacity to navigate without it.

This reinforces your dependency (there are plenty of scientific studies that support this conclusion, from studies of London cab drivers to Inuit hunters). Consequently, we’re faced with a generation of hikers who only know their way around the bush if they’re shown exactly where to go. 

Being able to read a topographic map is a fundamental outdoor skill, one that can’t be taught via the use of a GPS (even one that acts like a topographic map). It isn’t a skill that you should be able to bypass easily or think that you can avoid, yet this is what easily accessible GPS hiking apps allow. Utilising this bypass means you not only inhibit your navigational abilities, but also fail to develop them during a critical developmental phase as a hiker. 

Learning to use a map and compass takes time but is well worth the effort | @betterhiking

The solution to this problem is simple: learn how to read a map, use a compass, and consistently practice until it’s just as easy as using a GPS. If you’re a new hiker, start right away – GPS might seem like the path of least resistance (because it is), but you shouldn’t delay practicing this foundational skill just because it seems difficult and intimidating.

Strictly navigating via active means as opposed to passive will also cultivate your ability to navigate purely off of direct experience (your ability to read terrain and trail features without the aid of any tool), which acts as a pseudo intuitive sense of direction – it’s actually far more efficient and immersive than having your eyes glued to a blue dot on your phone.

Should you stop using GPS altogether? Not at all. Again, it’s an excellent supplemental tool and only further strengthens your margin of safety by enabling access to multiple means of navigational aid. Just don’t use it as your only means of navigation, or rely on it so much that you never develop true navigational skills.

The rise of GPS watches has furthered our dependence on satellite location | @mattwisemanmedia

Not a Rescue Button

It may come as a surprise to some that rescue from the remote wilderness doesn’t happen instantaneously – a PLB doesn’t change this fact.

Under certain conditions, a helicopter may be able to whisk you away in under an hour if you’re lucky. It may take ground crew many hours – if not days – if you’re not. A PLB (or any SOS device) is only a piece of plastic until you hear the chopper overhead or the shouts of your saviours; it isn’t magic.

What will you do while you wait for help? It could be a while | @betterhiking

If you view your PLB as a ‘magic button’, this perspective is likely to have rolled onto other aspects of your preparation (or lack thereof), such as opting to carry fewer warm layers, meals, first aid, or just equipment in general. 

You certainly can do all of the above – and it may be necessary for some objectives – but there’s a lot more to consider than simply having an SOS device.

While you wait for rescue, uncertain of when help will arrive and exposed to the elements with injuries that require immediate attention, how will you ensure that you leave on your feet and not in a body bag? The latter is a very grim, but very preventable outcome. It’s easy to see how a lack of preparation (other than being able to alert authorities for help) could have dire consequences; no shelter, no warmth, no food, no ability to treat your injuries.

Remoteness and isolation are factors that increase the importance of self-sufficiency, carrying a PLB doesn’t absolve you of this responsibility. The further you venture out, the more you have to depend on your own abilities. 

Read more: PLBs and Satellite Messengers – Everything You Need to Know About Off-Grid Safety

Before the advent of modern SOS devices, if you ran into trouble in the wilderness and couldn’t continue, your group would have to manually alert authorities of the situation (via walking out), and you’d have to hunker down for quite a while. If your situation was more immediate, you might as well kiss your ass goodbye.

For those used to weekend walks shared with hordes of others, or bookable modern walks like the Three Capes or Overland Track, this may be an alien concept. 

Popular, bookable hikes like the Overland Track don’t necessarily prepare hikers for more difficult trails | @imbaebi

Aspects of remoteness have faded into the past with mobile reception and satellites, providing more options for timely rescue through a vast network of communication, but the preparations that you need to take to ensure that you’re found alive are still as relevant now as they have been in the past. 

If you trip, slip, slide, or otherwise injure yourself in any manner that prevents you from walking out, you’re stuck in place. This may be many, many kilometres from any road, accessible only via a rough track, or no track at all. If rescue cannot be made by air due to poor weather (a common occurrence), your only option is to stay in place, and to do so, you have to have come prepared for such an outcome, especially on day walks.

Help is unlikely to be just around the corner as it might be on a trail like the Overland Track. As we’ve seen, this fact has saved the lives of a few hikers last spring as they were assisted by other walkers and patrolling rangers. If it happened somewhere more remote, it’s likely the death statistic would be higher.

When you use a PLB to alert authorities that you need rescue, it’s only the first part of the process. Someone then needs to be able to administer first aid, after which you’ll need to be able to sit tight, stay warm, and be sheltered from the elements, as it may be several hours (or days) until help arrives.

Read more: Why Every Explorer in Australia Needs Wilderness First Aid Training

Planning for a challenging walk isn’t as simple as saving a hike on AllTrails or Instagram. You need to be aware of the risks you’re taking and their potential outcomes.

Of all the possible injuries and illnesses that you might incur on the trail, which can you treat?
Do you know wilderness medicine, and have you packed suitably to provide first aid for injuries that need immediate attention?
Have you left your trip intentions with a responsible person, or filled out the logbook at the trailhead?
Are you making good decisions in respect to your ability that’ll keep you and your party safe?

Alissa found out first hand how quickly first aid needs can come for you | @alissa.ward

In your daypack, are you carrying sufficient warm layers and an emergency bivy and/or tarp so you can safely stay put in the event that you roll an ankle and can no longer walk? A rolled ankle isn’t so hard to imagine once you’ve done alpine exploration in the likes of Tasmania’s Southwest. This isn’t an unlikely scenario. It can happen to anyone, regardless of experience.

While a PLB is definitely a necessity, and vital for alerting authorities that you need rescuing, it won’t treat your wounds, it won’t keep you warm, nor shelter you from the elements, it won’t keep you watered and fed, and it won’t negate the need for risk management. Modern hiking tech provides great power, but it doesn’t negate the importance of preparing for the worst – lets hope that doesn’t happen… but it could.

Learn More About Staying Safe in the Bush

• What Actually is a Space Blanket?
• When’s the Right Time to Turn Around on an Adventure?
• 8 Survival Tips with Outback Mike
• What Happens If I Activate My Distress Beacon (PLB)?