etrex Summit -- plotting routes with 3rd party sw?

[climberboy]

Hi,

Recently purchased an etrex-Summit and I'm very happy. Very nice - light, robust, easy to use, practical features for mountaineering, reasonable price tag (wife didn't go into cardiac arrest when I told her how much), etc, etc.

I purchased the Summit knowing that although map uploads (i.e. to the GPS unit from a PC) aren't possible, you can pre-define routes using Garmin's software and upload them to the Summit. This feature makes the Summit a powerful device as I could plan a detailed route offline on my PC, upload it and simply follow it out on the hill.

The dilemma I have is that for mountaineering I really want quite detailed topographic info (contour data, terrain markings, etc) in order to plan a precise route. From what I've read and screenshots I've seen, the Garmin maps compatible with the Summit don't offer too much detail (e.g Metro series).

Obtaining digital maps isn't too difficult (at least for Spain where I'm based). What I'd like to know is if there's any 3rd party software I could use to plot routes using such detailed digital maps and then upload them to my Summit unit.

Cheers for any pointers you might have.

[Snerkel]

http://www.easygps.com/ is good for creating routes from waypoints, only problem is if you have a lot of waypoints this will be long winded.

The software is free and is good for saving actual routes from the GPS for future reference.


Garmap may also be useful as it can take bitmap maps and overlay waypoints.
http://www.catnet.ne.jp/fukuda/garmap/e_garmap.html

[climberboy]

Hhhmmmm .... great forum!! Thanks for the speedy reply on this one. I've downloaded the apps you mentioned and I'll take a look at them.

I was reading on the easygps website, but it wasn't clear if you can integrate scanned maps in the easygps or whether that's only possible with the expertgps app. Any ideas/clarifications?

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