Great for Hikers

I love my eTrex Vista.

Purchase. I bought it last year (Summery 2001) when I started day-hiking in the mountains around L.A. Wanted to buy it at REI for $375, but they couldn't keep them in stock. So I had to pay $399 at a map shop, but it was worth it. Soon after, I spent another $100 on MapSource United States TOPO CD-ROM, which allowed me to download detailed (USGS 100K equivalents) into the Vista. For hiking, I would only use the Vista with MapSource topos downloaded. I think you can buy the Vista for less than $299 now (as of June 2002).

General. The Vista is small, reasonably light, and was designed to operate in your left hand. Garmin makes the user's manual for the Vista available online at http://www.garmin.com/manuals/etrex_vis.pdf. Check it out.

Display. The display works well. It can display four shades of gray, and is pretty fine pitched so it can show fine lines and nice detail. Don't be fooled, however. The screen is small--as it needs to be in a backpacker's handheld--but gets the job done.

Features. The Vista is the top of the eTrex line. Next down in the Legend. Buying the Vista over the Legend gives you more built-in memory (which I've loaded to capacity with MapSource US TOPO maps), an altimeter, and an electronic compass. Having the compass is very nice, however leaving it one it does consume more battery power, so I usually leave it off. Being able to turn it on with a single push-button, though, makes it very handy. I recommend paying extra for the Vista.

Easy of Use. Garmin has done an excellent job of engineering ease-of-use into this product. I find that I never need to refer to the manual. I can figure out any feature with just a little bit of discovery. For example, I was out hiking this week, and decided to see if I could build a route based the track it captured from the trailhead to my destination. I was able to create a route, adding existing waypoints, and even created new waypoints from the map screen on the fly while creating the route. I was quite impressed. And the route worked great.

Reception Issues. I've read about reception issues with the Vista. What I can add is that indeed, when I'm in deep canyons--like the Royal Gorge section of Arroyo Seco (Angeles National Forest)--or a combination of tree cover and steep mountains, and can looks satellite reception. The Vista warns you of this by display a small message box at the bottom of the LCD display. At times, I've been determined to mark my location, and have spent 20 minutes hold the Vista up high, and walking up and down a canyon until I got a lock. In these cases, I wish the Vista allowed an external antenna to be connected. If this provided better reception, I would buy an external antenna and take it on day hikes. On normal hiking trails, reception works just fine.

Battery Consumption. The Vista does eat up its batteries. Even for six-hour hikes, I need to replace its two AA batteries. I use 1600 mAh NiMH batteries. (Note that the Vista's battery gauge does not compensate for the lower voltage offered by NiMH batteries. Even when you put in freshly charged batteries, the Vista reports them as 75% full.) I would say you need four NiMH batteries per day of hiking...and this is with the compass turned off almost the whole time.

Other Points. As I said before, the Vista works best when you download topo maps. It only supports downloading of maps using Garmin's own MapSource products. The 24 MB of memory the Vista offers can hold lot. I've defined a map set that includes all of the national forests in southern California, as well as all of the middle and southern Sierras, and the Monterey Bay area. What is a little annoying, though, is that downloading all the maps takes a long time using its serial connection. Also, you can't just add one more map section. The operation of downloading a map causes the previously load map set--all of it--to be erased. This can be a nasty surprise, but not it won't since I've told you. You can live with this; just allow yourself an hour or so to load large map sets.

Besides using MapSource, I also use Heinrich Pfeifer's GARtrip, as well as DeLorme's Topo USA 4.0. All of these programs allow you to plan hikes by setting waypoints and routes, and then when you return from your outdoor experience, load tracks and new waypoints or routes back in. The Vista seems to be well supported by all the programs.

All in all, I love my eTrex Vista, and recommend it whole heartedly.