[pct-l] Lightest slimest altimeter watch? (NOT the Helix)

[metam01 at earthlink.net (Monty Tam)]

This is perfect.  Advise I heard earlier today is recalibrate often
especially with barometric changes.  The Data Book is full of altitudes of
landmarks etc..  
This entry has even more info along the same lines.
Thank You Redwood

Warner Springs Monty


> [Original Message]
> From: Randy Forsland <randy_forsland@hotmail.com>
> To: pct-l <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
> Date: 12/26/2004 5:08:33 PM
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Lightest slimest altimeter watch?  (NOT the Helix)
>
> One thing to think about is that most wristwatch/altimeters rely on the 
> barometric pressure reading to calculate elevation. The only way to get
true 
> altitude is with a GPS system which is immune to barometric fluctuations. 
> That being said, you will find that all of the wristwatch altimeters will 
> tend to drift throughout the day. Barometric readings are a measure of
the 
> air density and cold air is denser than warm. So I found that if I waited 
> until the sun has been up for at leat four hours before calibrating the 
> altimeter, it would stay calibrated and reflect more accurately the 
> elevations than if I tried calibrating it early in the am or later in the 
> evening.
>
> I had on a couple of occassions, noticed that a column of very dense air 
> would sometimes be present on the southern sides of the passes and would 
> cause large fluctuations in the altitude reading as we climbed, sometimes 
> dropping 1000 ft or so. I saw this same affect with 3 different altimeter 
> watches including the Helix.
>
> The altimeter watch is still a great navigational tool. Yogi's PCT
Handbook 
> has a writeup that I submitted in the "Favorite piece of Gear" section.
It 
> saved my butt on a couple of occassions. You don't need to be spot
on...plus 
> or minus a couple hundred feet is fine when trying to locate your
position 
> on the topo maps...
>
> The 3 altimeters that were present in the group that I huked with were
the 
> Helix, Casio and the Highgear (which I thought was the best looking)..I
had 
> no problem waking up to the Helix alarm...but I usually sleep pretty
light 
> on the trail.
>
> here is a link for the highgear watch
>
> http://www.freshtracksmaps.com/altimeters.htm
>
> Redwood 
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