| By :
Roger Brown
If you are in the woods much you will find having a watch altimeter function is a very good addition to have. Since the base information that drives the watch is barometric pressure, you also get the side benefit of getting basic weather information as well. Before watch altimeter products were available, you had to carry always devices separately. You had one device it would tell you the temperature, another device that would read barometric pressure if you are into that, and yet another device to tell you what direction you're walking in. Combining all these functions into one product in the watch altimeter is a terrific way to cut back on the amount of instrumentation that you take along on a trip like this. While certainly primary instruments like GPS need to be available with a backup, having the watch as insurance is just a terrific safety feature. Here are 3 reasons it is important to know your altitude when you are hiking: 1. Knowing where you are - without a doubt, your GPS and any other instrument you bring along are excellent resources to use to understand your position in the woods or on a hiking trail up in the mountains. However, having a watch with altimeter function allows you to add one further piece of information to that mix - how high you are from sea level. 2. Predicting the weather - because the underlying data behind the altimeter is the barometer, you have the ability to use that barometer to tell things about upcoming weather. You can notice the speed at which things change barometric lead and make a number of predictions about whether the weather is improving or degrading. 3. Catalog your journey - just having a record of where you've been and how high you been is exciting part of the outdoor life. Being able to record your weekends adventure is great because it allows you look back and see how high you been, how far you walk, or how low a temperature it was when you slept outside. It's just nice to have this information available and all you do is write down the readings you see on your watch altimeter to do that. With watch altimeter functions it is important to keep things in perspective. You need to take some time though and understand the way your watch works and the accuracy of the information it can give you. Unlike most electronic devices, you really need to take some time and get to know the owner's manual of your watch altimeter functions. Trial and error is not a good thing to do when you're planning to be far away from civilization and the cost of a mistake is rather high.
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