UKH

Has anyone tried using Garmin's Livetrack feature as a safety backup when running alone somewhere remote?

I always mean to leave a route plan for my partner in case anything goes wrong but usually I either a) forget or b) don't end up following the plan anyway making a route card somewhat redundant. I was wondering about something like Livetrack as another option.

My assumption is that Garmin Livetrack is probably just a surefire way of ensuring that my phone has no battery left if I ever did need help. It also doesn't look like the mapping it uses would be of much use to anyone in a search/rescue scenario. Am I wrong to be disregarding it as an option?

Used it last weekend in fact doing a 47 mile training walk, what I like about it is if it shows a route it will show where you are meant to be vs where you are so anyone checking in will be able to see that too (so if you end up getting turned around in fog or something and get a bit lost and fall over they'll locate you easier). One person even messaged me to say I was off track (I was aware, the path I was meant to go down was plotted wrong as an oversight by me and was cutting through someone's garden) but it was good to know that someone had picked up on it all the same.

As for battery life, well I had mine going for 12 hours on my Fenix 6x, stuck my phone on battery saving mode (Pixel 4XL) and between that, a little bit of spotify on boring road walking segments and taking the odd photo here and there by the time I got back to the car I still had 40% battery left, I don't think it's that much of a drain to be fair.

EDIT: I'm also pretty sure the mapping can be swapped from google maps as default to open street maps by anyone viewing (might be wrong but garmin offer OSM as an option when plotting on Garmin Connect so it would surprise me if they didn't offer it for LiveTrack)

You could always take a small battery pack to charge your phone, there's lots of options there. I don't know what watch you have, but I wouldn't trust my Instinct to last a long day on full GPS usage. 

I've used my InReach for tracking, which works great and doesn't need mobile signal coverage.  It is an expensive option, but as I have the full sized one and not the mini the battery lasts ages, probably a few days even tracking.

Okay, so sounds like I have been being a bit hasty in writing it off! That's impressive in terms of battery life. I was assuming that I'd be lucky to get more than a couple hours but it sounds like it might be worth a go. Can't see myself getting 12 hours, but even if it only stretched to 5 or so that would be enough to be of some use for my typical long runs. I hadn't realised it could also show a route if you were following one on the watch, that's potentially handy too - thanks. 

I'll have to have a look at the mapping again too. I set it up to send the link to myself and it looked fairly limited, but I was just looking on my phone and it looked like there might have been some options that weren't showing properly. 

I guess the test would be to just set it running as I go about my day at some point when it doesn't matter if I rinse my battery and see how well it does.

Forerunner 735 so certainly nothing special in terms of battery life. I hadn't thought about the watch battery dying as I'm not out for long enough at the moment for that to be a major risk; but if training this year goes to plan then it could become an issue. Hmmm. I kinda assumed that I would still be able to set the watch to ultratrak mode (or whatever it's called) for a really long day but I should probably check that before relying on it!

Just had a look at those - worth knowing about but definitely couldn't justify the outlay at the moment! I think the other half's (justified) objection would be "why can't you just be more organised and tell me where you are going?"

I use livetrack every trail run I go on; peace of mind for me and my wife when I disappear out the door on wild black winters evenings for my after work trot on the local trails. It just takes one stumble and a bad landing...I always give a rough eta and route, but she can check if I am late. I always carry an extra battery pack, with an adapter for for my iPhone and another adapter for my Fenix watch. I discovered a page on the web that showed how you could charge the Fenix while still wearing it on your wrist, which I have actually done in reality now. And it works. 
Your battery might last for whatever route you have planned, but the issue is when things go wrong and you are out for longer than you expected; then the extra pack will be very helpful!

Thanks, good to know others use it with success in this way. Have you had to put it to the test at all?

I guess my concern is how useful it would actually be after an accident. It doesn’t seem to allow an export of gps coordinates or anything like that and “he seems to be somewhere in the large green area south of the a55” probably isn’t that useful to mountain rescue! I worry it would give me a false sense of security. The best option for the mapping seems to be Google’s terrain view which at least gives contours so could be some small use if the link was able to be shared with MRT, but it still seems like very limited mapping once you’re away from the roads. 

I use it all the time for cycling - can’t see why you’d take against it. 

The main question is, do you have mobile coverage of your route? It's the main issue I have in the local hills.

What I didn't realise until recently is that Whatsapp, (if you have it), also does live location tracking. Just send a message as normal but (on android) click the paperclip for attachments and select 'location'. You then have the option of sending your current location or selecting live tracking for 15mins, 1hr or 8hrs. That might be an option.

I’d love it if you could share that, please 

Often not, but at least it would presumably still update as and when I got a few minutes signal which is better than nothing. 

Didn’t realise WhatsApp had location tracking, that’s useful to know thanks. 

Try this?......

http://fellrnr.com/wiki/Charge_On_The_Run

wow, every day a school day... just checked and that works on my wife’s android fone... is there an equivalent on iPhones? Must Google....

Its there on iPhone but under a + sign at the top right of the keyboard rather than a paper clip. 
 

Edit: above the top left of the keyboard