I bought the Memory-Map.com “version premium” Alpes, which includes IGN TOP 25 maps for seven departments: 01, 05, 26, 38, 69, 73, 74. Seems to help so far.

Years ago I had lots of 1:25000 _paper_ topo maps for the nothern French Alps, but that got to be too much weight and bulk to bring with me on the airplane. Anyway while 1:25000 scale is good for advance analysis and planning, I prefer 1:50000 scale for carrying with me out on ski tours.

On my GPS I have the Garmin Topo France Sud-Est, but the resolution in my version is nowhere as good as the IGN TOP25, and anyway I _like_ the TOP25 maps for planning ski tours—that’s why I bought a new set of digital TOP25.

Any other ideas for maps for the French Alps?

Ken
____________________________________
my story with Memory-Map ...

Previously I had the two discs of IGN TOP25 from Lo___, but they were not fully friendly with Windows Vista.
Advantages of the maps from Memory-Map:
a) English-language user interface (in addition to French)
b) so far more better for helping me make waypoints for my Garmin 60CSx GPS—but I haven’t fully tested it.
c) I think all the 1:25000 topo maps are on one disc, instead of previously two (the second Memory-Map disc has aerial photos).

In the east, the TOP25 detailed coverage extends south as far as Barcelonette (including neighboring sections of Italy), and in the west further south to around Mont Ventoux. In the north a bit tight on the Swiss side of the Chablais, but fairly generous for the lift-assisted tours on the Italian side of Mont Blanc. Kinda tight on the Italy frontier at the Haute Tarentaise. More generous into Italy on the SE side of Maurienne.

not all good news ...
Then when I first installed it, it crashed when I started browsing around different regions of the 1:25000 map. (I told the install to copy the 1:250000 road maps onto my main hard drive, but not the 1:25000 topo maps).
So I downloaded a software update from the Memory-Map.com website. This turned out to be the “European Edition”—which required me to go thru a whole new registration process for my France map products.
But then it would not recognize the France IGN Topo maps on the DVD.
So I went back to running the old version supplied on the DVD in the box (which had not been overwritten or uninstalled by the newer “update” from their website).
And now it seemed to read Topo maps off the DVD without crashing. (maybe some shared DLL got updated? or maybe just good luck?)

slightly confusing thing ...
Although the numerical surface area of maps on the DVD is mostly France, it includes several distinct labeled regions of UK land + waters. I think they’re just marketing samples, but there’s actually more UK maps on the index for the DVD than France maps. So at first I thought they had put the wrong DVD in the box—but then at last I found the IGN 1:25000 entry buried down in the middle somewhere.

(Then after I registered on-line it was amusing to receive the confirming email in French which included an offer to purchase Ordnance Survey maps.)

I’ve used Memory Map for years now, I used it to replace a French version (the name escapes me), I use it every day for my work and think it is very good. I would advise loading the maps onto your hard drive. If you have any issues that require support I have found them very helpful and efficient.

KenR - 12 March 2010 01:44 PM

Any other ideas for maps for the French Alps?

You can just buy them direct from IGN via the Georando site. They sell very small tiles downloadable as you need them for around a couple of euros each. I find it quite handy, I signed up with some intro’ offer of a couple of departments which I used to get Corsica nord and sud and I’ve bought a few more tiles for sections of the GTJ or for crags in the Jura I want to get to.

Like memory map, it’s PC only though so I can’t run it natively on my mac which is a pain.

You can of course get the toposource ones now for France for the Garmin, it’s not worth it for me as I’m not covering enough of France but it might work if you’re there more often. I’ve a couple of versions of the whole of Switzerland which I use a huge amount.

If you have an iPhone, Memory Map has recently released an iPhone app. There are two versions, one which is free and lets you download 400 square kilometers of various different maps (UK OS, French IGN) at various scales (1:50k and 1:25k). You can download further maps from their online store so long as you have a signal, which is handy. The paid version (£19.99) lets you load maps you have already bought on you PC to your iphone.

I’ve tried the free version out on my ipod touch, and it works well here in the UK - I’ve yet to go skiing and try it, but did download some French IGN maps of the Grands Montets, and looks just like the real maps. With the iPod, there’s no GPS, so I’d have to know where I am! It has been criticised for being a bit feature-poor, but it is version 1, so I expect them to improve it. However, most things like track logging, routes and so on seem to work okay.

The other option if you already have memory map but no iPhone, is to get some sort of handheld PC like a HP iPaq which can run the mobile version of Memory Map, included when you buy the full version. Of course, all these devices have problems - weight, batteries dying in the cold, breaking, cost, etc.

Regarding your other problems with Memory Map, check out the user forum, it’s usually pretty helpful and support is generally good. The reason your IGN maps may not work with the latest version of Memory Map is down to the map licensing, I expect; if the version of memory map you have is v4, the maps are only licensed to work with that version, so won’t work with the latest, v5 - at least, this is what happens with the UK OS maps. There is a way to “convert memory map v4 to v5” maps to work, google for how is all I’m going to say. It will mean copying the maps to your hard drive rather than using a DVD, but then you can put the DVD somewhere safe so it doesn’t get scratched!

I looked in to using MM with my iphone but got confused about how much it was going to cost. It looked like I would be compensated for the fact I already owned the French Maps (so I would not end up buying 2 licences) but I wasn’t sure. Even so it looked expensive (for an iphone app) so I have hung back from buying for now.

I did use Google Latitude on the iphone this week. I went for a rando with the dog up to 2000m, fairly miserable snow conditions, mist and light snow too. I turned on the app - so my position would be transmitted back to my office PC. It did work, in real time but I will say - GPS + 3G comms + -5C and a fair wind = not a lot of battery life!

endlessride - 13 March 2010 02:53 PM

I looked in to using MM with my iphone but got confused about how much it was going to cost.

I agree, it’s not very clear. However, you’ve got nothing to lose downloading the free version and trying it out. You get 400sqkm of EACH map free, and 400sqkm on 1:25k IGN is quite a lot! There’s also 1:100k maps for France. You do have to sign up with memory map to get get the free maps, but you don’t have to put a credit card number in (from what I can remember) and it will prompt you if you exceed the 400sqkm limit, so there should be no danger of inadvertently spending on the credit card. I would look at the memory map forum, I expect most of the answers to these questions will be there (or ask the people who are far more knowledgeable than me!):
forum: http://www.memory-map.co.uk/supportforum/viewforum.php?f=54
general info: http://www.memory-map.co.uk/iphone/

If you already have the PC versions of the maps, I think the £20 for the paid version is okay. The only reason I’m not doing it is because I have an iPod Touch with no GPS, which destroys half of the functionality! I can only use it for reference, not actually plotting current position or track logging. If I had an iPhone, I would.

ise - 12 March 2010 05:56 PM

Like memory map, it’s PC only though so I can’t run it natively on my mac which is a pain.

Assuming you have an Intel Mac, all you need to do is intall Virtualbox (which is free) and then install XP or whatever as a virtual machine. It works fine for me, much better than Apple’s Bootcamp option. You can even save the virtual machine in its running state, so you don’t need to relaunch programs after a shut down. You can also share a common folder between OSX and Windows and all the trackpad drivers, wireless capabilities and so on function exactly as they do under OSX.

http://www.virtualbox.org/

Bob’s best mate - 13 March 2010 05:01 PM

ise - 12 March 2010 05:56 PM

Like memory map, it’s PC only though so I can’t run it natively on my mac which is a pain.

Assuming you have an Intel Mac, all you need to do is intall Virtualbox (which is free) and then install XP or whatever as a virtual machine. It works fine for me, much better than Apple’s Bootcamp option. You can even save the virtual machine in its running state, so you don’t need to relaunch programs after a shut down. You can also share a common folder between OSX and Windows and all the trackpad drivers, wireless capabilities and so on function exactly as they do under OSX.

http://www.virtualbox.org/

or your mrs can be a developer for vmware and you can have fusion for next to nowt

I’d still rather use the mac though.

Bob’s best mate - 13 March 2010 05:01 PM

ise - 12 March 2010 05:56 PM

Like memory map, it’s PC only though so I can’t run it natively on my mac which is a pain.

Assuming you have an Intel Mac, all you need to do is intall Virtualbox (which is free) and then install XP or whatever as a virtual machine. It works fine for me, much better than Apple’s Bootcamp option. You can even save the virtual machine in its running state, so you don’t need to relaunch programs after a shut down. You can also share a common folder between OSX and Windows and all the trackpad drivers, wireless capabilities and so on function exactly as they do under OSX.

http://www.virtualbox.org/

Well done for the heads-up on virtual box, we’ve started using it a lot at work.

apparently IGN have some sort of sale on right now, I’ve not read it in detail to see how good it really is but they’re suggesting up to 50% off for a short time.

http://loisirs.ign.fr/3/cd-dvd.htm&refId=100311_CartesNum_OPGeo