Thursday, October 17, 2013

G-Shock #42 Addendum 1: Rangeman goes up the hil. An Altimeter test.

"Allen wollen Oben sein..." Do you remember my article about the GW-9200 Riseman, where I test the Altimeter function by climbing the highest dune on our island back in 2009? Of course I was constantly thinking about this article, when I got my Rangeman. I wanted to try it again, So we drove to the "Zeeuwse Riviera" and performed a small climb again.
I made a little mistake at the foot of the dunes. It showed 5 -6 meters when I got out of the car, so I set it to 0 meters. Actually the foot of the dunes are at about 5 meters (as you can read in my Riseman article), so we now record actually relative altitude.
One thing about steep hills... They are hard to photograph. It almost shows like a gently sloped path, but it is in fact the steepest slope you can find on our island. Many road bicyclist and mountain bikers know this hill. Someone told me a former Tour de France cyclist claims that only if you can climb this hill on your (front) middle cog wheel, you are capable enough to ride the Tour. I can assure you, no hair on my head ever though about going to middle cog wheel while climbing this small beast.
Halfway the climb, you can follow a path to the beach (Absolute Altitude 23 + 5 meters = 28 Meters). The first time I went p this slope, I rested on that bench for maybe 10 minutes, not knowing I was only halfway the climb. I didn't notice there was a path going up further on the dunes, neither that it was even possible to climb with a bicycle...

The view above is amazing. Even at a hazy day like this, there is a lot to sea at the sea, beach and the small nearby village Zoutelande.
Relative Altitude 37 meters (42 meters above sea level). We are not there yet. The highest point is on the next dune.
Again a very steep slope. With the bicycle you have no problem. You get a lot of speed riding down the dune. Walking or running is quite different. 
And again, what a view. This is the platform used by parapente flyers (paragliders). In the past I measured this spot as 55 meters above sea level with bicycle GPS devices, a ProTrek and also with the GW-9200 Riseman. As I set the foot of the dune as 0 meter, I now miss 5 meters, but the Rangeman shows me the correct relative Altitude of 50 meters. Satisfied, we turn around and walk back to the car in Zoutelande.
It seems our car is still at the same altitude... 
When checking the barograph of the watch at home, I notice I must be happy with the good results of the Altimeter test. The barograph shows the air pressure is very unstable, not the best conditions to test this feature. Still it proves that you can rely on your altimeter, even during less favorable conditions for a short while (it was a walk of about an hour). 
As bonus, here is a small movie I made with the 2Raumwohnung song, where I based my 2009 Riseman article on. Unfortunately the record company does not allow to play this video on mobile devices (works fin n my laptop though). Enjoy!

1 comment:

Mondo said...

Interesting. I have a Pro Trek, but have to constantly reset the altimeter as it seems to be thrown by indoor readings and air conditioning