Best GPS Watch for an Ultra Event, like the Montane Spine Race

In this article and based on our own first-hand experiences we discuss our recommendation for the best type of GPS Watch to use on an ultra-event such as the Montane Spine.

With an event like the Montane Spine we look at GPS Watches that have the option to load a GPX Route or Track to navigate with, a tough robust weather resistant watch, a screen that can be viewed in different light conditions and with a good battery life, weight and size also come into consideration.

With the Montane Spine Winter events such as the Montane Spine Winter Race, Montane Spine Winter Challenger & Montane Spine Winter Sprint a GPS Device is part of the compulsory kit.

For the Montane Spine Summer Race, Montane Spine Summer Challenger & Montane Spine Summer Sprint the use of a GPS device is recommended, from our own personal experiences we found using a both a GPS watch and a Handheld GPS Device together on the Montane Summer Spine was an invaluable tool, the Handheld device especially when navigating at night but during the day it was great using the GPS watch to navigate with and having all the stats that we needed directly on our wrist keeping our handsfree.

In our previous article we talked about our recommendations for a Handheld GPS Device to use on an event such as the Montane Winter Spine or Montane summer spine.

On the Montane summer challenger I found using both a handheld device and a GPS watch worked well together.

I personally found I used the Handheld GPS device more in the night-time when I wanted to see a bigger picture with a more detailed Ordnance Survey map showing the route to take in conjunction to field boundaries etc using the Garmin TOPO Great Britain Pro 1:25k OS Mapping.

During the daytime I found the navigational experience on the Fenix 7x Sapphire Solar watch that I was using great, with turn alerts at junctions on trails along with off-course alerts directly on my wrist if I strayed off where I should have been.

As well as having the Route navigation also having all the stats on my wrists regarding my pace, timings etc, route distances including ETA, distance to end and information regarding hills and elevation coming etc was a great guidance to keep a track on how you are doing on this type of event.

There is a good choice of GPS watches on the market, we are going to look at some of options within the Garmin outdoor multisport GPS watches.

The video below gives you a great insight to what the Montane Summer Spine events are all about:

The video below gives you a great insight to what the Montane Winter Spine events are all about:

Garmin Instinct Watches

If you are also going to use a Handheld GPS Device with a colour screen and detailed maps on the Montane Spine challenge and are looking for a watch more for showing you stats, recording the activity and some more basic daytime navigation with turn alerts the Garmin Instinct Range would be a good place to start.

Although the Instinct Watches do not come with a colour screen or mapping you can still load GPS Route / Tracks files onto them, to then use a black route line displayed on the monochrome screen for route guidance and off course alerts, the watches when setup for Ordnance Survey British Grid can also simply display your current Grid reference to cross refer with an Ordnance Survey Map.

Within the Instinct Range or Watches we have the smaller Instinct 2s range and then the slightly larger Instinct 2 range, the Instinct 2 Range will give you better battery life over the Instinct 2s smaller units, for longer multi day events like the Montane Spine Winter races and Montane Spine Summer races we tend to recommend looking for a GPS watch with a battery life with GPS tracking of 24hrs plus hence we are looking at the Instinct 2 range.

Battery - The standard instinct 2 will give you an approximate battery life with GPS of 30hrs, with all the watches we are looking at you can use a power-bank at the checkpoints to quickly give the watch a quick power boost while you rest, we find you can fully charge an Instinct 2 watch in around 2hrs depending on the output size of your power-bank.

If you go for the instinct 2 Solar model, the battery life with GPS recording can be extended to approximately 48hrs depending on light conditions.

Sizing - The Instinct 2 only weighs 52g, with a comfortable soft silicone strap, sizing is 45 x 45 x 14.50mm.

Screen / Display - 
Size 0.9″ x 0.9″ (23 x 23 mm)
Display Resolution 176 x 176 pixels
Monochrome, sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP)
The screen can be viewed in all light conditions and has a backlight that you can bring on to view in the dark.

Durability – A rugged watch that is water-rated to 100 metres and is thermal and shock resistant. Plus, with a fibre-reinforced polymer case and chemically strengthened, scratch-resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass, this device is built to endure.

Navigation – With events like the Montane Spine Winter & Montane Spine summer race and the Montane Spine Challenger events the organisers will provide you with GPX files of the route.
You can simply load these files onto the Instinct 2 watch using the Garmin Connect Mobile App & Bluetooth.
With the route files loaded you can display on the screen of the watch a line to follow, the watch will give you an alert if you stray off course.
One of the great things about loading a Route onto the watch you can then have data boxes displays useful information with Distance to Destination, Time to Destination, ETA, ETE etc, display an elevation profile of hills coming up.
The watch will also simply give you a Grid Reference to cross refer with your paper map, this can be setup to display Ordnance Survey British Grid.
The instinct 2 also has an electronic compass & barometric altimeter.

You can set yourself a target pace that can then be displayed on the screen to show how you are doing whether behind or ahead.

Conclusion – Looking for a lightweight Robust watch with accurate GPS recording, to give you many useful stats and information to keep you on track whilst taking part in an event such as the Montane Spine Winter Races or Montane Spine summer races this is a great choice to look at, the navigational side could be used on its own but as there is no colour screen with mapping we tend to find this watch works great for this type of event when you also have a handheld GPS device with more detailed mapping and using the watch more for the Pace & Speed stats directly on your wrist and off-course alerts.

Just remember to carry a power bank or have one in your kit back and the checkpoint to give the watch a charge if doing the longer events such as the Montane Spine for Winter or Montane Spine full summer race.

The instinct 2 solar as well as the potentially increased battery life depending on light conditions also adds the feature of Garmin Pay to the watch to make contactless payments, Garmin Pay is not found on the standard instinct 2.

You can find more information and full specs about the range of Garmin instinct 2 watches from this link – More info here

Garmin Fenix 7 Watches

We are now moving onto the Garmin Fenix 7 range of watches, these watches are heavier than the instinct range but do give us a longer battery range and colour screens with mapping.

Within the Fenix 7 range we recommend for outdoor activities such as the Montane Spine events etc that you look at the Sapphire solar range giving you a more robust tougher screen and increased battery potential from the solar screen.

The Fenix 7 Sapphire solar range come in three sizes , each giving a different batter and weight of watch as follows:

Fenix 7s

Battery – With GPS tracking approximately 37hrs increasing to 46hrs with solar depending on light conditions

Sizing - The Fenix 7s weighs 58g, with a comfortable soft silicone strap, sizing is 42 x 42 x 14.10mm.

Screen / Display - 
Size: 1.20″ (30.40 mm) diameter
Display Resolution: 240 x 240 pixels
Display Type: Colour Screen - Sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP)
The screen can be viewed in all light conditions and has a backlight that you can bring on to view in the dark.

Fenix 7

Battery – With GPS tracking approximately 57hrs increasing to 73hrs with solar depending on light conditions

Sizing - The Fenix 7 weighs 73g, with a comfortable soft silicone strap, sizing is 47 x 47 x 14.50mm.

Screen / Display - 
Size:  1.30″ (33.02 mm) diameter
Display Resolution: 260 x 260 pixels
Display Type: Colour Screen - Sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP)
The screen can be viewed in all light conditions and has a backlight that you can bring on to view in the dark.

Fenix 7x

Battery – With GPS tracking approximately 89hrs increasing to 122hrs with solar depending on light conditions

Sizing - The Fenix 7x weighs 89g, with a comfortable soft silicone strap, sizing is 51 x 51 x 14.90mm.

Screen / Display - 
Size: 1.40″ (35.56 mm) diameter
Display Resolution: 280 x 280 pixels
Display Type: Colour Screen - Sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP)
The screen can be viewed in all light conditions and has a backlight that you can bring on to view in the dark.

Durability – All of the above The Fenix 7 Series of Sapphire Solar Watches come with a scratch-resistant Power Sapphire™ solar charging lens, tested to U.S. military standards for thermal, shock and water resistance to 100 metres.

Navigation – With events like the Montane Spine Winter & Montane Spine summer race and the Montane Spine Challenger events the organisers will provide you with GPX files of the route.
You can simply load these files onto the Fenix 7 watches using the Garmin Connect Mobile App & Bluetooth.
The Fenix 7 Sapphire solar watches come pre-loaded with Garmin’s Topo Active European mapping, you also have the option with this type of watch to load on some more detailed Topographic Mapping from the likes of Talky Toaster Maps you can then view your route / track line to navigate with over a map for more information, the Fenix 7 ranges of watch also have a touch screen that can be enabled or disabled, we find the touch screen great when wanting pan around and zoom in and out on the map to look at your route line that is coming up.

As per the instinct 2 Watches, one of the great things about loading a Route onto the watch you can then have data boxes displays useful information with Distance to Destination, Time to Destination, ETA, ETE etc, display an elevation profile of hills coming up.
The Fenix 7 watches will also simply give you a Grid Reference to cross refer with your paper map, this can be setup to display Ordnance Survey British Grid.
The Fenix 7 watches also have an electronic compass & barometric altimeter.

Data Boxes – As per the instinct 2 range you can setup your own personalised screen displays that you can scroll between, when you record your activity these screens can be set to show useful information to keep you on track such as Pace fields, Speed fields, Distance travelled, Heart rate data,

You can set yourself a target pace that can then be displayed on the screen to show how you are doing whether behind or ahead.
The Fenix 7 range also give us additional data such as our Stamina levels which is a great tool when doing a long ultra-event such as the Montane Spine.

Conclusion – The Fenix 7 Sapphire solar range of watches give us all of the features that we have talked about within the instinct 2 range of watches but with increased battery life and a colour touch screen with mapping, when navigating the colour mapping is a great help and especially when we can also load more detailed mapping such as Talky Toaster map to the watches.

The colour screens with the higher pixels over the instinct 2 watches makes reading the data fields easier and clearer especially with tired eyes.

As well as Garmin Pay on all the Fenix 7 watches you can also load music to play through Bluetooth headphones although this will decrease your battery life but is still a nice option.

The battery life on all the Fenix 7 watches is great, but if you are needing to give the watches a boost at a checkpoint especially when on one of the longer events such as the Montane Spine full Winter Race or Montane Spine full Summer Race you can generally give the watches a 50% power boost within 1 hr - 1hr 30mins from a power bank.

You can find more information and full specs about the range of Garmin Fenix 7 sapphire solar watches from this link – More info here

I used the Fenix 7x Sapphire Solar watch on the Spine Summer Challenger knowing that the battery life would be enough to get me around without worrying about charging, I found the navigational experience excellent, I did also carry a push button handheld unit but only used this a small number of times in the night to view a clearer OS map when I had no visibility.

If you are not using a Handheld GPS device, we would highly recommend one of the Fenix 7 options but if you are also using a Handheld GPS device with colour mapping the instinct would be a great choice to use in conjunction with the handheld GPS device on one of the Montane Spine Events.