Get Active with Garmin

Garmin handhelds are known for their precision and ruggedness, and these qualities continue to push the boundaries of where they’re taken and what they’re used for. With the latest software for the Montana, Oregonx50, and 62/78 family, we have introduced some innovative new ways to help you get the best experience possible while doing that thing that you do.

 

Smarter Activities

We’ve added new Activity types to these handhelds to help customize the way routes are calculated based on what you’re doing. These new Activities include: Tour Cycling, Mountain Biking, Hiking, Mountaineering and ATV/Off Road Driving. When an Activity is selected, additional ways to configure that Activity are presented, including Calculation Method, Avoidances, and Recalculation settings. Due to their relevance, some of these settings are only available in certain Activities.

Each Activity has its own set of specific, applicable avoidances. For example, when routing with the Hiking Activity, “Narrow Trails” can optionally be avoided, but when set to Motorcycle Driving this avoidance is not available. We’ve also added a new route calculation method, “Minimize Ascent,” because going somewhere on your own horsepower is a different situation than letting a vehicle do the work for you. To make sure things work exactly the way you want them to, we’ve taken routing one step further by remembering your routing settings for each Activity type in each Profile. This allows ultimate configurability of switching Activities both inside a Profile and across Profiles.

All of these Activities and calculation methods are also available in Garmin BaseCamp, and can be reviewed, configured, and applied to routes created using the utility.

Routing with BaseCamp

With the latest software, we’ve improved our handheld integration with BaseCamp. Now, when you create a calculated route on BaseCamp using maps that are also on your handheld, after transferring the route you’ll see that the route exactly matches what you’ve created in BaseCamp. So, if you’ve taken the time to create a scenic drive utilizing specific back roads and highways, your carefully crafted route will remain in-tact when transferred to your handheld. To ensure your specifically planned route isn’t altered, it’s recommended that Off Route Recalculation be set to Prompted (Setup > Routing > Off Route Recalculation). Planning trips just got a whole lot better with Garmin!