Back Country Survival based in the Cairngorms

Making a great idea truly world-class

We launched the Toob last year and they’ve been a big hit in our most popular destinations.  Then we contacted our friends at Harvey Maps, the best long distance and mountain map makers in the world, to see how the combination of these new SplashMap neck warmers and their brilliantly clear long distance trail and mountain maps could work.  We were effectively making a great idea truly world-class!

Then the nerve wracking bit!  Selling one to a REAL expert to get a totally independent view and our first Toob Review blog!

Meet our Survival & Expert

Graham Melloy is an instructor for Back Country Survival and an expert on navigation when dealing with extreme conditions.  Who better to test the latest Toob?

Graham Melloy, instructor at Back Country Survival

Graham bought his SplashMaps Harvey Toob of the Cairngorms just before Christmas and used it to blast the cobwebs in sub-zero conditions in the Cairngorms national park.  How would an expert expedition leader rate this strange and stretchable map?  You can find his full review here.

The Toob Review

Here’s a few of his thoughts, which could go under the title “navigate without prejudice”.

It has all the cartographic style of Harvey maps and the detail is really clear.

…the map is stretchy so taking a grid reference is not going to be accurate so you can only use it for landmarks, bearings etc.  This is not a show stopper, as you can pre plan a route on a normal map and then trace it onto the stretch map using the Crayola pen

I managed to identify everything easily, take bearings and orientate the map easily with my compass.

I’m telling you folks this is the way forward now, and it is something I fully recommend you to try out.

Take it into battle?

Graham and SplashMaps are now in discussion about a generic escape and evasion style map for specialist use.  This will build upon our existing weatherproof map concepts on our professional weatherproof polyester.

Your thoughts?

Got your own Toob?  Have a view on how well it does?  We’d love to hear from you.

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