I live in California and purchased a US Garmin Fenix 5X. If I head to Patagonia, do I need to load special maps in advance of my travels or will my hikes and trails be shown on a map once I'm there and refresh the GPS?
You'll need maps for Patagonia in order to show anything other than either a predefined course or a track log on the watch. Meaning, if you don't have a map, the display will be blank except for either of the two aforementioned items.
Hey, I got the 5X at the end of March just in time for an April trip to Patagonia - specifically, we did the O-circuit in Torres del Paine. I reviewed a number of different OSM-based free maps online, but settled on OpenMTBmap.org ...it has the most comprehensive routable hiking trails, with elevation data (contours) overlaid, and you get one year of all-you-can-download access to those worldwide maps for about $30. It has been super worth it for me, and I have used that site to get maps in at least 5 other countries for cycling, hiking, and even canoeing.
However, be forewarned: it had SO many trails that it included old side trails and out-of-service trails. The older software on the 5X (fixed in version 5.30, I think) wouldn't show elevation data when you were following a pre-programmed route, so I used it for "live routing" between my saved POI of each camp/landmark. However, this meant that the watch thought the fastest route from Los Perros to the John Garner Pass was to cross a river and go on this old, overgrown trail across the side of the mountain... and since we left that morning before first light, we were bushwacking for 45 minutes before we realized the watch had led us astray. Backtracked back to Los Perros camp, and just as first light emerged, we could plainly see the correct trail forward.
95% of the time, the BaseCamp / on-watch auto routing will send you on the right trail. But like anything, you want to look at your surroundings, etc.
Now with all the firmware fixes, you should be able to follow a pre-programmed course that you create in BaseCamp. You should also see correct elevation profile on the watch, as well as final ETA vs. ETA to next waypoint. These features were all broken when I used the watch, but that was with the initial buggy firmware. Good luck!
