You and I are on the same page. I currently have two Garmin GPS receivers for "off-road" use: a GPSMAP 60CSx and a ForeTrex 301.

My 60CSx has road maps for the entire USA and Topo maps for the western states. But for arguments sake if I only had the ForeTrex 301 on this hike (it being a non-mapping GPS) I would have loaded it with waypoints before leaving home. First, both receivers use the same basic Mapsource software so any waypoints I had from previous hikes on Mt Rainier could have been loaded into the ForeTrex. As soon as I parked the car I would have "mark"d the cars location for one additional and very relevant waypoint.

In order to give perspective to the display, I'd have added waypoints for certain landmarks such as "Mt Rainier", "Camp Muir" and knowing me if I hiked Mt Rainier a lot "Panorama Point" would already have been in the waypoint list. Put enough waypoint context on a non-mapping GPS and you soon have something that starts to resemble a map, with a big "you-are-here" cursor.

The ForeTrex 301 and 401 are great little receivers if used. Otherwise they're just big digital watches with a blank map display.

Then again, I haven't used either of these in blizzard conditions with or without goggles and mittens. not something I yearn to try in SOCAL.

Garmin customer, otherwise not affiliated.