Hard to understand how Spot can be promoted as a backcountry tool without real time connection to maps of better quality than Google Terrain. Which I look at at as relief maps, not topos, and certainly not very useful for actual backcountry navigation.
I think the answer to that is quite simple - Spot isn't a navigation tool, you can't see these maps while you are in the backcountry. The main use of these tracks when displayed on maps is to show post-trip what you did, and I assume the Spot folks felt that the average consumer of that data would be better served with a relief map than a proper topo (i.e. your grandma will see something that looks like a mountain on the screen when you tell her you climbed Whitney)
