[pct-l] Snow Navigation & maps

[AsABat]

Ah, but JJ, you had the knowledge to input the location of the car
BEFORE you left on your hike.

I remember the early days of GPS and cell phones, the newspaper
reported that a group was rescued in a whiteout because they used
their new cell phone to report the coordinates on their new GPS. If
they had bothered to enter the car location in the GPS, and/or have a
map with a GPS grid on it, and/or had a topo map and figured out that
the slope to the right led to the car, they wouldn't have needed
rescuing in the first place.

I love my new toys. I don't use them much, but they are fun. But my
point it, all this new stuff has made it easier to get deeper in
trouble with the backup plan being "call for help on the cell phone"
rather than "get our butts out of here ourselves by..."

AsABat

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 1:53 PM, Jim Keener ( J J )
<pct2010 at ridgetrailhiker.com> wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> Yes. That's true. As far as it goes.
>
> And. I can imagine on a sailing vessel a few hundred years ago:
> "What's that you're looking at?"
> "A compass. It shows direction."
> "I never got lost using dead reckoning. Knowledge is better than technology."
> And no, I wasn't there.
>
> Each new technology has skeptics and early adapters. And there are advantages and disadvantages in change.
>
> When I climbed Shasta in 2003, I made a waypoint at the car in the parking lot. My climbing partner said something sarcastic about electronic toys. We each had maps and compasses and knew how to use them. I was the slowest person on the mountain, I think, and coming down my climbing partner did not want to glissade the last part as others had. So. It got dark. Individual trees were not marked on the map. My partner, who was climb leader said what I already knew to be true: "We're lost." You know the rest. I pulled out the GPS and said, "The car is two miles that way." Honest. He did not believe me, but did not have a better solution.
>
> I used to teach map reading in the Army. We called it land navigation. I have always liked maps and know how to use them. And there are times when GPS adds to my arsenal. And besides it can be ever so much fun to play with!
>
> Walk well,
> Jim Keener ( J J )
> _________________
>
> jj at ridgetrailhiker.com
>
> http://trailjournals.com/jj2010/
> http://ridgetrailhiker.com
> http://olderhealthier.com
>
>
>
>
>
> On Feb 23, 2010, at 1:36 PM, AsABat wrote:
>
>> Why do I hear so much about lost hikers carrying GPSs or nothing at
>> all, but so few about those carrying map and compass? Maybe it's true,
>> the most important thing you carry with you is knowledge.
>
>