[pct-l] Snow Navigation & maps

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

I got lost 3 times last summer, so I won't claim to be a navigation  
expert. But I did find that topo maps aren't all that useful when you  
can't see anything. For example, in Oregon the guide book said to  
stay alert to a hidden pond not far from a broad saddle. When all you  
can see are trees and you can't even tell if you are on a broad  
saddle because all the topography around you looks pretty much the  
same, how do you know a hidden pond is anywhere nearby?

I spent a very thirsty night thinking that I was going to have to  
hike 8 more miles in the morning to the next water source since I was  
pretty sure I had missed this one. Turned out I was camped on the  
broad saddle and the pond was less than 5 minutes away. Not sure a  
compass would have helped. A GPS would have been useful, but I did  
not have one. It was measuring my distance based on my walking speed  
and keeping track of the data points in the data book that helped for  
these kinds of things. I knew to be looking for the pond at the hour  
I arrived that evening, that I ought to find it within 5 or so  
minutes plus or minus. It turned out I was right, I just had 5 more  
minutes to go.

As for navigating in the snow, the snow offers an advantage over  
following the trail in that if there's enough of it you just say  
screw the trail and head straight for wherever you're trying to go.  
In that case, so long as you can see where you are going, a topo map  
is the best tool to have. A GPS would have you following the  
switchbacks, something the PCT abounds in.

I like what my friend Lenny who wrote in his journal last summer:
"Summitted wrong pass
again
not that it matters
same valley on the other side."

This one's a classic, too:
"I was so ignorant
and such a pansy before
this stint in the Sierra.
Guess you gotta learn
somehow."

Diane

On Feb 23, 2010, at 3:13 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> Snow Navigation & maps