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1 Attachment(s)
Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Most LF landscapers who hike away from their vehicle have enough trouble finding room in their packs for camera, lenses and accessories – let alone the “10 essentials” you always hear about:
1. Topographic map
2. Compass
3. Flashlight/spare parts
4. Extra food/water/clothing
5. Sun protection
6. Matches
7. Knife
8. Signal mirror
9. First aid kit
10. Emergency shelter
Do you always carry the famous 10 – or just this or that item, depending on hiking terrain, distance & duration?
If you have to make a choice, does your photo gear trump the essentials, or do the essentials trump the gear?
What lessons can you share for the over-burdened LF photographer? ;^)
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
I always carry the 10 essential and more depending on the weather when I hike in Mt. Rainier NP. You can make all the choices of gear for your backpack, it's what happens miles from the trailhead and you're without the necessities to deal with the conditions or situation that matters. Even for dayhikes my backpack, often called "the little refrigerator" by rangers because it looks like one (Sundog Art Wolfe medium), runs on the full and heavier than normal side. If you need to reduce weight, go to ultralight gear, but always consider if your hike is more than a few miles from the trailhead and extends into the night or you have to stay overnight.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
I always carry the 11th essential - toilet paper. Usually most of the first ten, depending on how far and how long I'll be out. Many items do double duty, an all weather blanket as a ground sheet to keep camera/lenses off sand and mud (and so that cable releases and lens caps don't get lost forever in tall grass), a night shelter or rain shelter, shade, a signal device with its bright red side, and so on. On trails a head lamp is advised, a compass - the old school kind, matches, knife, etc. Combined weight isn't bad so there's little excuse not to have them. I also used to carry a tiny copy of the New Testament for reading material while waiting for wind to settle or the sun/clouds to move, and the pages would be good for fire starting in an emergency. And always extra water and a few energy bars.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
No different from any other kind of hiking, except that the extra load makes it even easier to get a twisted ankle, or dehydrated, or stuck in the
cold getting hypothermic. I've run into all the above, plus searches or body carry outs for those whose luck ran out. The Natl Parks seem to be
the worst because naive folks think they are in some kind of theme park
in which the Govt has removed the forces of nature. Lots of accidents with
the Boy Scouts and Outward Bound too due to inexperienced leadership
and too many kids in tow. A bit of extra gear has kept me alive all these
years. Yesterday it was just a few extra sunglasses screws in my firstaid kit after a lens popped out five miles from the road - not exactly life threatening, but saved me a throbbing headache.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
A walking stick is an essential for me.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Renato Tonelli
A walking stick is an essential for me.
Me too, especially if there are rushing creeks to cross.
BTW, the original “10 essentials” list was developed in the 1930’s by the Mountaineers Club, the Seattle-based climbing/outdoors outfit that’s still going strong today.
I don’t think they had LF photographers in mind – or their heavy burdens...
Just for fun, here’s their “Classic List” from the 1930’s (Note the absence of “Shelter”):
1. Map
2. Compass
3. Sunglasses and sunscreen
4. Extra clothing
5. Headlamp/flashlight
6. First-aid supplies
7. Firestarter
8. Matches
9. Knife
10. Extra food
A few years ago, the Club updated their “Classic List” & renamed it “Ten Essential Systems.”
1. Navigation (map & compass)
2. Sun protection (sunglasses :cool: & sunscreen)
3. Insulation (extra clothing)
4. Illumination (headlamp/flashlight)
5. First-aid supplies
6. Fire (waterproof matches/lighter/candle)
7. Repair kit and tools
8. Nutrition (extra food)
9. Hydration (extra water)
10. Emergency shelter (tent/plastic tube tent/garbage bag)
-----
Note to Mountaineers Club: where’s the insect repellant?
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Your list is nine items too long. Extra food/water are all you really need. Most of the other stuff is just dead weight IMO.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
The only essentials I need are plenty of water and a flashlight to find my way back to the trail after dark
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
One thing that you should always carry is a lens wrench. Last friday the rear element on my 300mm Nikkor-M came loose while setting up for a shot but I was prepared with a "BadgerBrand" wrench which covers Copal's 0 and 1, and Copal and Compur 3 lens. That was the second time that happened to me while setting-up for a shot - couriously both time with the 300mm Nikkor-M.
Thomas
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
I tend not to take many of the essentials. At first, because I was young and dumb and fairly tough. Now, because the 8x10 and age determine how far I can get away from the car...but I do tend to go off in weird directions by myself, tempered by having a good sense of knowing when to turn around (I chicken out easily, but I still get to some cool places.)
But there is room for some emergency food in the pack -- a few food bars, an apple, turkey jerky, and perhaps some of that wonderful new survival ration, micro-brews in cans (always room for a couple). And I always have my rain jacket/hood, and a wool cap in colder times. I love topo maps, so that is more than just an essential. But oddly rarely have a compass -- the sun and terrain tells me how to align the map, weather and cover permitting. I might take the water filter and only a partial bottle of water if I will be out all day and near water through out the day. A flashlight should live in my camera pack, but one doesn't. A Leatherman tool I found along a creek is usually in the pack (I often need to tighten a few screws on the 8x10) as well as a lighter. A needle and heavy thread usually are with me on long (week+) hikes...I have had to do some major sewing on equipment. Those old Kelty Tour Packs were not designed for the weight I use to put in them!
But if I am just going out for the day, I might as well toss in an extra couple 8x10 film holders (6 or 7 total) and pull out one of the external pockets of the pack to put in a sandwich, another apple and perhaps another can of beer. So it is no wonder I only get a few miles out before the 45 to 50 lb pack and 17 lb tripod/head point out that the light right here right now is beautiful and I should set up the camera, expose some film and drink a beer...if only to reduce the weight of the pack and to enjoy where I am at (oh -- and to rehydrate, of course!)
Vaughn
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
I take guns and bullets
rod, tackle, hammer and nails, god,
Snapple
gps to geocache, a poncho
Rodinal for nighttime and a lob wedge
walnuts
swiss army knife to play with in case my legs are broken
trust me on the sunscreen
and a Hallmark card cause when I'm about to go my own words just won't do me justice
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
I think the "ten essentials" are a bit far from reality... by a 40%:
1. Topographic map >>many times
2. Compass >>if needed; specially on unknown, large territories or with bad weather
3. Flashlight/spare parts >>always a headlamp; a must if we`re too late (dusk)
4. Extra food/water/clothing >>obviously, if needed; but not a full change...
5. Sun protection >>always (hat, long sleeve t-shirt in summer, etc.)
6. Matches >>never; you will be even fined for using them
7. Knife >>always, to cut tomatoes, cheese and bread - BTW, swiss army ones are the worst for almost everything...
8. Signal mirror >>never
9. First aid kit >>never
10. Emergency shelter >>never
In my experience, I`d change the latest (marked "never") ones as follows:
6. Evacuation plan (where to find help -emergency numbers, stations, helicopter, refuge-). Don`t be confused or waste time if there is a problem.
8. Buddie (never go alone, for obvious reasons)
9. Mobile phone with charged battery It must be placed as #1
10. Extra car keys (if there must be "10" on the list - give them to your buddie).
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Water should be at the top of the list.
Steve.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
I carry what I consider to be essential survival gear when out in rugged terrain far from roads in case of emergencies. Here's my list, not in any particular order. It's a bit updated from the 1930s one:
1. cell phone (most places now have reception. I got a call from Europe on the top of Mt. Rainier once...)
2. signalling mirror (the best way to signal if the sun is out)
3. flashlight(s) (I have a very bright halogen light plus a bunch of little led lights. I once hiked down an icy trail from the top of Yosemite falls in the dark by the light of a Photon led light...)
4. 2 disposable butane lighters (matches get wet)
5. hand-held GPS (for longer trips... I once almost had to spend an unprepared night out in February in the Grand Staircase NM because I was disoriented in the canyons and almost didn't find my way back to the car. I was on a long day hike. Since then, I just set a waypoint when I begin the hike: "car" or "camp" and then add a few essential ones on the way. Now I don't have to blaze trail like I used to, or worry about where I am; I can concentrate fully on finding images. For multi-day trips, the GPS and the map are all I need for navigation.)
6. my Swiss army knife is always with me.
7. first-aid kit with basics for deep cuts and broken bones (if I'm in real rugged, dangerous territory, I'll carry splinting material and a walking stick as well. I've got wrapping for casts too.)
8. shelter stuff: several heavy-duty garbage bags (I can make anything from a rain poncho to a tent) space blanket (I've never used mine, but it takes up very little room.)
9. a small roll of 1" gaffers' tape, nylon parachute line and a few shoelaces, etc. for fastening stuff. (this works for building shelter, making splints, etc. plus doubles as tie-backs for pesky branches.)
10. proper clothing, etc. for the situation (hat, bandanas, sunglasses, sunscreen for hot and desert situations, warm hat, windproof shelled fleece jackets, gloves and liner gloves, extra wool socks, parka, etc. for cold winter situations. One has to decide based on the circumstances.)
Much of the stuff I carry does double-duty. For example, My dark cloth is large and made of Gore-Tex material. I works well for a poncho too. I've got a coated nylon drawstring bag I use as a camera cover that doubles as a collapsible bucket.
For me, the dangers are mostly:
1. Falling and injuring myself (breaking a bone, spraining, or worse.) and not being able to walk out. I usually don't go alone, and always have signalling devices with me. I really think a cell phone is the best piece of survival gear I can have (as long as there is reception). Letting people know where you are and when you plan to be back is essential too. If you don't return, they can organize a search.
2. Getting lost and having to spend the night unprepared in the cold. I work a lot in the winter, and spending a night without enough shelter and warmth is not my idea of fun. That's why the GPS. I often do carry a map (I was good in orienteering in university), but since most of my hikes/trips are of the in-and-back nature, a map is often not needed. When I'm backpacking from one location to another, or in a loop, then the map is always there. GPS doubles as a compass. Extra batteries come too.
Water is, of course essential in really desert climates, but when hiking around streams or in the snow, I don't worry too much about "emergency water." Extra food is non-essential.
I carry a telescoping hiking stick in very steep terrain. It seems that going down is always a lot harder than climbing up (I always seem to be in some life-threatening location for a shot...). With that and my tripod, I can get down some really steep and slippery slopes.
My survival strategy is simple: the Rule of 3s and the following priorities.
The Rule of Threes:
1. First Aid: You can live 3 minutes if you don't treat a serious bleeding injury
2. Shelter / Clothing: You can live 3 hours if you are exposed unprepared to extremes of temperature (hypo- hyperthermia, etc.)
3. Water: You can live 3 days without water.
4. Food: You can live 3 weeks without food.
General Guidelines for Emergencies in the Wilderness
1. Call help immediately in case of emergency if possible.
2. If you are lost, remain where you are and wait for rescue. Make a signal or be ready to signal rescuers.
3. Prioritize your survival needs according to the Rule of Threes
Best,
Doremus
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Doremus Scudder
Prioritize your survival needs according to the Rule of Threes
I learned this the hard way when I was young, and it's stuck with me since. I wasn't hiking or camping (bicycle accident), but hypothermia is a good lesson in any outdoor activity.
The list of essentials will vary depending on who you ask. Most people pack for comfort. I pack for survival. Go with lightweight options when you can. The only things I don't skimp on are clothing and water. Less weight in your pack will mean more comfort, and more miles per day if hiking. Always filter and treat drinking water. Micro-critters in your digestive tract can slow you down more than a broken appendage. Every hour or so, take a moment to assess your location/heading and weather conditions and make a plan for how to deal with worsening conditions if they should arise. Do this more frequently if the weather is less than ideal, more frequently as those conditions get further from what you would consider good.
If not using the buddy system, let someone know where you will be so a rescue party can find you before the buzzards do if you don't come home on schedule.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Common sense is essential.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Heroique
1. Topographic map- No.
2. Compass- Rarely.
3. Flashlight/spare parts- No.
4. Extra food/water/clothing- Yes.
5. Sun protection- No.
6. Matches- No.
7. Knife- Yes.
8. Signal mirror- No.
9. First aid kit- No.
10. Emergency shelter- No.
Carry a notepad. If you left behind something you need, write it down.If you brought something you don't need, write it down. You will very soon come up with a checklist of things you will actually use and need.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Since I'm involved in scouting, I recommend being prepared any time you head into wilderness.
Do your best to take the essentials. The unexpected happens on every adventure.
I highly recommend an online community hosted by a small commercial outfit called Backpacking Light.
My "essentials" kit weighs about seven ounces and fits in a pocket.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bill Burk
Since I'm involved in scouting, I recommend being prepared any time you head into wilderness.
Do your best to take the essentials. The unexpected happens on every adventure.
I highly recommend an online community hosted by a small commercial outfit called Backpacking Light.
My "essentials" kit weighs about seven ounces and fits in a pocket.
The most important piece of equipment weighs about 3 pounds and is mounted between your ears. Bring and use it, you'll be surprised what else you can do without.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Heroique
Do you always carry the famous 10 – or just this or that item, depending on hiking terrain, distance & duration?
If you have to make a choice, does your photo gear trump the essentials, or do the essentials trump the gear?
What lessons can you share for the over-burdened LF photographer? ;^)
1. Topographic map (rarely, GPS has taken over in this department, but I still use topo maps on occasion)
2. Compass (always)
3. Flashlight/spare parts (flashlight with extra bulb & batteries, always)
4. Extra food/water/clothing (extra water and Potable water pills, always)
5. Sun protection (never)
6. Matches (never, I carry a flint)
7. Knife (always, I have a skinner attached to my backpack harness plus I almost always have my SOG folder in my pocket)
8. Signal mirror (always, it's attached to the compass)
9. First aid kit (always)
10. Emergency shelter (never)
A few other things that I always carry are a cable saw, fire-starter, and flint. I usually have a GPS with me as well.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Yes indeed! When things get rough, the most important piece of equipment is your brain.
Think; don't panic. But experience sure helps. Most of the places I go a cell phone is worthless. You can't get reception in the mtns or even much of the coastline. And if you're worried about getting fined for use of matches, then why don't you just ask the Ranger giving you the ticket to rescue you! No first aid??? I wouldn't even travel in the
truck without that.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bill Burk
I highly recommend an online community hosted by a small commercial outfit called Backpacking Light.
Having followed a number of links over the past few years to "Backpacking Light", I am continually pissed off by their marketing scheme requiring payment to read information which can be found elsewhere, written first hand. Others have found more open ways to monetize their web-based passions. It is IMO, the most egregious of a "spend more to carry less" bologna paradigm.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
So guys, which essential items do you pack when going into a big city? Any major metropolitan area is infinitely more dangerous than the woods.
You're going into the woods to take pictures, not on an expedition into the Gobi desert.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
E. von Hoegh
So guys, which essential items do you pack when going into a big city? Any major metropolitan area is infinitely more dangerous than the woods.
You're going into the woods to take pictures, not on an expedition into the Gobi desert.
The only time I take the essentials out of my pack is to test them or use them, that way I can't need them someday and discover that they aren't there.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
In this era of techie gadget obsession I find it ironic that people who don't even know how
to read a topo map think a GPS will make them safe. I've run into flatlanders on the verge
of heading right to a cliff or toward some massive goge by following those devices without
sufficient experience with the terrain in general. And even in autos they've been know to
lead folks down some deadend backroad or across the gang-infested part of town. Several
well publicized tragedies in that category. I have a compass in my first aid kit but have never actually had to use a compass in my entire life. If you're a beginner it's best to tag
along with someone with actual experience before entering backcountry. Someone who
doesn't want to carry what I call the essentials ain't traveling with me, that's for sure.
Just one hike last fall to me where two search & rescues ended by finding the hypotherimic
bodies, just because someone forgot their parka that day.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ROL
Having followed a number of links over the past few years to "Backpacking Light", I am continually pissed off by their marketing scheme requiring payment to read information which can be found elsewhere, written first hand. Others have found more open ways to monetize their web-based passions. It is IMO, the most egregious of a "spend more to carry less" bologna paradigm.
I also have a similar aversion to Consumer Reports. But when I try using alternative, free sites to obtain the same information I find exceedingly poor organization of info. For example... Went to buy a washer and found "desired feature" categories are organized by the feature as named by the manufacturer. There are about a hundred "features." You can't just pick "steam clean" you have to know it's called "SanitizeTM".
I subscribed to Backpacking Light for two years and enjoyed it immensely. Got my value out of it. Now I don't subscribe. But I know what you mean. The paid articles were fun while I had a premium account. But that's not where their site's greatest value comes. I sometimes miss having free access to the paid articles, but I know they are the "value added" part of the site. It's like the Gallery on a site many of us also participate in. Worth the price but not necessary for participation.
Their online forum is free.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Interesting that none of the "experts" have mentioned the second most important equipment, after your brain. Adequate footware, that is.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
E. von Hoegh
Interesting that none of the "experts" have mentioned the second most important equipment, after your brain. Adequate footware, that is.
That's true. I wear walking boots all the time (except in bed) so I have an excuse!
Steve.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Drew Wiley
...I find it ironic that people who don't even know how to read a topo map think a GPS will make them safe...
And if you’re “stuck” w/ a real compass (I carry two), be sure to check your area’s magnetic declination – the difference between true north and magnetic (compass) north. It’s usually stated on any good topo map.
In my local Washington mountains, there’s an 18-20ş (E) declination!
I’d get lost real fast if I didn’t subtract that amount from my compass readings.
(To apply correction: “East is least, West is best”)
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
One of my most disliked "essentials"
Now
If you were to say
adequate footware FOR YOU
that's OK
But not everyone needs to be wearing boots or hikers
seems every grandmother believes to go walking anywhere besides a groomed trail or mall one needs boots on
I can play basketball in sandals well
another time when everyone seems to believe you MUST wear certain activity-specific supportive shoes "high tops"
cant stand em
Quote:
Originally Posted by
E. von Hoegh
Interesting that none of the "experts" have mentioned the second most important equipment, after your brain. Adequate footware, that is.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
A few years back when we had unusually heavy snow in early Oct virtually every high country rescue was due to inadequate footwear - folks hiking back in those glorified tennis
shoes they sell at REI etc - allegedly waterproof with Goretex linings etc but utterly worthless in even two inches of fresh snow. My own feet are so messed up from birth that
I have to wear good boots even for daily wear, and expensive custom boots for hiking.
But good boots are worth it in general, and can be life-saving in a mtn storm, or save you
a broken ankle in steep terrain. The difference between fun and suicide can sometimes
simply be a matter of planning and gear. The weather can change incredibly fast up in the
hills.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Heroique
And if you’re “stuck” w/ a real compass (I carry two), be sure to check your area’s magnetic declination – the difference between true north and magnetic (compass) north. It’s usually stated on any good topo map.
In my local Washington mountains, there’s an 18-20ş (E) declination!
I’d get lost real fast if I didn’t subtract that amount from my compass readings.
(To apply correction: “East is least, West is best”)
Your maps aren't marked with both true north and magnetic north? I don't recall seeing a map in the past 20 years that didn't have both.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Magnetic Declination changes over time and it's a good practice to check the current declination tiwh the USGS online. Once, while on a bicycle trip to Greece and Crete, I forgot to check the declination for Greece and asked the pilot who was standing at the exit door wishing everyone a good trip. He didn't know but went inside the cockpit to check and came back and told me it was 2 degrees west IIRC.
Thomas
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
As a former boyscout who did lots of adventuring as a teenager, I think being prepared is an excellent excellent concept, especially if it's an all day or longer adventure, and if lists help you do that, great.
However as a photographer more and more inspired by Eliot Porter's and Paul Caponigro's east coast intimate landscapes, I think there is little need to go more than a couple miles round trip to get all the photos you could wish for. Porter's island was only 1/2 x 1 mile. You're ignoring lots of great woods if you only have a destination in mind. I realize this doesn't apply to the big open west so nicely.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Eliot Porter might surprise you. I recall reading about his argument in Antartica when he was going to take a 6-mile dayhike in his 70's with a 4X5, and it ended in a compromise in
which he agreed to carry a half-bag "elephant's foot" instead of the full sleeping bag which
was mandatory regulation for anyone leaving the mechanized convoy. I'll agree that great
shots don't necessarily require great distances, but for me at least, the hunt is just as
important as the kill. I walked nine miles Saturday for a single 8X10 shot, but even more
for the privilege of having an entire spectacular estuary all afternoon with nobodoy else in sight. It's about life, not just about the damn piece of film. So that shot - if it ever does
get printed (probably 30X40) - will hold a special memory for me.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Greg Miller
Your maps aren't marked with both true north and magnetic north?
Yep (why did you think they aren’t?)
However, occasional national forest district maps (as opposed to USGS quads) of excellent & useful scale fail to specify declination. Strangely, this is true of a few Olympic National Forest district maps of the 1990’s.
What’s really fun about my volcanically active region are the intermittent magnetic fields that are strong enough to make compass needles shake, rattle and roll. A good example is the beautifully forested Big Lava Bed near Mount Adams.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Heroique
Yep (why did you think they aren’t?)
However, occasional national forest district maps (as opposed to USGS quads) of excellent & useful scale fail to specify declination. Strangely, this is true of a few Olympic National Forest district maps of the 1990’s.
What’s really fun about my volcanically active region are the intermittent magnetic fields that are strong enough to make compass needles shake, rattle and roll. A good example is the beautifully forested Big Lava Bed near Mount Adams.
In which case your declination figures are as useful as last month's lotto number.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
I carry most of the ten essentials, but the OP's list is biased towards US practice. For example, a signal mirror is most use if you know you are going to be able to see your rescuers (and there is going to be a clear sun to reflect back at them). The places I hike neither is true, and having a whistle with you is more important so you can broadcast a cry for help without going hoarse.
When I used to hike and climb regularly I would always have companions. When I go out with LF I tend to be on my own. I carry first aid to treat life threatening injuries that must be handled before help can get to me, and for chronic issues that are not worth abandoning a trip to treat. Everything else can wait until I get home.
Traditional navigation is a useful skill, even with a GPS. Following a get-the-hell-out-of-here bearing I wrote down or memorised (or set on the compass) before the trip started has saved my life on a few occasions, and got me home in time for whisky and bullshit by the fire more often than I care to count. I always carry a compass.
Oddly, despite my love of maps, I don't always carry one these days. That's really just a reflection of the fact that I tend to hike in areas I know very well. I either just know the rescue routes off by heart, or can picture the map well enough in my head to decide a bearing from memory. Knowing the flash/occultation patterns of the local lighthouses helps too.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Struan Gray
...Following a get-the-hell-out-of-here bearing I wrote down or memorized (or set on the compass) before the trip started has saved my life on a few occasions...
You’re not going to share any exciting details? Did it start raining?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
E. von Hoegh
In which case your declination figures are as useful as last month's lotto number.
I think the forest service should superimpose a skull & crossbones over this area for cross-country, traditional-compass hikers.
Unless they’re as good as Vaughn at reading the sun and terrain (post #11). ;^)
But even if you get lost, 9 of the “10 essentials” still might save you in this Devil’s Triangle area of the woods.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Heroique
I think the forest service should superimpose a skull & crossbones over this area for cross-country, traditional-compass hikers.
Unless they’re as good as Vaughn at reading the sun and terrain (post #11). ;^)
But even if you get lost, 9 of the “10 essentials” still might save you in this Devil’s Triangle area of the woods.
If you can read a map, and are somewhat observant, and have most of your faculties, you won't need a compass.
There's a deal of iron ore scattered around here - the High Peaks of the Adirondaks - so I learned long ago to take anything a compass says with a truckload of salt.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Even in the High Sierra there are significant areas of complex iron-rich "roof pendant" geology which will drive a compass batty. GPS units aren't totally reliable either, esp in a
really bad storm (and are obviously battery dependent). But I'm wired more like a squirrel
and subconsciously memorize topographic features. Guess that comes from being raised
with huge tracts of steep wilderness right across the road. Leave the driveway and enter
the second deepest canyon on the continent. Rarely even use the map. Those things
are more useful for learning the names of distant peaks etc.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
adequate footwear/gear for plausible conditions
appropriate preparedness
a jet pack would be great in many possible circumstances but
a signaling mirror? cmon
that's going too far
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Drew Wiley
A few years back when we had unusually heavy snow in early Oct virtually every high country rescue was due to inadequate footwear - folks hiking back in those glorified tennis
shoes they sell at REI etc - allegedly waterproof with Goretex linings etc but utterly worthless in even two inches of fresh snow. My own feet are so messed up from birth that
I have to wear good boots even for daily wear, and expensive custom boots for hiking.
But good boots are worth it in general, and can be life-saving in a mtn storm, or save you
a broken ankle in steep terrain. The difference between fun and suicide can sometimes
simply be a matter of planning and gear. The weather can change incredibly fast up in the
hills.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Heroique
You’re not going to share any exciting details? Did it start raining?
True life saving - as in, I would have died had I not had a compass - has happened twice in Ben Nevis blizzards, and once on the Eiger. That last sounds super-dramatic, but in fact we'd taken the easy way up, and towards the summit it turns into a maze of little steep paths, some of which can lead you badly wrong when descending in cloud.
The Ben is different. It's a bit like I understand the White Mountains in NH to be - you treat them with respect, even in benign conditions. I wrote about my first time here:
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.c...bb2e26db76de6?
The second time was also on Tower Ridge, but with a long-standing climbing partner who I could trust and rely upon. We had a blast, grinning goodbye to a group of special forces soldiers on exercise as they sensibly bottled out, letting go with our hands on the steepest sections and allowing the wind to plaster us to the rock as we traversed, and emerging on top into the most complete sensory-deprivation whiteout I have ever experienced. Visibility was one yard, with a wind that erased communication beyond one foot. We paced off the distances and bearings, with Ian out in front and me with my compass laid on the rope, tugging once for right and twice for left. We had great fun - truly - but other climbers died that night, several in the avalanche-prone gully that snares you if you don't get the bearings right.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
And Struan’s “Ben Nevis” key lesson for our purposes:
“...all those things I had lugged around and never used, I used.
Spare clothing, food and drink all made a small but vital difference; in
Paul's case the bivvi gear too. When people laugh at me for always
carrying a bivvi bag in winter, no matter how trivial the route, I remind
myself of my reasons and shrug it off. I'm just grateful the first aid
kit was superfluous...”
You don’t need an “essential” until you need it.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
If you can read a map, and are somewhat observant, and have most of your faculties, you won't need a compass.
There's a deal of iron ore scattered around here - the High Peaks of the Adirondaks - so I learned long ago to take anything a compass says with a truckload of salt.
Clearly this person has never been in the wilderness for any significant length of time and probably has never traveled far from home. Reminds me of “Miss Marie” who had never been outside the city limits of her home town.
As a quick example of the kind of information a compass is able to tell the savvy:
Suppose you know what the true magnetic declination of a given area is suppose to be and further suppose that you line yourself up with an object/landmark that your map shows to be directly true north of where you are standing. Then,
Let X be the true magnetic declination and Y be the declination that your compass says the landmark is. Then the absolute value of Y-X is the strength of the local magnetic field (e.g., your iron ore) and the position along the real number line indicates the direction of the field (east or west).
It's a serious error of judgment to travel even for short distances in the wilderness without at least a compass and preferably a map as well.
Thomas
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Heroique
Yep (why did you think they aren’t?)
Mostly because of this statment "be sure to check your area’s magnetic declination".
If you orient based on the magnetic north line, then no need to factor in declination.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Yep. The only reason why millenia of native Americans never traveled with a compass is
because Amazon.com would deliver a GPS unit right to their bark hut. They also had the
ability to download maps from the USGS right onto their inkjet printers. John Muir preferred to travel light si would stop at the nearest Mini Mart to ask directions, at least until he had
a GPS of his own. Whatever happened to, "the moss grows on the north side of the tree"?
Maybe they don't sell moss anymore since Kodak raised the prices.
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
tgtaylor
Magnetic Declination changes over time and it's a good practice to check the current declination tiwh the USGS online. Once, while on a bicycle trip to Greece and Crete, I forgot to check the declination for Greece and asked the pilot who was standing at the exit door wishing everyone a good trip. He didn't know but went inside the cockpit to check and came back and told me it was 2 degrees west IIRC.
Thomas
Ignoring the poles, most places on this planet will change less than 2 degrees over the course of a lifetime. And 2 degrees is probably less than the error in my sighting ability. So its not something I care to worry about, and has never proven to be a factor in the real world. Besides, when I reach a point with visibility, I corroborate my compass bearing with what I see on the topo map and in front of me, and adjust as necessary.
Plus there are other corrective measures that are utilized in the real world. Such as we know that when summiting a peak, we need to keep going up until we summit. Or we know that certain features, such ridges, valleys, knobs, and streams are indicators that we are on or off course. Ridge lines and valleys are often the easiest lines to follow and are the surest way to get from point A to point B, minimizing the need to be super accurate with the compass. Here in the northeast, we don't get that many opportunities to visually corroborate over long views. But I have not been lost despite many bushwhacks through dense forest (which prevents sighting more than a few feet ahead, or visually corroborating).
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Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?
Read "Deep Survival" by Laurence Gonzales. You will never leave your font porch without everything on the list. Some days, you won't go out he front door.
Seriously: its a great book. His analysis of how people get "lost" is profound. As someone who is visually impaired, I found this information alone to be helpful every day.