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Thread: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

  1. #31

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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 View Post
    Interesting that none of the "experts" have mentioned the second most important equipment, after your brain. Adequate footware, that is.

  2. #32
    Drew Wiley
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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.

  3. #33

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    Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by Heroique View Post
    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.

  4. #34
    http://www.spiritsofsilver.com tgtaylor's Avatar
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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

  5. #35
    jp's Avatar
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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.

  6. #36
    Drew Wiley
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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.

  7. #37
    Land-Scapegrace Heroique's Avatar
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    Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by Greg Miller View Post
    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.

  8. #38

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    Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by Heroique View Post
    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.
    One man's Mede is another man's Persian.

  9. #39

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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.

  10. #40
    Land-Scapegrace Heroique's Avatar
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    Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by Struan Gray View Post
    ...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 View Post
    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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