Wilderness%20Navigation

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Wilderness Navigation

• Purpose Get you there and get you home
• Fundamentals
• Basic Navigation
• Advanced Navigation

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Navigation Fundamentals

• Pre-Trip Planning is ESSENTIAL !!!!!!!
• Required by EVERY trip member
• Easy and fun to do
• Discuss plans as a group, including contingency
  plans
• Get familiar with general area (mental image)
• Get familiar with specific route (mental image)
• Know closest roads, escape routes, route dangers
• Always Carry a Map on Yourself !
• Convenience allows frequent location checks to
  prevent getting lost
• During the Trip
• Keep track of progress and location
• Consider return trip at all times

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Basic Navigation

• Guidebooks provide maps and trail directions,
  distances, elevations, hints
• AMC White Mountain Guide
• Topographic Maps indicate contour of land through
  lines of constant elevation and are essential for
  identifying key landmarks
• Compass indicates direction to magnetic North and
  can be used with or without a map

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Topographic Maps

• Legend indicates
• Title
• Scale
• Contour interval
• Magnetic declination
• Trails, rivers, roads, etc.
• Important land features are identifiable by their
  pattern of contour lines

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Typical Topo Map Land Features
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Advanced Navigation

• EASY !! Just learn and practice !
• Bearings are the direction from one place to
  another measured in degrees of angle with respect
  to true North
• A simple technique to allow consistent travel
  from one place to another

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Advanced Navigation contd

• Orientation through bearings allows you to locate
  your exact position

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Advanced Navigation contd

• Magnetic Declination is a discrepancy between
  magnetic North and true North
• Must correct for this effect by adjusting compass
  by a known offset

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More Advanced Techniques

• Intentional bearing offset
• Hiking to intermediate objectives
• Back-bearings
• Gain perspective through elevation
• Altimeters and GPS
• Much, much, more !