Navigation Macht Spaß

Regretfully I don't have any pictures for this one. Yes, I brought the camera, no I didn't feel like taking it out and taking pictures, since at least half the time we were out I was on point with my partner. I will try with words, then.

Up at 4AM, out the door at 4:30 to make it over icy roads to the park n' ride by 5:15 to meet the BMS crew for our nav party up at Stoney Pass. Made it, got my map plots verified by Deb, aka one of the most awesome instructors evah, and piled into a 4x4 with some teammates and we caravanned in the dark up to Bailey and then for several miles up a snowy dirt road to the drop-off point. I won the packweight contest at 47lbs--I swear to Maude Frank said our packs should weigh 45lbs with all our crap, and that 10 essentials should be at least 25. They told me to go and take out all but my 10 essentials after that, and in retrospect I was happy with that decision. Tim and I were tapped to lead us to the first point, and as we headed away from the cars in the quickly falling snow none of us had any idea we wouldn't be seeing them again for nearly 11 hours.

The deal was we were not allowed to use altimeters--just map and compass. Which is difficult on a clear day but when you can't see for shit the features around you because they are all socked in by clouds and blowing snow, well, it ups the challenge factor considerably. Oh, and add to that no roads or trails--which would have been covered in snow and unidentifiable anyway, so wev I guess.

Frank avowed once we finally found the first point nearly 2 hours later that point #1 was the hardest. He was totally lying, we found out later, when I was tapped along with Cindy to nav from point#2 to point#6. Point#1 was only the second hardest to find! But we finally did get it, and it was nice to hand off the reins to someone else for a while and just follow. The weather acted like it was going to cooperate a few times, but it never really did--just kept snowing. I am grateful we were enough in the trees that it was not too windy!

Getting to point#6 was tough--it was at least 3 miles from our start point, with no straight lines to follow and only one feature to line up with to keep yourself on point to follow the due south bearing to the final location. We conferred with our teachers and decided to follow a course of contouring, or following the sidehill around and around until we could see a knoll and a saddle from which we would head south, cross a creek and continue into a wide open meadow. The travel was arduous--snow up to the knees in spots, and all off-trail so we were slipping and sliding on rocks and logs and deadfall thick enough that you had to weave a complicated path in and out of it to get past. At a spot where we thought we were close to the saddle, we stopped for lunch, and I discovered my water bottles were at least half slush--surprising since it didn't seem that cold, but then we were pretty much on the move the whole time.

Frank, who could find his way aound with his eyes closed he's done the course so many times, tipped us off that we actually stayed so high that we passed above and beyond the saddle when the clouds completely obscured the knoll we were looking for. It was nice to know we had traveled further than thought, but frustrating because now we didn't know exactly where we were, and other than knowing we needed to go generally south it felt like every move was potentially multiplying errors. I have been doing this long enough to know how easy it is to do and it was tough to stay focused. Lunch helped considerably though. Frank helped guide us the last 1/4 mile by "breaking trail", and once in the meadow it was obvious. I know that technology can fail, devices can be lost/forgotten, etc. but it underscores how important it is when in unfamiliar [winter!] terrain to have your altimeter and your GPS. I calibrated my altimeter on leaving home, but because of the wonky weather it was about 300 ft off by the end of the day!

We got back to the cars around 6PM, and from there it was another 2.5 hours until I got home. We saw a couple of cars that had gone completely off the road from all the snow and ice. The slow trip was ok.

The next day Frank was kind enough to send out the GPS track of where we actually wandered so we could see how off course we got, and we actually did pretty well all things considered. Our route-finding and high peak trips are going to be outings to be reckoned with, however. Just remember to increase however long you think it will take by a factor of at least two, maybe three!