Why “triangulation” to get unlost may be a bad idea

Many navigation books, videos and classes teach a slick-sounding technique known as “triangulation" to locate your position on a map if you’re lost. (Technically speaking, the proper term is “resection”, but triangulation is more commonly used in many books, so we're going to go with that.)

In theory, it works like this:

From your position, you take a compass bearing on two or more visible landmarks, which you can recognize and locate on your map. If you then plot these bearings correctly onto your map, the intersection of the lines is your approximate position.

---

This sounds great practicing on your cozy kitchen table. But, for triangulation/resection to work in the real world, you need THREE variables to ALL line up in your favor.

Here are those three, and some reasons why this technique often fails in practice.

1. It requires that you can actually see two or more features on which to take a bearing. If you’re lost in heavy tree cover, at night or in low visibility, you’re out of luck.

2. It requires that can match the feature you see in the field to your map.You’re lost, but it’s daylight and you’re able to see several nearby peaks. Trouble is, you are not sure of their names. Being able to see and take a bearing to a peak, lake or other feature is useless unless you can positively identify the feature on your map.

3. It requires that the feature you see in the field actually be ON your map. You’re lost on Mt. Hood, but you can see Mt. Jefferson, 50 miles away. Too bad, Mt. Jefferson is not on your map, making that feature useless to help determine your position.

You can see that this technique has a host of flaws. There are rare times when it works, but don’t rely on it alone to get you unlost.

Plus, this might be blindingly obvious by now, but it really only is a helpful technique after you get lost. And ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, it's always better to stay found in the first place.

So, what can you do? Always have a quality GPS app on your phone, such as Gaia GPS, they can show you your current position overlaid on a base map. Or, at the very least, have an app that can tell you your current position in UTM coordinates, which you can then plot onto the paper map you’re carrying, which hopefully has a UTM grid printed on it.

---

To close on a slight positive note, sometimes just getting a single bearing to a feature and maybe plotting it on your map can be a big help. At least you know you‘re somewhere on that plotted line.

I heard a story from a Search and Rescue (SAR) guy about a lost hunter who called 911. They put him in touch with the local SAR team. The rescue team asked him if he had a compass, and if he could take a bearing to any landscape feature around him he recognized. “Sure thing”, the hunter says, “from where I’m standing, I can take a bearing of 240° to Peak XYZ.”

“Great” says the SAR team, “stay right there and we’ll come get you.” It may not sound like much to know that you’re on a specific bearing to a known terrain feature, but by definition, that excludes every other line that you could be on. All the rescue team had to do was walk on that same bearing toward the peak, until they found the hunter.

The story came from a decade or so back when people did not have good navigation apps on their phone. These days, everybody who goes into the backcountry should have a way to find coordinates from their phone and know how to transmit them to emergency services.

Which Way Wednesday - Map Scale

This week, learn navigation skills from the Wilderness Navigation Challenge - a series of about 80 questions and answers/explanations that cover beginner to intermediate wilderness navigation skills.

It's designed as a teaching tool and for self-evaluation. Every question is followed with an answer and explanation, so you can learn as you go along.

Below are a few sample questions and answers from the challenge. If testing your knowledge and learning more about navigation flips your switch, you can check out the entire navigation challenge here.

Note - at the bottom of the answer slides, you may see a reference for a “Lesson number”. That refers to a youtube video series that covers that topic in detail if you’d like to learn more.

Here’s the video that covers today’s topic.

This week - map scale. Understanding scale lets you calculate real world distances on a topo map.

• What’s considered a “small scale” and “large scale” map for backcountry use?

• You have a map with a ratio scale of 1:50:000. One cm on your map equals how many km in the real world?

• Would a 1:100,000 scale map be a good choice for a technical climbing trip?

• How can you use a twig to measure distance on your map?

---

Break a twig to match a mile, kilometer, or multiple thereof on your scale bar. Then, leapfrog the twig along the map to measure real world distances.

Which Way Wednesday - Topo reading, Saddles, knolls, summits

“Which Way Wednesday” features a navigation or trip planning related post every Wednesday.

---

This week, see some questions from the Wilderness Navigation Challenge - a series of about 80 questions and answers/explanations that cover beginner to intermediate wilderness navigation skills.

It's designed as a teaching tool and for self-evaluation. Every question is followed with an answer and explanation, so you can learn as you go along.

Below are a few sample questions and answers from the challenge. If testing your knowledge and learning more about navigation flips your switch, you can check out the entire navigation challenge here.

Note - at the bottom of the answer slides, you may see a reference for a “Lesson number”. That refers to a youtube video series that covers that topic in detail if you’d like to learn more.

Here’s the video that covers today’s topic.

This week - contours and terrain. Understanding these lets you “read” a topo map.

• What’s a saddle look like on a topo map, and why are they useful for climbers?

• The contour lines are bending. Does that show a ridgeline or a gully?

• I see a closed circle on a topo map. Is that a mountain top, or just a small knoll?

• How is the summit of a major mountain indicated on a topo map?

---

Which Way Wednesday - Topo reading, Gully or Spur?

“Which Way Wednesday” features a navigation or trip planning related post every Wednesday.

---

This week - contours and terrain. Understanding these lets you “read” two key features of a topographic map.

• When contour lines cross a gulley or ridgeline, which way did they bend?

• Does a stream flow into or out of a lake?

• How can you tell higher vs. lower elevation areas just by looking at stream patterns?

---

These questions are from the Wilderness Navigation Challenge - a series of about 80 questions and answers/explanations that cover beginner to intermediate wilderness navigation skills.

It's designed as a teaching tool and for self-evaluation. Every question is followed with an answer and explanation, so you can learn as you go along.

Below are a few sample questions and answers from the challenge. If testing your knowledge and learning more about navigation flips your switch, you can check out the entire navigation challenge here.

Note - at the bottom of the answer slides, you may see a reference for a “Lesson number”. That refers to a youtube video series that covers that topic in detail if you’d like to learn more.

Here’s a video that covers today’s topic.

---

Which Way Wednesday - Topo reading, Contours & Elevation

“Which Way Wednesday” features a navigation or trip planning related post every Wednesday.

---

This week, see some questions from the Wilderness Navigation Challenge - a series of about 80 questions and answers/explanations that cover beginner to intermediate wilderness navigation skills.

It's designed as a teaching tool and for self-evaluation. Every question is followed with an answer and explanation, so you can learn as you go along.

Below are a few sample questions and answers from the challenge. If testing your knowledge and learning more about navigation flips your switch, you can check out the entire navigation challenge here.

Note - at the bottom of the answer slides, you may see a reference for a “Lesson number”. That refers to a youtube video series that covers that topic in detail if you’d like to learn more.

Here’s the video that covers today’s topic.

This week - contours and elevation.

• What’s an index contour?

• Are contour intervals the same on every map?

• How can you use them to determine elevation of a point on the map, or vertical distance between two points?

---

Which Way Wednesday - Navigation Challenge, Part 1

“Which Way Wednesday” will feature a navigation or trip planning related post every Wednesday.

---

This week, we’ll share a few questions from the Wilderness Navigation Challenge - a series of about 80 questions and answers/explanations that cover beginner to intermediate wilderness navigation skills.

It's designed as a teaching tool and for self-evaluation. Every question is followed with an answer and explanation, so you can learn as you go along.

Below are a few sample questions and answers from the challenge. If testing your knowledge and learning more about navigation flips your switch, you can check out the entire navigation challenge here.

Here at AlpineSavvy, we are huge fans of the terrific mapping software CalTopo. You can print three topographic maps of anywhere in the world, on a variety of base layers, add any scale you want to, and various paper sizes. It's easy to make your own GPX files, with tracks and weight points, and export them to use on your phone or handheld device. It's amazing software, it's free, or you can pay a modest annual subscription of $20 and get even more features, which I recommend. Have a look at this YouTube tutorial to get started and using this amazing tool.

---

Example - USGS standard topo map, Eagle Creek OR, no shaded relief. Unless you’re experienced in reading topographic maps, it’s difficult to see ridges, drainages, and where the high and low points are.

Example - USGS standard topo map, Eagle Creek OR, with about 25% shaded relief. Note that you can now easily see where the ridges and creek drainages are, no real knowledge of contour reading required. (Shaded relief is kind of magical!)

See more about shaded relief at this post.

Caltopo MapBuilder Topo layer, Eagle Creek OR, shaded relief. This is a custom map player in Caltopo that shows trails, drainages, vegetation, and nice shaded relief. And the best part, you can print maps like this for free at Caltopo.com.

Learn how to use Caltopo from this YouTube video.

Use waterproof paper for maps

If you’re printing maps yourself (like you should be with great free software like Caltopo), you know the importance of protecting them from the weather. Most of the time, if you print maps on a color laser printer and keep them in a 1 gallon Ziploc freezer bag, that's going to be good enough.

Besides maps, another excellent thing to print on waterproof paper is a SOAP note for your first aid kit.

But in in challenging, wet conditions, you may want to take some extra steps for durability. That's when you might want to consider waterproof paper.

In addition to weatherproofing, printing your maps on stout paper like this or putting them in a plastic bag makes them much more durable. You can fold them multiple times and mash them up in your pocket with little worry they're going to turn into confetti.

“Rite in the Rain” paper, is a fine choice and has been around forever. The one downside is it can tear. It costs about $18 for 50 sheets, or about $0.36 a sheet. If you want to experiment with waterproof paper, this is a low-cost option to get started.

image: AMAzon.com

---

The next step up in waterproof paper is a type which is actually a sort of plastic, that takes color laser printing beautifully, basically tear proof, and complete waterproof.

How tearproof and waterproof? Watch the first 45 seconds of ths video to get an idea.

The downside of this paper is that it’s expensive (about $40 for 50 sheets, or $.80 per sheet.) But, if you only use it for maps where you really need the extra durability, such as maybe for canyoneering, ski touring in a storm, sea kayaking, or a longer mountaineering trip when you really need your map to last, it could be well worth it.

There are a few different flavors on Amazon. I have a box of the “iGage” paper. When I want to print maps, I make them in Caltopo, save them as a PDF file, put them on a USB drive, take that to the local FedEx store, put a few sheets of my waterproof paper in the top of tray #1, and print my maps as normal.

Disclaimer, this paper is made of a kind of plastic, and it's conceivable that it could jam or melt or do something weird in certain kinds of laser printers. If you do this at FedEx store, you may want to ask an employee if it's OK to use. Personally I've done it many times and never had a problem, your mileage may vary.

image: AMAzon.com

What are the most useful Gaia GPS map layers?

Gaia GPS, one of the best available smart phone apps for wilderness navigation, has an amazing bounty of map layers. It's easy to get a little overwhelmed and wonder which ones might be best for a particular activity.

If you're fairly new to Gaia, you may want to check out layers listed below. No doubt you’ll come up with your own favorites over time, but these will be a great start.

(Note, some of these might be only available with a Premium subscription.)

---

Driving urban areas and paved roads: MapBox Streets HD

Major roads are clearly delineated, easy to read at a glance while you’re driving, pretty good points of interest. Nice road network, but no elevations. Minor roads can be a little hard to see.

Bike riding, some trail hiking, and driving obscure backroads: Open Cycle

Small roads have the same line weight as bigger ones, so it’s easy to see when you’re at a tiny junction. Open source maps means map features are likely going to be more accurate than other sources. Note the bicycle path in the valley floor in blue, but also all of the hiking trails are shown, in red dashes. Contours and shaded relief are shown, but no elevations. (The resolution of my screen grab below for some reason looks a little fuzzy, it’s quite a bit better in real life.)

Satellite view: Satellite with labels

Gaia GPS has several different satellite layers, and “Satellite with label” is my favorite. It seems to have the clearest imagery, especially when you zoom way in, and having roads labeled is a big help. (They recently have added a hydrology layer, which shows every little tiny stream at a certain zoom level, which is kind of distracting.)

Backcountry hiking and climbing: Outdoors and Open Topo

The rather boringly titled “Outdoors” layer is a worldwide topo map based on Open Street Map, that has labeled hiking trails, ski runs, and mountain peaks, as well as shaded relief and easy to read contour lines. (You can see the same layer in Caltopo where it’s called “TF Outdoors”.)

Note the easy to see and well labeled hiking trails, even when you're zoomed pretty far out.

The Open Topo layer has great shaded relief, shows some general terrain such as forest, rock, and snow, has lots of streams and drainages (sometimes too many, IMHO), contours and elevation (in meters). It does have trails, but they are a little harder to see and use need to be zoomed in pretty close.

Open Topo is no longer part of Gaia GPS, so you need to add it as a custom layer (which, like most things in life, is easy once you know how.) Learn to add Open Topo as a custom Gaia map layer here.

Know how to find your coordinates from your phone

I'll be blunt and say this up front: I firmly believe that every backcountry traveller who has a smartphone should know how to find their latitude longitude coordinates and be able to transmit them to 911 (or an emergency contact person) if necessary.

If you ski in avalanche terrain, you have an obligation to learn about avalanche avoidance. If you climb on glaciers, you have an obligation to know about crevasse rescue. Same thing with hiking in the woods: knowing how to find your coordinates from your phone should be a basic qualification of being a responsible backcountry traveler.

It's not just for contacting 911. You can use a coordinate sharing app to text or email an emergency contact person at home. Sometimes in the backcountry with limited cell coverage, you might be able to send a text but not have a reliable voice connection. Many 911 call centers cannot receive text messages, so in that case your best option would be to text your situation and coordinates to a friend in town, and have them contact 911.

Also, I've heard from some people, “Why should I bother using an app like this, 911 uses some technical magic to figure out my phone location anyway.” Well, that can often be true if you're in a city, with lots of cell phone towers and perhaps even Wi-Fi. But, out in the woods with maybe one bar of coverage, some of that magic cell tower triangulation is not going to work too well. Also, doing that can require you to keep your phone on for a longer time, which could be an issue if you have a low battery and need to conserve it. Overall, it's better to be proactive and learn to get your coordinates yourself.

(This article is geared toward iPhone users, because that's what I have. You Android folks, I'm sure you can follow along.)

---

Note: It’s best to give your coordinates to 911 in latitude longitude, decimal degree format.

Example: 45.1234, -122.1234

This is the more modern, computer-friendly way to specify your latitude and longitude. It's also a lot easier to say over the phone than trying to describe hieroglyphic-like symbols for degree, minutes, and seconds.

If you tell tell your coordinates in another format, such as latitude longitude, degrees, minutes, seconds (example: 45 32’ 13”, -121 56’ 28”) or UTM coordinates (example , 10T 519984 5035478) Search and Rescue (SAR) can figure it out once they get it. However, it’ll be faster and minimize any translation errors by giving your coordinates in decimal degrees, the easiest possible manner. The decimal degree format is also one that every 911 operator should be familiar with, which should further minimize any source of confusion.

Let's cover a few simple ways to find your coordinates on your phone.

---

1 - A “show my coordinates” type app (Note, these two are for the iPhone)

One option is to use an app whose main purpose is simply to show your coordinates.

Here’s one I like that’s free and pretty idiotproof - “My GPS Coordinates”. It shows your coordinates in a huge font, and less you text or email those, along with a message.

Tip - You can set the coordinate precision to “low”, or four decimal places, which is your position accurate to about 50 feet. (I feel this makes it easier to transmit your position with enough precision to get you found, but not any extra numbers that could potentially cause confusion or be transcribed incorrectly.)

Here's a screen grab:

Another one I like is called “UTM Position Mailer”. It was free for a long time, now it's $2. It does one thing, and it does it pretty darn well - tells you your exact position in UTM coordinates, latitude longitude decimal degrees, and allows you to send an email or a text with this location information automatically inserted.

If you're calling 911, keep in mind that many 911 operators may not be familiar with UTM coordinates. The better choice is to use latitude longitude decimal degree format, which is universally understood by everybody.

Android folks, try searching in the Google app store for “GPS location”.  There are all kinds of free apps. Here’s a free Android app called “My GPS Location”. Shows your location and lets you email or text it.

---

2 - Dedicated GPS app

I’m a big fan of Gaia GPS.  if you have that on your phone and know the basics of how to use it, there’s various ways that you can find your location from the app. Here’s a screen grab with one example.

---

3 - The iPhone compass app

A quite serviceable compass is built into the iPhone operating system. What a lot of folks don't know or realize is that on the bottom of the compass screen, it tells you your latitude and longitude coordinates and elevation. (Yes, the format of the coordinates is degrees, minutes, and seconds, rather than the more generally useful decimal degrees, but that's certainly better than nothing.) Dear Apple, if you’re reading this, please change the format of your coordinates. :-)

Note that you have to have Location Services turned on for your compass to have this visible. Tap Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Compass, and “Allow Location Access” while using the app.

If you do a long touch on the coordinates at the bottom of the screen, a little “copy” box should pop up, copying the coordinates to the clipboard. You can then paste these into an email or text.

Example of the iPhone compass screen, with lat long coordinates and elevation.

---

4 - Google Maps

It's not very obvious, but if you know where to tap, you can see the coordinates of your location in Google maps. Tap to copy that and paste in a text. Bonus, it's in the preferred decimal degree format. For the iPhone:

1. Open the Google maps app. Tap the “black triangle in a circle” icon to zoom to your location.

2. Long touch on your location. This should open a tab at the bottom of the screen.

3. Scroll up. You should see the latitude longitude coordinates of that position, looking something like this: (45.1234567, -122.1234567).

4. Long touch the coordinates, tap copy and then paste into an email or text.

Find the correct declination for anywhere

Short answer: magnetic-declination.com. This brings up a Google map of the world, and one click gives you a pop-up box with the correct declination.

---

Long answer: Magnetic declination changes depending on where you are on the earth. It also changes in the same position over time, because the magnetic poles are moving.

Here’s a map showing how magnetic north has changed over the last 150 years or so.

image: geology.utah.gov

And here's a little chart showing how declination has changed in the Portland Oregon area over the last century or so. If you bought a map that was printed around 1980, the declination would be incorrect for the current day.

Below is a world map of declination. (Red lines = east declination, Blue lines = west declination, Green lines = zero declination). (The lines look so whacky because cartographers are trying to represent the 3D curved magnetic flux lines of the earth on a flat 2D surface)

Zero declination or close to it, is in the central USA, northern Africa, India, China, and most of central Europe. Here, your compass pretty much points to magnetic north AND true north, lucky you.

The closer you get to the magnetic poles, the crazier the declination. You can see why polar explorers have an extra challenge - compasses basically don’t work.

source: geokov.com

So . . . I just want to set my compass declination to my local area- how do I do that?

Your map may not help. As you can see from the top image, declination has changed fast in the last 2 decades. A value that might be printed on the margin of a map may well be out of date, especially if the map is more than 10 or 20 years old.

Good news: it's easy to find the current and correct declination for any place on earth.

Just go to:

magnetic-declination.com

This brings up a Google map of the world, and one click gives you a pop-up box with the correct declination.

It's fun to click around in places that have some pretty crazy declination, such as New Zealand and up in northern Alaska and Canada.

Click around south of Australia in Antarctica, and see why compasses are often useless for polar explorers - near the northern and southern magnetic poles, compasses start doing some pretty crazy things!

Note:

• “positive” declination = east declination, such as in Oregon

• “negative” declination = west declination, such as in Vermont

If you want to learn more about declination, what it is, how to deal with this, and when you do and do not need to care about it, check out this Youtube video from the Columbia River Orienteering Club.

What is open source mapping, and why should you care about it?

Short answer:

Think of open source maps as the “Wikipedia of maps”.

Created through literally millions of contributors, open source maps are completely free, cover the entire world, and often more accurate and up-to-date than any map you could buy from a commercial company or government agency. You can find open source maps and a great interface for printing them at Caltopo.com, and on the Gaia GPS navigation phone app.

Check out the real thing at OpenStreetMap.org.

Long answer:

Historically, maps were typically made by a government agency within a country. For example, in the United States, the 7 1/2 minute US Geological Survey (USGS) topographic map series. These maps were pretty much the only ones available for many decades, and they definitely have their shortcomings. There was no shaded relief, newer roads and trails were often not accurate, and the maps were often not updated for many decades, if at all.

And, of course, the maps stopped at the borders of the country that made them. Want to go on a motorcycle tour in Bolivia? Finding maps for a Big Trip could be a hit or miss project, because who knows if the Bolivian government has a good cartography department.

The answer is Open Street Map. Inspired by the success of Wikipedia, this visionary product was founded in 2004 in the UK. It now has over 2 million users, many of whom regularly add features and improvements, to collectively create a single, free, open sourced map of the entire world.

(Note that map heights and contours are in meters, which might only pose a problem to the three countries in the world that do not use the metric system: Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States. )

What does this mean for you, the recreational user? It means that roads and trails are probably going to be more current and accurate than you’ll find on any other map, and that the entire world is mapped with a consistent look, legend, and standard. This makes the maps especially useful for international travel.

Open source maps come in several flavors, so let's look at a few examples.

The maps below are from the main visitor area for Mount Rainier National Park, and are screen grabs taken from Gaia GPS, our favorite backcountry navigation GPS app.

Open Street map example

USGS topo map example

Above on the left is the standard US Geological Survey topographic map. Note the contours are great, but the roads are rather hard to see, and trails are sadly nonexistent. No trails, LAME! Not too helpful for the backcountry.

Above on the right is Open Street map for the same area. Notice we have nice road for driving, a bit of vegetation shading and even some trails, but no contours.

Open Cycle map example

Open Topo map example

Above on the left we see Open Cycle. This is often a great choice for hiking, because it shows shaded relief (which makes gullies and ridges much easier to see), labeled contours, and hiking trails in easy-to-see red, along with well marked roads.

And finally, above on the right we see what is often my go-to layer, Open Topo, which has shaded relief, labeled contours, some vegetation coverage such as rock, snow, or forest, more detailed streams, human made structures, and current roads and trails. The trails are printed in black and are a bit hard to see, and the text is tiny, which are small drawbacks.

So, next time you’re looking for a good map source in your favorite mapping software, be sure and have a look at any map layer with the word “Open” in the title.

Becoming a contributor is easy. You can be out on a hike or bike ride, in the woods or even on a little trail in your neighborhood. You may notice that the trail you are walking on is not on your open source map on your phone. Time to record a track of your own and add it!

Record a GPS track, upload that track when you get home, trace right over the top of it with various line symbols, and boom, in a minute or so you’ve made your own small contribution to a single map of the world. You may find doing this feels surprisingly rewarding.

What's a "global" compass?

If you live in the northern hemisphere, and are considering a trip to New Zealand or Patagonia, you might want to check out a so-called “global” compass.

What the heck is that, you might be wondering? My compass needle should always point to magnetic north no matter where I am, right? So why do I need a special compass to go to southern latitudes?

Well, your needle technically should still point to North, but here's the thing - when you’re closer to the magnetic north or south poles, the compass needle in a regular compass can dip and start to drag on dial of the compass, making it useless. Global compasses have a taller dial and can accommodate this. Unfortunately, they are also a bit more expensive, so don't buy one of these unless you need to.

(If you do plan to travel to a far off corner of another hemisphere, another option is to purchase a compass locally when you get to your destination, which should work just fine when you're there.)

A fine choice for a global compass - the Suunto MC-2G

image: backcountry.com

As far as I know, they Finnish company Suunto Is the only manufacturer who makes a global compass. These Suunto compasses have the capital letter “G” In the title, indicating it is a “global” compass.

An excellent option is the MC-2G, which is simply the global version of the popular MC-2. This compass has all the high end features, including adjustable and declination, deciding mirror, and a clinometer.

Don't ask me why I having a taller dial should cost an extra $20 or $30, but apparently that's how it works. As of autumn 2018, the MC-2G costs between $60-$80 online.

Four good reasons to have a UTM grid on your map

Here's a few good reasons why it's helpful to have a map with a printed UTM grid.

1. Plot a UTM coordinate onto your map

2. Determine UTM coordinates of any point on the map

3. Quickly estimate distance in kilometers between points

4. Provides north / south grid lines to more accurately measure a bearing from your map

Print free maps with UTM grid lines with the great mapping software CalTopo.

Here’s an example of a CalTopo map (MapBuilder Topo layer) with a UTM grid overlay:

---

Learn how to use the CalTopo from this YouTube video.

Subscribe to CalTopo? Yes, it's worth it

If you're new to CalTopo, watch this tutorial video to get started.

---

---

Here's a screen grab of the cost structure and subscription levels, as of autumn 2019.

---

Just click that “Upgrade” link! or: caltopo.com/join

---

The free version of CalTopo has a lot of functionality, but bump up to a $20 “Basic” level annual subscription and you get even more. In addition to directly supporting the provider of this great software (which for many years was just one guy in California, you also get a few extra perks.

1 - Print maps on larger size paper. Standard 8 1/2” by 11” paper is usually okay, but for a longer trip covering a bigger area, or a larger scale (a more “zoomed in” map) bumping your paper size up to 11” by 17” can be really helpful.

2 - Save more private maps. Have you made a map that you think is great, complete with carefully chosen waypoint icons and different line symbols and colors? You can save it exactly like you made it, so you or anyone else can use it in the future. (If you simply export your tracks and waypoints as a GPX file, you lose all the custom formatting.) Just click “Save this Map”, and everything on your screen is saved to the cloud. The paid subscription lets you save many more private maps than the free one.

3 - Better integration with Google Earth. With a Basic subscription, you can do some Google Earth fancy cartography tricks like making a linked connection between CalTopo and Google Earth. Make a change on your CalTopo map, and a few seconds later in your Google Earth window you will see that same change happen. Very cool for certain map geek applications.

---

If you're more of a power user, there are two additional levels of subscription, Pro and Desktop. The Pro version offers the extremely helpful weekly high resolution satellite imagery, which is terrific for trip planning and determining snow levels. This might be a bit beyond the needs of many casual recreational users, but if you spent a lot of time in the backcountry, it could be well worth it.

---

So, those are the main benefits, as I see them, and I love supporting CalTopo with a $20 annual subscription. When you consider that a single printed paper map can cost between $10 and $15, $20 a year for unlimited free mapping is quite the bargain.

Supporting this software by subscribing helps ensure this great resource will be around for a long time for all of us to enjoy.

---

Here’s an example map for the Leuthold Couloir route on Mt. Hood, Oregon, made with CalTopo. This uses the “Mapbuilder Topo” layer, has a 1 Km UTM grid, correct magnetic declination, map datum, and ratio and bar scale - pretty much everything you need. This prints on 8.5 x 11 paper, and took me about 90 seconds to make. =^)

Staying found: caution in semi-familiar terrain

Think about the times you’ve experienced, shall we say “positional uncertainty” on a hike or climb, or even walking/cycling/driving in a city.

Was it on a close to home trail that you’ve hiked a dozen times before? No, because you know it so well. Let's be honest, you really don’t need a map and compass to do a hike you have this dialed.

Say you’re planning your once-in-a-lifetime trip to go trekking in New Zealand. Are you, the savvy outdoor person, going to research the heck out of your route, get appropriate guidebooks, maps, GPS tracks, and talk to the locals so you are super well prepared?

Of course you are. When you’re going somewhere completely unfamiliar, the only prudent thing to do is to go with a full quiver of solid navigational tools. Sure, you still might get lost even after all this, but you will at the very least be well prepared.

So, let’s consider all of the outings that fall in between these two bookends. Call them the semi familiar; aka, “I hiked this once about five years ago and I pretty much remember where to go, but I don’t remember every fork” type of trails.

These trails can lull you into a false sense of security, because it’s easy to get a little lazy and not get a proper map, download a track, or otherwise prepare for your trip, especially if it’s a more spontaneous outing. Looking back at the times that I have been a little turned around in the woods, it’s almost always these type of trips.

So, if you have an outdoor adventure planned, ask yourself if it falls into that middle ground of semi familiarity. If it does, you may want to be extra sure to research the route carefully at home, and also to bring various navigation tools (a guidebook, a map, a photo of the guidebook page on your phone, and or a GPS track to go with the Gaia GPS app on your phone) so you don’t have an epic.

Gaia GPS tip- long touch to measure distance between map points

Gaia GPS is the favorite GPS navigation app here at AlpineSavvy. Here’s a Gaia tip to quickly measure distance between two or more points on a map.

In Gaia GPS, if you long touch the map screen, that starts the “create route” function.

This is a handy way to get a quick direct line distance between two or more points.

Zoom in to your area of interest. Long touch your first point. A blue dot should appear on your screen, and a small box showing the distance and bearing from your current position.

Look in the lower left corner of your screen. You should see a bird icon which indicates “as the bird flies”, or straight-line distance.

If you want the actual driving or hiking mileage between points, tap the “mode” icon and change it to hiking or driving.

Do another long touch on point B.

A red line should draw between the two points, and the line should be labeled with the distance in miles.

Continue long touching any additional points as needed. The length of each leg will show on each red line, and the cumulative distance is on a graph at the bottom of the screen.

Make a note of the distance, then tap cancel at the top to delete that route.

Examples: Straight line distance between 2 cities:

Rough mileage around Green Lake Park in Seattle. You can see the links of each short leg on the red lines, and the total length at the bottom.

A Better Way to use your compass lanyard

Most good quality compasses, such as our favorite, the Suunto M3, come with a lanyard cord. Many people assume this is for hanging the compass around your neck.

You could do this, but unless you’re about 3 feet tall, you’ll find that in order to properly use the compass to take a bearing by holding it at your waist, the cord isn’t long enough. So, if you hang the compass around your neck, every time you want to use it, you have to take it off, which is kind of a bother if you’re using your compass a lot.

Here’s a better approach. If you are using your compass a bunch, girth hitch the lanyard cord through a belt loop, near the front pocket of your pants or shorts, then just put the compass in your pocket.

There’s two main advantages to doing this. One you can easily hold the compass at waist level to take a bearing, and two, you can never lose your compass because it’s permanently tied onto your pants.

Now, let’s be realistic, 99% of the time you are not going to be traveling in the backcountry with your compass glued to your hand like this. But for those times when you do have to use it, this is a great way to carry it.

CalTopo tip - Try the "MapBuilder Topo" layer

If you're new to using CalTopo mapping software, watch this tutorial to get started.

---

CalTopo, in my opinion the best online and free mapping software, continually rolls out great new features. There’s a (relatively) new map layer, called "MapBuilder Topo” that is a terrific option for printing outdoor recreation maps. It's a big improvement over the standard USGS 7.5 minute map layer. 

What’s cool about it?

• Shaded relief (shows terrain features like ridges and gullies more clearly)

• Easy to see and well-labeled contour intervals

• Roads and trails easily visible and labeled

• Some distracting non-essential map information (such as unnecessary text, public lands survey section lines and wilderness boundaries) removed or made less prominent

• County lines added in yellow (it’s helpful to know what county you‘re in if a rescue is needed)

• Shows approximate vegetation and terrain boundaries, such as forest, rock, and snow/glacier, even crevasses

Have a look yourself!

1. Go to caltopo.com

2. Mouseover the “Base Layer” icon in the top right corner

3. Select "MapBuilder Topo” from the drop down menu (should be the first choice at the top)

4. Zoom in to your area of interest. Swap back and forth between this map layer and USGS to see the differences. (Note that the map tiles may take longer to generate on your computer and also to print when using this layer.)

Here’s an example of Mt. Hood south side in the standard, old-school US Geological Survey 7.5 minute topo map. 

Note that there’s no relief shading, trails are hard to spot, there’s unnecessary “Mount Hood” text in a large font, the chairlift isn’t shown. Not bad, but definitely room for improvement.

Now, here’s the same map area in the MapBuilder Topo layer. Improvements:

• the relief shading makes the gullies and ridges much more obvious

• county line (yellow) is labeled

• ski chairlift is shown (very handy for finding your way back down in low visibility)

• trails are clearly delineated and labeled

• every index contour has an elevation label

• green wilderness area boundary is current and correct

Which map would you rather use? The USGS 7 1/2 minute maps for many decades were the only game in town, and unfortunately that’s what some old-school navigation classes and textbooks still advise you to use. But, for most people and most activities, these are no longer the best choice. 

Get with the modern times, learn to use mapping tools like CalTopo, and you can have a superior map for free!

And, if you think CalTopo is great, I strongly encourage you to support CalTopo with a $20 annual subscription. There is just one guy running this entire software platform, and your modest annual subscription can help ensure that this great service continues on into the future.

Having a subscription also gives you some nice perks, like being able to print on larger size paper, and being able to save and share your maps to the cloud. When you consider that a single commercial map of just one area can cost between $10 and $15 at the outdoor store, a $20 annual subscription to this mapping software is a pretty screaming deal.

---

Need to learn the basics of CalTopo? My tutorial video will get you started.

Add custom map layers to GaiaGPS

Gaia GPS is regarded as one of the best backcountry GPS apps for your smartphone. They offer a wide variety of base maps to choose from, but one of my personal favorites, called Open Topo, happens to not be one of them.

What makes Open Topo a terrific choice for outdoor adventures?  It has nice shaded relief (which makes features like ridges and gullies much easier to see), updated trails and roads, and land cover, such as forest, rock, or snow. (One potential curveball for Americanos - elevations and contours are in meters.)

Go have a look yourself. Go to opentopomap.org and zoom into your favorite part of the world.

https://opentopomap.org/#map=8/45.2188/-122.6871

Here’s a screengrab of Mount Rainier in Open Topo. Pretty cool, eh? Like I said, elevations are in meters.

The one small downside is that it is not part of the Gaia GPS app.

The good news is, with a little computer sorcery, you can add this as a custom map layer to your Gaia GPS phone app. Here's how to do it.

These steps might sound a little complicated, but it's pretty straightforward. Keep this webpage open in a browser tab so you have a reference.

---

Here's a nice video that shows how to do it, using Google Earth.

---

Here are the step-by-step instructions, for a different map source as mentioned above, Open Topo.

1. On a desktop computer (not your phone), go to GaiaGPS.com. Log in to your account, or create an account if you don’t have one.

2. Click your user name (top right of screen), and from the drop down box select "Map Sources".

3. Click "Import an External Map Source".

4. In the “Name the Map” box, give it a name. I suggest a simple, descriptive, name, like “Open Topo custom“.

5. Scroll a bit lower, locate "Paste your modified link here"

6. Copy and paste this link in that box:

 https://c.tile.opentopomap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

7. Scroll to the bottom, click "Add this Map Source"

Go to your phone.

8. Make sure you are signed in to your Gaia account on your phone. [Settings icon > Account > Login) and that “Sync/Backup” is toggled on.

9. Restart the app.

10. Tap the Map Sources icon, top right of your screen. Tap Edit, then scroll to the bottom and tap “Custom Imports”.

11. You should see “Open Topo Custom” here, or whatever you decided to name it. Select this map layer to add it to your viewable layers. You should now be able to use Open Topo on your phone.

Below is a phone screengrab of Mt. Rainier in Gaia GPS Open Topo map layer, with climbing GPX tracks in blue and green.

Suunto compasses - 3 options for wilderness navigation

Suunto, a Finnish company with a great track record of quality compasses, makes a variety of models. Here's an overview of three that should suit the needs of most outdoor travelers.

Generally speaking, it's best to choose a compass that has adjustable declination, which I think is the most important feature. Having adjustable declination let you measure bearings to true north, and thus eliminates any confusing backcountry arithmetic such as adding or subtracting declination.

Having said that, I realize that a compass a piece of gear that some people will rarely use and want to save a few bucks on. So. I'm going to suggest three different price points, think of it as good, better, best, so you can choose the one that looks best for you.

(Note that Alpinesavvy does not have any affiliate marketing links, so I make nothing from the Amazon links below. I include them more as a convenience for you.)

---

Before we get to the recommended compasses, here are two that I do not recommend. Students often show up with these in me navigation classes, but if you're shopping for your first one, please give these a pass.

The Brunton compass on the left is part of the “TruArc” series. They are unfortunately carried by REI, so a lot of people (unfortunately) buy them there. The problem with these is that the declination adjustment is very difficult to do. They have lots of lousy reviews, and I feel you would do better to buy a Suunto, as recommended below.

The rather strange looking green one on the right is a military style “lensatic” compass. It can be very accurate once you know how to use it, and it's probably good for calling in artillery strikes, But it lacks a lot of the features that civilian users need, so for most people it's not recommended.

---

Good - Suunto A-10 compass

This is a bare-bones compass, but still a quality instrument. It has what is called “fixed declination”, not adjustable declination. But, everything else about it is solid, including the nice curved base plate which ergonomically fits in your hand, always reminding you of the proper way to hold the compass.

Here’s a trick to deal deal with magnetic declination on this compass (or any other similar baseplate compass this does not have adjustable declination). Carefully draw a line with a medium black sharpie pen from the center of the compass to your local declination on the outer dial. Now, when you want to take a bearing or measure a bearing, you line up the red magnetic needle on this pen mark, and not the red orienteering arrow. Of course, this only works if you stay in your local area. If you travel far away where the declination might be different, you may have to erase this pen mark with a little rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover or some other solvent, and draw again. But, it's one option for the frugal climber.

Cost: about $16 (Oct 2018)

Suunto A-10 compass

---

Better - Suunto M3 compass

The Suunto M3 is my personal favorite, which hits the sweet spot between having all the features you need, and none of the ones you don’t.

Here’s what I like about it:

• adjustable declination

• long baseplate (for taking accurate measurements from a map and drawing bearings on a map, a long baseplate is helpful)

• ergonomic design (the curved part fits your hand, eliminating the common mistake of having the “direction of travel” arrow pointing at you rather than your objective)

• low cost (about $15 less expensive than a comparable compass with a sighting mirror)

• simple and sturdy (fewer moving parts and hinges mean fewer things that can go wrong in the field)

• lightweight (no sighting mirror means less weight)

A few words on sighting mirrors . . .

But what about compasses with a sighting mirror, you may wonder.  Don’t offer greater precision when taking a bearing? The short answer:  Yes, they do, but for almost all backcountry uses of a compass, you don’t need this level of precision.  If you’re doing field mapping or walking a straight line when on a search and rescue team, then the slight increased precision of a mirrored compass might be justified.  But for the vast majority of the simpler backcountry uses of a compass, like taking a bearing to an object and then either following it or plotting the bearing on a map, the +/- 2 degrees of accuracy you can get with baseplate compass works just fine.

Also, consider that a mirror compass LACKS most of the good qualities listed above.

Most mirrored compasses:

• are not ergonomically designed

• are expensive

• are heavy

• have more moving parts that can break

I have used my Suunto M3 compass to take a bearing from a map, follow that bearing cross country for more than a mile, and hit my precise objective . . . at night.  With a little practice, you can too. Don’t throw away your mirror compass if you already have one and like it, but if you are looking for a compass to buy, the Suunto M3 or similar model is a better choice for most users.

Cost: about $30 (Oct 2018)

Suunto M3 compass

---

Best - Suunto MC-2

I know that some people will want a compass with a sighting mirror and possibly a clinometer. Both of these features are found on the Suunto MC-2, which is the next model up from the M3 in terms of the whistles and bells. This costs about $40-$45. Again, I feel this model is not necessary for the majority of users, but if you want these extra features, this compass is a great choice.

Cost: about $45 (Oct 2018)

Suunto MC-2 compass