Sierra Nevada crossing that made me ditch my paper map system

Last summer I did the JMT stretch from Reds Meadow to Tuolumne and got caught in that afternoon thunder cell near Donohue Pass. I had been using these hand drawn cue sheets with mile markers for years, worked fine on the AT but out there the trail crossing confusion got me lost for about 2 hours. Water was everywhere, visibility dropped to maybe 40 feet, and my laminated sheets just turned into wet pulp. I basically sat under a boulder until visibility cleared and figured it out with my phone's GPS app, but it stuck with me. Now I still carry paper as backup, but I switched to downloading the full CalTopo map on my phone before every trip. Has anyone else had a moment where their old navigation setup just failed them in bad weather? What do you use when the batteries are low and the storm is rolling in?

0 comments

0 Comments

No comments yet

Be the first to share your thoughts on this discussion.