Navigation challenges – advice

Do you know where on the map you ran into the steep terrain?

Also was your compass corrected for true north versus magnetic north?

Maps are typically set to true north and compasses point to magnetic north.

Your map shows a correction of 15* in the bottom right corner

My compass has automatic declination adjustment. It is set appropriately. I would never get a compass without that feature.

I think the issue is that I ascended the ridge too far east. I ended up hitting that terrain around 3400 ft. It took me a while to realize I was not on the best route because even the ideal route has some steep sections.

Your macro navigation plan looks solid and using the ridge line as a handrail is a sound approach. However, rather than confining yourself to a pre-planned bearing, use your eyes and judgement to move safely up the mountain. As long as you’re heading in the general direction of your bearing, you should be fine. Take a bearing if an opportunity arises, but sometimes you just have to trust yourself. Confidence will come with experience, so just keep at it.

Also, off trail travel up a mountain, in the snow, is going to be really slow. It may be that you just didn’t give yourself enough time for the trip.

Looking at the map, I think I would have used the drainage/depression to your left as a hand rail.  Your planned route follows that drainage closely.

Doing that would have given you a route similar to this

Agree with the previous posters.

1)  Be sure that you use the correct magnetic variation – in the US this can be a big deal. If your map is old, look up the current value for the area on the web. It’s a good idea to use a compass that enables you to set the offset at the start of the walk – doing it by hand for every bearing is more error-prone.

2) Walking a long bearing through trees or in bad visibility isn’t going to go well unless you use numerous attack points along the way to check your progress. Otherwise you can drift a long way off route. As others have suggested, the best way to do that on this walk would have been to use a handrail such as a ridge or drainage to keep you on track. In tricky conditions, it’s often better to take a longer route with clear attack points if the most direct route is too featureless.

3) Walking on steep snow can be time consuming – it’s best to make a generous allowance for this when you plan your route.

4) On the micro level, when walking a bearing with restricted visibility, sight along the compass to a tree, rock or other nearby feature and walk to that. Repeat. It’s not very accurate, but better than walking a vague bearing. In snow you can also look back and check your footprints – adjust if you have drifted to the left or right.

When you can’t avoid long, featureless legs, even experienced navigators can go astray. That’s when GPS comes into its own – regular checks can keep you on track.

As Randy said, you basically wanted to go up the draw he showed on the map. You went astray when you left the draw and crossed over the ridge, and went down into the adjacent drainage.

The tough part is knowing which drainage you are in when leaving the RR track. As you walked east on the RR tracks from US 2, you crossed a bridge. From that location you could count paces until you were in the proper drainage.

That might be a telephone line along the N. side of the tracks. If you got to where it veered away from the tracks you would still be in the proper drainage, just a bit further than where you intended to start.

I kinda like the feeling of not knowing exactly where I am, but I am totally in the minority.

Forget to mention that slope aspect can be very helpful when visibility is poor.

For example, quite soon after you set out, the land on the red track was sloping to your left, while on your planned blue track it should have been sloping to your right.  This should have alerted you that your were off route. Plus taking a bearing on the direction of the slope can often help you identify where you are.

Slope aspect is a very useful technique that’s often neglected. Well worth studying and adding to your navigation repertoire.