The Backpacker's Field Manual, Revised and Updated: A Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Backcountry Skills (Paperback)

by Rick Curtis (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter 1: Trip Planning

BASIC TRIP PLANNING
•Group Size and Ability
•Activities
•Location and Weather
•Expect the Unexpected
•Equipment
•Food
•Costs
•Skill Development

TRIP PREPARATION CHECKLIST
•Pre-Trip
•During the Trip
•On Your Return

ROUTE DIFFICULTY
•Trip Difficulty Rating

PLANNING A ROUTE
•Guidebooks
•Travel Logistics
•Choosing Campsites
•Estimating Travel Times
•Time Control Plan

LONG-DISTANCE TRIPS
•Resupply Issues

GOING ULTRALIGHT

BASIC TRIP PLANNING

Planning a trip requires more than simply deciding where to go and when. Whether it’s a weekend trip with friends, a formal outdoor program, or a major expedition, you need to evaluate your trip across a number of categories and develop a solid plan. One or two people may take on the role of planner, or the process of planning can be spread out among the entire group. I’ve planned and run trips for thousands of people both around the United States and around the world. Here are the elements you should keep in mind when planning any trip.

GROUP SIZE AND ABILITY

Whenever you’re planning a trip, you need to determine if the route should fit the group or the group fit the route. The group may have a range of experience levels, physical conditions, and goals, in which case, your goal should be to plan a trip that is appropriate for everyone. Other times, you may have a specific trip you want to do that may be challenging or require special skills. For this kind of trip, you need to select a group that has the right qualifications to participate. Here’s a checklist of questions to ask when planning a group trip:

•What kind of group is it? Is it an informal group of friends or a formal group like an outdoor education program? Are the participants friends, students, volunteers, or paying customers? Formal groups may have specific policies and protocols that must be followed.

•What are the goals of each group member? Are people required to attend? (This factor can have a significant impact on how committed or not the group is to the wilderness experience.) Does the group have collective goals?

•What is the experience level of each member? What is the average experience level?

•Are there people in the group with the necessary skills to lead and manage the group or do you need to find other people to provide leadership? (See Appendix, “Outdoor Leadership.”)

•How big is the group?

•What is the age range of group members?

•What is the physical condition of each member? What is the average physical condition of the group?

•Do people have particular health issues that could impact their participation?

Determine the level of experience, physical ability, etc., as much as possible before you set out. This will enable you to plan a smoother and more successful trip. More important, it will diminish the potential for dangerous situations. (See Chapter 8, “Safety and Emergency Procedures.”) Keep the group’s parameters in mind as you evaluate the other categories, thinking in terms of both optimal challenge and safety. Be aware that you will often have a great range of experience levels and physical abilities, so plan the trip at a level that will be fun, educational, challenging, and safe for everyone. Think about the high end and the low end of the experience level and physical condition, and err in the direction of the low end. Gathering physical fitness and basic health information will help you determine different abilities and experience levels (for a sample form, see page nnn).

Group Dynamics

•How are costs going to be handled—equipment, food, transportation, permits, etc.? If you have to buy gear, who keeps it? It’s really important to work these things out before the trip, otherwise serious tensions can arise later.

•How will leadership be handled during the trip? (See Chapter 8, “Safety and Emergency Procedures,” and Chapter 10, “Outdoor Leadership”).

ACTIVITIES

When planning the activities for a particular trip, you need to consider the following:

•What activity(ies) do you want to do on your trip (backpacking, peak climbing, and/or glacier travel, for example)?

•What are the goals for the trip?

•What skills will people need? Do they already have the skills or do they need to learn them?

•How do you integrate time for teaching skills with time for traveling?

Once you’ve evaluated the group members’ abilities, you can adapt your goals to an appropriate level. Plan activities that will be both appropriately challenging and safe. Be aware of how mileage, elevation change, and time for teaching and learning skills will affect your route (see “Estimating Travel Times,” page 12). Start easily and increase the level of difficulty gradually so that participants can be progressively challenged at appropriate levels, rather than placing them in a situation that is beyond their abilities.

LOCATION AND WEATHER

Research Your Destination

•Investigate the availability of guidebooks and maps.

•Contact area rangers or land managers to get more information. Inquire about permits required, safety issues like hunting season, and seasonal hazards like wildfires.

•Talk with other people who have been to the area before. If possible, check their trip logs, which may have important information not found in guidebooks.

Trip Planning Questions

•How long is the trip? Can the trip be self-supporting in terms of equipment and food, or will you need to resupply? How will you do the resupply—cache items ahead of time, hike out, or have someone hike in? (See “Resupply Issues,” page 15.)

•How remote is the trip from “civilization” and help in case of an emergency?

•What are the trail conditions?

•Are there special places you want to see?

•Are there places you want to avoid like high-use areas?

•Are shelters available on a daily basis, or do you need to bring your own?

•Where is parking and trailhead access?

•What is the water availability and water quality on a daily basis?

•Are there safety issues—hunting season, off-road vehicles, etc.?

•Are there any special natural hazards—flash floods in desert canyons, wildfires, etc.? (See “How Accidents Happen,” page 225.)

•What Leave No Trace practices will you need to implement to safeguard the environment? (See Chapter 5, “Leave No Trace Hiking and Camping.”)

Regulations and Permits

Each location can have its own unique set of regulations and requirements. It is important to check these out in detail before you go.

Here are some of the possible issues to research:

•Are permits needed, and how do you obtain them?

•How far in advance do you need to apply for a permit?

•Is there a cost for the permit?

•Are their any special regulations about rescue? (Some parks, like Denali in Alaska, require that you pay for your own rescue.)

•Are there limitations to group size?

•Where is camping allowed and not allowed?

•Are there any restricted areas, hazardous zones, protected areas for endangered species, and such?

•Are fires allowed? If fires are allowed, will wood be available? Or will you need to bring a stove?

•Are there special regulations about Leave No Trace practices such as disposing of human waste?

Weather

•How many hours of daylight will there be? Check the Web at sites like the Weather Channel (www.weather.com) for sunrise and sunset times and average high and low temperatures.

•How will the season determine the weather? Are storms or particular weather patterns likely? (See Chapter 7, “Weather and Nature.”)

•How will weather affect trip activities? How might it affect the safety of the group?

•Will altitude changes during the trip have an impact on weather or temperature?

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

When planning a trip, remember that the ultimate goal is for people to have fun. Here are some tips to planning a trip that everyone can enjoy:

•Make a plan that can be modified during the trip. All sorts of factors—bad weather, changing trail conditions, broken equipment, ill-prepared participants, an injury—may require you to change your itinerary.

•Don’t plan long or difficult hikes on every day of the trip. Vary the mileage so that you have some days when you can get a later start or get to camp early.

•On longer trips, schedule a rest day every five to seven days.

•Make sure that people have some time during each day to kick back—to read, watch the sunset, or write in their journals.

•When hiking at high altitudes, people acclimatize at different rates. You may have to adjust your trip to give people time to properly acclimatize before going higher, especially if people are coming straight from sea level to a high altitude. (See “Altitude Illnesses,” page nnn.)

EQUIPMENT

Once you have determined your trip activities and location, you need to put together an equipment list. Sample equipment lists are are provided in Appendix A, but remember that they should be used only as guidelines. Each trip and each person may have special requirements.

FOOD

It is important to have...

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; Rev Upd edition (May 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400053099
• ISBN-13: 978-1400053094
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,393 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

91 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Leave Home Without It, May 9, 2008

By	Barbara - See all my reviews

This book was written by Rick Curtis, director of the Outdoor Action Program at Princeton University, one of the most succesful college outdoor programs around. It's not the kind of book you sit down and read, rather it's a good reference to keep handy when you have questions about things. Here's a bit of what it covers:

-backpacking equipment
-cooking and nutrition
-hygiene and water purification
-"leave-no-trace" hiking and camping
-weather
-safety and emergency procedures
-first aid
-trip planning

Every backpacker knows that space is limited and you can only carry the essentials- which definitely includes this book. In 10 chapters, a mid-size font, and 440 pages, it covers it all and will be the only backpacking guide you'll ever need. Hikers suffering with plantar fasciitis might also be interested in The 5-Minute Plantar Fasciitis Solution.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent if you don't stray too far from civilization, July 25, 2007

By	Martin Doege (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A distinction must be made between "outdoor" books that assume that your trip into the wilderness happens in the context of a working civil society, i.e. you buy food at the store, you have your tent, your map, maybe a GPS, and if you are in trouble a competent attempt will be made to rescue you. Then there are the "survival" books which assume that if you don't do "it" (gather food, build a shelter, find water, etc.) yourself, it ain't gonna happen. Maybe you can get help, but maybe other humans even pose a danger to your life, perhaps because of violent behavior, stupidity, clumsiness, or for whatever reason.

This book falls mainly into the first category, but makes interesting forays into the second. Perhaps the strongest impression is left by the First Aid section (which is also the longest). If you are really in an emergency, in which case you will definitely not have the time to read five pages on the Heimlich maneuver or whatever, this is probably the book you should pick up in a hurry. Of course ideally, you should know the content of the section by rote, but the descriptions are short yet detailed enough that they can be read quickly and confer all the vital information. A variety of more obscure illnesses are included that you will probably not find covered in other First Aid texts.

The nutrition section is quite short and the recipes are probably not something you would want to eat every day -- burritos, pizza, pesto. Don't expect any information on game, edible berries or the like...

A number of good sections cover such things as crossing a river or bearproofing your camp. These are well-written and stress the importance of understanding the situation first before acting. Along the same lines, there is an extensive review of leadership skills -- this is definitely an outdoor book for the thinking man.

All in all a thorough book, but if you are in situation where help does not arrive after a short while, it might not be enough. The SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the Wild, in Any Climate, on Land or at Sea would be an excellent complement to this book and nicely covers those things which the BFM leaves out.

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Backpacker's Field Manual, July 7, 2005

By	Ronald J. Priestley (Iowa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For technique and a GREAT overall guide this book rates among the top. Add Walker IV, Mountaineering and Winter Hiking and Camping to the library and you are set for the outdoors.