[pct-l] altimeters, necessary?

[ned at pacificcrestcustombuilders.com]

I'm going to agree with Postholer and elaborate.

During the craze, I bought a Suunto unit. I am always interested in how much 
I've climbed-it's encouragement, really. But I can get that from my map or 
guide book. I find I have to mess with it often if I want it to be accurate. 
I develop a relationship with my watch as I walk through pristine 
Wilderness. If that's what you want to do in the mountains, then enjoy. It's 
just not for me.

On days where the weather is changing, when the storm is either coming or 
going, the pressure is changing so often that I might as well forget what it 
says the altitude is or I'll be standing beside the trail every hour 
adjusting the thing. What for? To know what the altitude is? For all 
practical purposes, what does this $200 dollar investment do for my trail 
day besides give me another electronic toy that I have to fuss with, get 
pissed off at, or watch grow dark as the batteries fail in the cold?

Counterpoint-when I am climbing in the backcountry, the relationship I want 
is with the environment I've gone there to learn from. I want to enjoy how 
the view changes as I climb, not the decreasing numbers on my watch. I want 
to be thinking about natural rhythms rather than technological ones (when 
and how often I'm going to have to recalibrate the thing).

Sure, when you first get out there, the info and novelty is fun. After a 
while it is irrelevant. I'd rather let my mind run with the sounds of the 
forest, the smell of the dew or frost, or watch that bear over there in the 
meadow (175m away) paralleling me and he doesn't even know I'm here (2 or 3 
days out of KM)!

At the end of my day, I crawl into my bag and start my stove beside me for 
another great mountain dinner. I open my journal, dig for my pen and hope it 
will work this time, pull out the topos for the day, and relish/remember all 
the things I saw and experienced that day. I like to know my elevation gains 
and losses; like I said, it's encouraging. I put them in my head and in so 
doing get to know the challenges of the route I'm following. The stove wakes 
me up with its boiling, I add my dinner and begin simmering and smelling the 
sweet smell of cooking, and begin looking forward to tomorrow's adventures 
along the trail, the creek crossings, the muddy path, the elusive climbs and 
long switchback descents, the prominent peaks, and bends in the streams. 
These all go in my head in detail. I can almost see tomorrow's route. I eat 
dinner as the sun sets, me warm in my bag, my food warm in my stomach, 
another day full of challenge and adventure ahead. Sure, I did 'x' number of 
feet of elevation change, but that isn't as important to me as the life I 
get to live and learn from while walking in this Garden we call Wildness.

Mtnned
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Postholer" <public at postholer.com>
To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 8:15 AM
Subject: [pct-l] altimeters


> The main use I got out of an altimeter was the accumulated change that
> showed in the log feature.
>
> At the end of every day I could see how much climbing and descending I did
> and kept track of it in my journal. For instance, my biggest altitude 
> change
> day on the PCT was between Fire Creek Pass and South of High Bridge where 
> I
> did 6,410 feet of climbing and 8,410 feet of descending over 30.1 miles.
>
> Years later I find that an exciting footnote in my journal.
>
> -postholer
> ------------------------------------
> Trails : http://Postholer.Com
> Journals : http://Postholer.Com/journal
> Mobile : http://Postholer.Com/mobi
>
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