[pct-l] anti-altimeter

[mark v]

While other methods are surely fine and legit, having an altimeter doesn't at all require developing an electronic relationship and not feeling the trail and the wilderness fully.  Quite to the contrary, i'm able to enjoy and understand more of what i'm doing if i know where i am, when the next water is, etc.  Especially in the snowy Sierra, but often other places too, knowing that i was at a specific elevation was vital to knowing where i was.  Once it kept me from being one of the early-hikers who went over the "wrong" Forrester Pass.  Other times it let me know i could hike an extra hour at dusk without having to worry about being on a slope with no decent place to put down my sleeping pad.  Etc etc blah blah blah.

I just for some reason feel compelled to chime in counterpoint to those who think that having any piece of equipment, be it cellphone, altimeter, electronic journaling etc necessarily equates having "less of a trail experience."  That's only true if your mind is closed in how you use them.