Tried the Wind River High Route last August and ended up bailing after three days of relentless hail storms

I figured the route would be fine with standard rain gear, but that constant sideways hail turned my map into mush and made navigation nearly impossible, so now I'm wondering if anyone has a go-to waterproof map case or backup strategy for alpine routes prone to sudden weather shifts?

2 comments

2 Comments

jake_owens4d ago

Three days of sideways hail in the Wind Rivers sounds about as fun as a root canal. My go-to trick now is a Ziploc freezer bag with a silica gel pack taped inside, cheap and it works better than any fancy case Ive tried. I actually lost my map on a similar trip in the Beartooths last year, spent an hour retracing my steps like an idiot. So yeah, backup plan is always a paper map in a sealed bag plus a downloaded GPX on my phone in airplane mode.

drew6903d ago

Paper maps can get wet or lost too, so phones aren't a bad backup anymore.