Hiking with Impunity 101 - The Ten Essentials: Sun Protection Part 1; or, "How Not to Be Burnt to a Crisp!"

The damage the sun can do to one's skin is well-known and well-researched. In the United States in 2007, 58,094 people were diagnosed with melanoma of the skin, and approximately 8,461 people died from it. Beyond the risks of developing skin cancer, something as common as a sunburn can put a damper on one's enjoyment of a hike.

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Hiking with Impunity 101 - The Ten Essentials: Map & Compass Part 2; or, "Every Country has...Two Norths?!"

In the first part of this article, we covered how to read a topographic map. Take a look at the article and re-familiarize yourself with the concepts, as we will assume knowledge of contour lines, topographic maps, and the different colors used on the map for this article.

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Hiking with Impunity 101 - The Ten Essentials: Map & Compass Part 1; or, "We gotta get out of this place!"

I believe that we are living in an age more than any other where many people will look at some kind of map at least once a day. Whether it be the map on their car's GPS, a search engine's map, or a mapping application on a smartphone, people across the world are accessing a map more frequently than ever before.

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Hiking with Impunity 101 - The Ten Essentials; or, "How to Keep Yourself Safe in the Great Outdoors"

In the 1930's, a Seattle-based organization of people who loved climbing and the great outdoors - The Mountaineers - developed a list of ten essentials that every outdoors person should carry. In 2003, the same group updated the way they taught the 10 essentials using more of a "systems" approach (Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, The Mountaineers Books, 2010). While it is interesting to know what is now referred to as the "classic" ten essentials, I will be focusing on this "systems" based approach instead.

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