There are a number of excellent resources for proven routes on standard trails. I have a large collection of guide-books that I often refer to for route ideas in new places. I have a different focus here, however. Namely, how do you plan a long, off-trail route that combines bushwhacking, game trails and scrambling?
The immediate thought many people will think of is: "Aren't jerks the only ones that leave trails?". Yes and no. With a booming global population and shrinking wild areas, there is no doubt that some areas, including national parks, are being loved to death. If I am in a truly heavy use environment like this, I stay on the trail. There simply isn't enough land to go around. In low use areas, I think the hazards to the environment can be made reasonably low. Please be thoughtful if you decide to leave the trail.
The immediate thought many people will think of is: "Aren't jerks the only ones that leave trails?". Yes and no. With a booming global population and shrinking wild areas, there is no doubt that some areas, including national parks, are being loved to death. If I am in a truly heavy use environment like this, I stay on the trail. There simply isn't enough land to go around. In low use areas, I think the hazards to the environment can be made reasonably low. Please be thoughtful if you decide to leave the trail.
Major areas of consideration
Off-trail travel is significantly harder than on trail travel. Assuming other features are equal, I've found that the difference in difficulty is comparable to the difference between walking on a sidewalk and walking on a trail with roots/rocks etc.
- Length: This is the first thing that people think of when gauging the difficulty of a route but I've found that it's actually towards the end of the list of important things to look for.
- Elevation Gain: You'll eventually find a sweet spot for how much vertical elevation change your body can take in a day. Personally, I'm at the point where I pay more attention to elevation loss, than elevation gain. Even though elevation gain is definitely tougher from a cardio/aerobic perspective, the descent is harder on your knees. I can compensate for loss of energy by eating constantly but knee pain is hard to fix (unless you want to take ibuprofen like M&M's).
- Scrambling: This breaks up the movement to other parts of your body which I prefer from both a "wear and tear" perspective and also to keep things interesting.
- Bushwhacking: Be prepared to get your legs chewed up.
- There's no way around it: for both scrambling and bushwhacking you'll move slower you need to account for this if you're on a tight time budget. When do you run out of daylight? Are headlight batteries charged? What time is dinner? Do you need to shower beforehand?
- Is a storm coming? A wet bushwhack might be unpleasant but doesn't really change things too much. A wet scramble is a whole other animal.
Burn areas are about as tough as it gets. Cache La Poudre Wilderness, May 2019.
When I think of a new route that seems interesting, I use two primary resources to evaluate it's difficulty (i.e.: plausibility)
- Topographic map: This allows for rough estimates of the the overall length, and elevation gain/loss.
- I use the line drawing tool in Caltopo to sketch out original ideas for a route. Setting the "snapping" to "OSM" (Open Street Map) will find trails/roads etc and clicking "lines" will let you follow a custom drawn lawn (such as a off-tril/mountaineering route sketched in from a guidebook). Then clicking "Terrain Statistics" will show the total distance as well as the elevation gain and lost.
- Satellite Imagery: This lets you identify the type of terrain which is usually hidden on a topo map. Google Earth is my preferred program for this. Walking across ankle high grass will be much faster than walking through a trail-less forest. Google Earth Pro lets you turn on/off the simulated 3D terrain morphing which is nice for visualizing elevation change (ie: how big is that mountain really?).
Invent your own High Route?
High routes have definitely gotten popular recently in the backpacking community and this definitely includes me.
Inventing your own "mini high route" is a lot of fun and can be extremely satisfying once you complete the route. The main challenge here is avoiding areas requiring technical climbing that are not visible on a map or even high resolution satellite imagery. Even in a place with relatively smooth slopes like the front range of Colorado (compared the sierras,winds) there can be short (50-100 ft) sections of easy but exposed 5th class climbing that fuck up your whole beautiful plan.
I think the best approach is to find guidebooks written for technical climbing. These usually have descriptions of the approach/scrambles required to reach the technical climbs the book is really written for. This strategy is most effective for areas with good quality rock favored by climbers (hint hint...RMNP). You're less likely to find info for mountain ranges with crumbling volcanic rock like Glacier National Park that have the same kind of hazards.
Summitpost and to a lesser extent Mountain Project are two internet databases that can serve the same role as a climbing guidebook.
This was the approach I took for my recent route in the Wild Basin area of RMNP and my route in Indian Peaks Wilderness which I named the LIGANN Traverse.
Inventing your own "mini high route" is a lot of fun and can be extremely satisfying once you complete the route. The main challenge here is avoiding areas requiring technical climbing that are not visible on a map or even high resolution satellite imagery. Even in a place with relatively smooth slopes like the front range of Colorado (compared the sierras,winds) there can be short (50-100 ft) sections of easy but exposed 5th class climbing that fuck up your whole beautiful plan.
I think the best approach is to find guidebooks written for technical climbing. These usually have descriptions of the approach/scrambles required to reach the technical climbs the book is really written for. This strategy is most effective for areas with good quality rock favored by climbers (hint hint...RMNP). You're less likely to find info for mountain ranges with crumbling volcanic rock like Glacier National Park that have the same kind of hazards.
Summitpost and to a lesser extent Mountain Project are two internet databases that can serve the same role as a climbing guidebook.
This was the approach I took for my recent route in the Wild Basin area of RMNP and my route in Indian Peaks Wilderness which I named the LIGANN Traverse.