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Anyone have a place for map terminology as it applies to hunting. We recently added a couple of guys to our group and I did not realize the terms I have always used are not univerally agreed upon. It turns out we do not agree on the definition of north slope vs north face, saddles and finger ridges, stuff like that.

I think these are mostly slang terms. I did a search but didn't find any slang terms. You could go to the dictionary. When we were kids we made up a list with a definition for each of the terms we used.

http://www.google.com/search?num=10...1&q=map+terminology+&btnG=Search
Mike

Well, terms like finger ridges and saddles are clear to the speaker who is describing ground he knows, but have some built in nebulosity when his hearer tries to decide which low place on the ridge is the (right) saddle, etc. So there is always some fitting of terminology to the specific terrain, usually after we get lost from each other, show up in the wrong place, etc.

North face and north slope have a common, consistent definition among the relatively small circle of family and close friends that I hunt with. I think they are pretty common terms with fixed meanings in climbing circles also. Hadn't thought about it but you could define them opposite and still have some logic to it.

The main thing is if everyone in your party agrees. If you have a hold out who insists on some other definition, that's a warning light on the dash about hunting with the guy IMO, if not a red one. That is, agree on your working definitions, and then agree as much as possible which spot on the map or horizon is the saddle etc. you all mean.

A few years ago I went looking for a fabled mule deer saddle an old timer described, though he had not been to it in 45 years. I climbed past it without recognizing the slight swale in a small spur or finger ridge, but in thinking back over all I'd seen that day, I realized that dip was what he'd meant. Killed a 4x5 muley there the next morning. Good directions.

I guess thats why I just give the GPS coordinates....

Ok, to clarify one term regarding slopes. If a canyon runs east to west, the land on the north side could be called the north slope as well as the south face? I went round and round with someone who insisted the north slope and north face were the same thing, if Im wrong I need to eat my words an pony up a steak dinner.

I guess this is why I hunted by myself for so long.

Which way does the ground slant on the North Slope oil patch?

Which direction would water run off the slope or face? If it flows to the North, then it is a North slope or North face. If it flows South, then it is a South slope or South face. Personally, I can't see this getting more "no-duh" obvious to your newfound hunting partner. The only difference I'd make regarding face vs. slope is that faces are steep and slopes are less so.

I'm with Okanagan, I'd flag this fellow as a potentail camp problem, if not already! Your new hunting partner is the one who needs to pony up a steak dinner. And from the sounds of it he probably ought to have at least 3-5 compasses on his person while afield - hard for him to disagree with all of them when all of them are pointing towards magnetic north.

I've found that when talking about an area with someone like a partner, I need to point my finger to a place on a map. I've learned the hard way that not everybody understands where we are and where we need to go the same. In other words, using words is not suffcient.
The one exception I know of is to use a system that I learned from some wildlife biologists. Take a named USGS map. Find a particular township. Then locate the section of interest. Then go to a quater section. Then go to a quater section in that quater section. E

it slopes down to the north from the brooks range as it slides downhill to prudhoe bay.

I personally think the north face and the north slope are the same thing.

That's the best and most concise explanation I've seen.

I guess this was one of those case of something being made harder than it needed to be. I will stick to the water flow method and it shall be known as "bushcraft's law".

Technical term!

Thank you!

Our internet discussion society to advance the pursuit of outdoor pursuables has now developed the theory of nebulosity and proposed Bushcraft's Law, which helps reduce nebulosity, in theory.

In practice:
Jake sez on his walkie talkie, "I'm here at the bottom of the slope, where the water would run down to and you ain't here where you said you'd be, Sam. There ain't no road here neither like you said."

Sam replies on his walkie talkie, "I'm at the right place at the bottom of the mountain, waiting for you on the road. Where are you? You must be pretty close. You can't miss the whole valley. Hey look up on that grassy mountainside. The sunset is lighting up some muley does."

Pause. Then Jake says, "The sun has been behind the mountain for hours. It's all timber anyway and you can't see anything on this mountainside. Where in the world are you?"

Take away the walkie talkies and it is a more realistic case study of nebulosity.

varmintsinc,

"Bushcraft's Law"...too funny...but, I'll bow-out to the "Law of Gravity" on this one!

Allen

Having spent my younger days in primitive and wilderness areas in Western Montana where a topo map was considered a luxury, downhill was not always the way out, and hunting partners were outdoorsmen, I leave you with this. Leave your newfound dude, tenderfoot, friends at home.

Wayne

A face is so named by the direction the face faces ie; if you where on top of a mountain range that ran east west and there was a parallel mountain range south of your postion that you where glassing, you would be glassing the "North Face" of the mountian range that is south of your position. Try to remember it is not your loc but the mountains face in relation to a compass. If you are after terminology try.

https://atiam.train.army.mil/soldierPortal/appmanager/soldier/start?_nfpb=true&rdlService_1_actionOverride=%2Fportlets%2FrdlService%2Fquery&_windowLabel=rdlService_1&_pageLabel=rdlservicespage

Hope it helps