Reference
Camping Terms Glossary
Glossary
Standalone definitions, one to three sentences, alphabetical. Chapter numbers point to the full treatment.
- Alpine start
- Leaving in pre-dawn dark to cross exposed terrain before afternoon storms; the mountain schedule Chapter 43's cumulus rules enforce.
- AMS (acute mountain sickness) 49
- Altitude illness above ~8,000 ft: headache plus fatigue, nausea, poor sleep. Stop ascending; descend if worsening
- Backflush 17
- Reversing water through a hollow-fiber filter to clear clogging sediment
- Baseline 50
- A long unmissable feature (road, river) you could always travel one direction to hit; lost-proofing's safety net
- Bathtub floor 7
- Tent floor fabric wrapping up the walls' first inches so ground water can't seep at a seam
- Bear canister 45
- Hard-sided, bear-resistant food barrel; required in many backcountry areas
- Bear hang 45
- Food bag suspended 12 ft up and 6 ft out on a line; the traditional storage now losing to canisters
- Bearing 41
- A direction expressed in compass degrees; taken from the field or the map
- Bikepacking 58
- Bike camping's dirt dialect: soft bags strapped to the frame, gravel routes, light kits
- Bivy (emergency) 12
- A mylar sleeping sack that blocks wind and wet; the unplanned night's shelter floor
- Cathole 35
- A 6–8 inch deep hole for human waste, 200 ft from water, trails, and camp
- Catch feature 50
- An unmissable line beyond your target that announces you've overshot
- Chlorine dioxide 17
- The chemical water treatment that handles bacteria, viruses, and (with a 4-hour wait) Cryptosporidium
- Cold shock 57
- The gasp-and-panic response to sudden cold-water immersion; the mechanism that drowns swimmers in yards
- Contour line 40
- A map line connecting equal elevations; spacing reads as steepness
- Counterbalance hang 45
- A bear-hang method securing the line so nothing runnable connects bag to ground
- Cryptobiotic soil 59
- The desert's living crust of cyanobacteria and lichens; decades to grow, one footstep to crush
- Crepuscular 53
- Active at dawn and dusk, as most watchable wildlife is
- Dead out 33
- The fire standard: drowned, stirred, drowned, and cold to the back of the hand everywhere
- Deadman anchor 55
- A buried horizontal object (stake, stick, filled bag) that anchors guylines in snow or sand
- Declination 41
- The angle between magnetic and true north at your location; set once on an adjustable compass
- Denier 7
- Fabric thread weight; higher is tougher and heavier
- Dispersed camping 5
- Legal camping outside developed campgrounds on most national forest and BLM land
- Drainage 40
- The terrain crease water follows; V-shaped contours point up it
- Dry bag 57
- A roll-top waterproof bag; paddling's price of admission
- Duff 30, 32
- The forest floor's organic litter layer; padding under tents, never a fire's foundation
- DWR (durable water repellent) 24
- The factory coating that makes water bead off shells and flies; restored by washing and heat
- EN/ISO rating 9
- The standardized sleeping bag temperature test; shop the comfort number
- Ferrule 13
- A pole section's joining sleeve; seat it fully before flexing
- Fill power 9
- Down quality measured as loft per ounce: lighter warmth, not warmer warmth
- Fire pan 32
- A raised metal pan that contains a fire's ashes and heat off the soil
- Footprint 8
- A ground cloth cut smaller than the tent floor
- Freeboard 57
- The hull height above waterline; a loaded canoe keeps a hand's width
- Freestanding tent 7
- A tent that stands on its poles without stakes
- Glochids 59
- Cactus's fine, near-invisible spine tufts; removed with adhesive, not tweezers
- Gray water 15
- Wash water; strained, then broadcast 200 ft from any water source
- Guyline 8, 31
- A tensioned cord bracing a tent or tarp against wind
- HACE / HAPE 49
- Altitude's emergencies: brain and lung edema. Descend now, SOS now
- Handrail 50
- A linear feature you navigate along: creek, ridge, shoreline
- Heat index 43, 49
- Humidity's "feels like": the honest number when sweat can't evaporate
- Hollow-fiber filter 17
- The modern squeeze filter: membrane pores ~0.1–0.2 microns; ruined invisibly by freezing
- Hydrostatic head 24
- Waterproofness in millimeters of water column; 10,000+ handles sustained rain
- Iliac crest 11
- The hip bones' top shelf, where a pack's hipbelt carries ~80% of the load
- Kindling 32
- Pencil-to-thumb-thick fuel between tinder and logs; shortage is the top fire-killer
- Layering 23
- The base-mid-shell clothing system; warmth by combination and adjustment
- Leave No Trace (LNT) 60
- The seven-principle framework for minimum-impact recreation
- Loft 9
- Insulation's trapped-air thickness; the mechanism of all camp warmth, killed by moisture and compression
- MVUM (Motor Vehicle Use Map) 5
- The forest's legal road map; dispersed camping's rulebook
- Mound fire 32
- A fire built on a 6–8 inch platform of mineral soil over a ground cloth; erased by morning
- Mummy bag 9
- The tapered, hooded sleeping bag shape that seals heat at a weight cost to sprawl
- Nimbostratus / cumulonimbus 43
- The steady-rain blanket and the anvil-topped storm tower; boring-wet versus dangerous
- PFD (personal flotation device) 57
- The life jacket, paddling-cut, fitted by the lift test, worn always on and beside water
- PLB (personal locator beacon) 42
- One-button satellite SOS with no subscription and no messaging
- Permethrin 46
- The clothing-only insecticide that kills ticks on contact; toxic to cats while wet
- Picaridin 46
- The modern skin repellent: DEET-equivalent protection without odor or melted plastics
- Portage 57
- Carrying boat and gear between waters; measured in trips and pride
- Prusik 34
- A cord loop that slides along a taut line and locks under load
- R-value 10
- A pad's insulation against ground-cold, tested to a standard and additive when stacked
- Rest step 39
- The locked-leg micro-pause that lets skeleton relieve muscle on long climbs
- Ridgeline (tarp) 8
- The taut line a tarp hangs over; the A-frame's spine
- S24O 58
- The sub-24-hour overnight: bike camping's entrance exam
- Sintering 55
- Snow hardening after being stomped; the wait that makes a tent platform
- Sit spot 53
- Thirty still minutes in one place; the wildlife watcher's best technique
- Snag 30
- A standing dead tree; nothing camps within its height
- Stake-out 54
- A dog's anchored cable run at camp: an address, not a patrol
- STOP 50
- Stop, Think, Observe, Plan: the lost-hiker protocol, triggered by the first unsure feeling
- Strainer 57
- A downed tree the current pours through; moving water's deadliest feature
- Taut-line hitch 34
- The adjustable knot that slides by hand and holds under load
- Ten Essentials 12
- The ten systems for handling the unplanned: navigation through emergency shelter
- Three-season 7, 9
- Spring-through-fall rated gear; almost everyone's answer
- Timed entry 3
- A park's dated vehicle reservation for the gate, separate from campsite bookings
- Tinder 32
- The first-stage fuel that catches from a flame: needles, bark curls, purpose-made starters
- Trucker's hitch 34
- The mid-rope pulley knot delivering 3-to-1 tension
- Turnaround time 39
- The pre-set clock that ends the outbound leg, summit or no
- The umbles 49
- Mumbles, stumbles, fumbles, grumbles: hypothermia announcing itself
- Urushiol 46
- Poison ivy/oak/sumac's oil: all parts, all seasons, months on surfaces, never burned
- UV index 27
- Sunburn speed forecast: plan around 8+ like wind
- Vestibule 7
- The rainfly's covered porch for boots and packs
- WAG bag 35
- The pack-out human waste kit for deserts, alpine rock, rivers, and snow
- Widow-maker 30
- A hanging dead limb; the look-up rule's reason
- Wind chill 43
- Moving air's honest "feels like": the layers-and-skin number