Understanding basic first-aid is paramount. This life skill is needed whether you enter backcountry or not. If you haven’t taken both a first-aid class and a CPR class lately, what are you waiting for? Accidents happen, be prepared. The American Red Cross offers both classes all time.

Backcountry travel requires a basic understanding of how to navigate. Whether you prefer to use a map with a compass or with a GPS, learn how to find your way around. Getting lost is bad. Fear of getting lost can be worse. Classes for map reading, compass use and GPS use are readily available in most communities. Check local libraries, community colleges or orienteering clubs. On-line classes are readily available as well.

Understanding your application is paramount in determining best fit – for you. Although there are many other specifications and qualities which determine usefulness of binoculars, we will discuss in this article primary characteristics for determining best fit for your application. But before we show you list, we should go over some basic terminology. What do numbers on binoculars mean? All sporting optics (binoculars, spotting scopes, night vision goggles, etc.) use same nomenclature to describe important features. As an example, a pair of binoculars may have 10x42mm listed as a technical specification. But what does this mean? The "10" refers to magnification power of binoculars – that is – objects viewed will appear to be 10 times closer than when they are viewed by naked eye. The second number in our example is "42mm." This refers to diameter, in millimeters, of objective lenses on binoculars. The objective lenses are located on end of binoculars furthest away from your eye when viewing. As with aperture of a camera lens, size of objective lens determines amount of light that can enter your binoculars. If your binoculars are going to be used during low light (hunting and astronomy are good examples) you had better have large objective lenses. Another important number describing binoculars is called field-of-view. A field-of-view of 390' indicates that width of sight picture is 390 feet at a distance of 1000 yards. Field-of-view is determined by magnification and focal lengths of objective and eyepiece lenses. More magnification always means less field-of-view. This specification is sometimes expressed in degrees. A field-of-view of 6.5 degrees equates to 341' (6.5 times 52.5 equals 341). How well your binoculars will serve you in low light conditions is described as Twilight Performance. Although many things, such as overall design and quality of glass impact this specification, magnification and objective lens diameter are chief components. A quick way to determine Twilight Performance of binoculars is to multiply magnification power (first number) times objective lens diameter (second number). The higher result, better Twilight Performance. As an example, 10x42mm binoculars will have better Twilight Performance than 8x50mm binoculars (420 versus 400).