Compasses just aren’t that useful

[kepPNW]

I carry a compass and know how to use it but rarely pull it out. I use my phone Gps mostly as a map for identifying peaks and navigating fs roads. I can't remember the last time I pulled out a paper map. I'd use a compass and map if I was lost and my gps died but otherwise I just carry them as an emergency item. I could navigate with them but they have mostly been replaced by superior technology.

That seems to sum up the article, precisely. Pretty much my method as well. Though I do look at paper maps from time to time, especially when group decisions are called for. Much easier for multiple eyeballs and fingers to be involved.

[alpinista55]

I was a Quartermaster (navigator) in the Navy during the Viet Nam era. Today, as an active blue water sailor, I use a chartplotter as my primary navigational tool. It would be silly not to. But I would never put to sea without a complete set of paper charts and a compass. Electronics fail. Wars break out (and the GPS system goes down). As a backcountry traveller I do the same.

I use Gaia on my cell phone, and wear a multi-function watch with baro/alti. But I also print out a map set on CalTopo and carry a good compass. At breaks I get out the map, orient it with my compass, and spend the downtime updating my situational awareness, identifying the surrounding peaks, and planning the next segment. If I'm hiking with my kids it's a teaching moment.

My best map and compass story happened while skiing back to basecamp on the Kahiltna Glacier in the Alaska Range. We were traveling up-glacier from Little Switzerland to Kahiltna Basecamp (about 25 miles). We had to hit a very narrow slot through a massive field of crevasses, and were skiing three men on a single 50 meter climbing rope. There was a steady 10 mph down-glacier wind, and it brought a complete white-out down the glacier. The visibility dropped quickly to one rope-length, and after skiing along in the reduced visibility several minutes I noticed that the wind, which had been hitting me in my face, had shifted around to the back of my head. I called a halt, got out my compass and confirmed that in only 10 - 15 minutes we had skied a gradual 180 and were now skiing back down-glacier.

We swapped directions and resumed skiing up the glacier following a compass bearing, hit the passage through the crevasse field dead center, continued up-glacier until our altimeter read 7,000 ft., made a 90 degree turn to the East, and skied into basecamp. 25 miles, all in a total whiteout. 1980, so pre-GPS days, but it impressed in me a love for map, compass and dead reckoning that I have to this day, whether on land or at sea.

[jamesstill]

I just don't trust GPS. There's a lot at stake if it fails, and I'm not willing to trust some electronic device that I have no control over.

I find that to be simply bizarre. Do you trust cars? How about airplanes?

I think the OP meant that he didn't trust "GPS devices" rather than the satellite data itself. Mobile phones can be dropped. Batteries go dead. My take is everyone should learn old school map and compass. I don't have anything against GPS or devices. But in my experience novice hikers see their device as a "magic black box" that substitutes for navigational skills and common sense. It's good to know the difference between true north and magnetic north or how to take a back azimuth from two known landmarks to find your position.

[kepPNW]

I just don't trust GPS. There's a lot at stake if it fails, and I'm not willing to trust some electronic device that I have no control over.

I find that to be simply bizarre. Do you trust cars? How about airplanes?

I think the OP meant that he didn't trust "GPS devices" rather than the satellite data itself. Mobile phones can be dropped. Batteries go dead. My take is everyone should learn old school map and compass. I don't have anything against GPS or devices. But in my experience novice hikers see their device as a "magic black box" that substitutes for navigational skills and common sense. It's good to know the difference between true north and magnetic north or how to take a back azimuth from two known landmarks to find your position.

Yep, maps get wet, glasses get lost... Crap happens.

(The article doesn't suggest knowing how to get around without devices isn't useful. Kinda like knowing how to ride a horse, I guess.)

[johngo]

Interesting discussion here.

Here is a slide from the beginning part of the wilderness navigation challenge (see it at croc.org > get better) that explains why maps are the primary navigation tool, and compasses are secondary. Think about a typical hike - most people will look at their map many times over the course of the day, but may not take out the compass literally for years. There's a reason for that.

==============

There are four main components of navigation:

Distance
Elevation
Terrain
Direction

How many of these can be determined from a map?

How many of these can be determined from a compass?

==================================

A map can tell you ALL the four components of navigation.

Distance - How far away is the lake?
Elevation - What’s the elevation of the lake?
Terrain - How steep is the trail to the lake?
Direction - What direction is the lake from here?

A compass can only tell you one, direction.
That’s why most people use a map much more than they use a compass.

[requiem]

(As an aside, it's nice to run across a forum section actually devoted to navigation. I'm planning a presentation on the topic to a local outdoor club soon, and found this place while looking for additional perspectives. I hope you don’t mind my adding a few comments!)

Johngo: On your list of navigation components, I don’t see “position”. It’s a pretty important component, and I think its absence somewhat reflects the heart of the article, where the author observes “We continue to teach that navigation means a map and a compass.”

While position should always be known, if it becomes unknown the only consistently reliable means of regaining it is often GPS. (Yes, the skilled navigator will have other tricks in their bag, but those are akin to using a fire-drill instead of a Bic lighter.)

To me the model is more: a map describes the environment, a compass provides direction, and a GPS provides position.

Back to the original article, I suspect part of the “GPS neglect” comes from the popular view of a GPS device as an all-in-one solution and thus an alternative to, rather than a complement to, the map and compass. A standard map grid has been around for at least 50 years (long preceding GPS), yet many people think using a GPS restricts you to watching a tiny map on a tiny screen and playing “follow the arrow”.

[retired jerry]

Maybe your brain is most important?

You should know where you are, and where you're going.

Look at landmarks like you're going up to the left of that peak or down that valley. Or if there's a trail junction, remember which way you came from so you don't go the wrong way on the way down.

It's easy to enthusiastically go forward and forget about going back home until the second half of your trip

And the "left brain" way to teach it might be to give some stories about someone that didn't follow one of these rules and got lost with disastrous results, so that when the student gets into that situation he will remember that story and then not make that mistake.

[johngo]

Jerry,

You are absolutely right, your brain is the most important navigational tool, even if it sounds a little trite to say that.

You are talking about with the military might call situational awareness, which in navigation could be described as simply keeping your eyes open and your brain turned on, and noticing significant landmarks as you're moving to the terrain. Avoid being distracted talking to your friends, listening to an audiobook or music on your electronic device, not paying attention to the landscape because "you're not the leader", or any number of other excuses and distractions.

The three basic questions of any sort of navigation, which apply anything from finding your way between points in your own hometown or off trail travel in a completely new area are:
1) Where am I? (in the backcountry, can I put my finger exactly on the map at my correct position?)
2) Where do I want to go? (hopefully you know this already)
3) What's the best way to get there? (which trails should I take, what cross country route looks best)

Most people already have an answer to question number two. If you're familiar with your town or landscape, most people can answer number one as well. Number three is the art of route finding and cross-country travel, if you're not on a trail.

The above three questions might sound deceptively simplistic, but if you think about it, they cover every navigation situation, from simple to very complex.

And your suggestion to tell a few "war stories" is also excellent. Human brains are naturally wired to respond to effective storytelling, it's what we have done for hundreds of thousands of years around the campfire. You don't want stories to take over your entire presentation, but opening your talk with a lost person account and having people discuss it for a few minutes is a very effective way to get people focused and attentive to the material, which admittedly can be pretty dry if you don't introduce a little bit of pizazz along the way.

[johngo]

(As an aside, it's nice to run across a forum section actually devoted to navigation. I'm planning a presentation on the topic to a local outdoor club soon, and found this place while looking for additional perspectives. I hope you don’t mind my adding a few comments!)

Johngo: On your list of navigation components, I don’t see “position”. It’s a pretty important component, and I think its absence somewhat reflects the heart of the article, where the author observes “We continue to teach that navigation means a map and a compass.”

While position should always be known, if it becomes unknown the only consistently reliable means of regaining it is often GPS. (Yes, the skilled navigator will have other tricks in their bag, but those are akin to using a fire-drill instead of a Bic lighter.)

To me the model is more: a map describes the environment, a compass provides direction, and a GPS provides position.

Back to the original article, I suspect part of the “GPS neglect” comes from the popular view of a GPS device as an all-in-one solution and thus an alternative to, rather than a complement to, the map and compass. A standard map grid has been around for at least 50 years (long preceding GPS), yet many people think using a GPS restricts you to watching a tiny map on a tiny screen and playing “follow the arrow”.

requiem,

Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I agree with pretty much everything you suggest. It can get overly semantic to start dissecting the differences between route finding, navigation, and orientation, and ultimately I feel the definitions to really make much difference. Yes, position could certainly be included on a list of main navigation components. I think I will keep my slide the way it is, but your point is certainly valid.

I love your analogy of using a fire drill compared to a Bic lighter. Yes, it might be "good practice" to learn both, but realistically you're going to reach for the lighter first in almost every situation.

And, thank you for pointing out that if you are truly lost, a GPS might be your only realistic way of reestablishing your point position. Just about every navigation book out there teaches resection or triangulation has a standard way to get yourself unlost, while in the real world that technique has three significant problems that are hardly ever addressed, making it unworkable in many situations.

And, I like your model of "a map describes the environment, a compass provides direction, and a GPS provides position." I will add the one of the great benefits of using a quality GPS is navigating between set waypoints, which usually involves your GPS telling you a distance and bearing/azimuth to where you want to go. In this case it describes direction quite well. Of course, you may turn your GPS off and use your compass to do the actual navigating, and in the Northwest it may be difficult to impossible to go in a straight line very far, but your GPS is pretty darn good at telling direction to a place where you want to go.

Anyway, thanks again for your ideas, it makes me think about this material in a new way.

And, if you don't mind me asking, what is the group to whom you are presenting a navigation lecture?
Feel free to use some of my material of the wilderness navigation challenge. See it on the website for the Columbia River Orienteering Club:
croc.org > Get Better > Navigation Challenge

[johngo]

My best map and compass story happened while skiing back to basecamp on the Kahiltna Glacier in the Alaska Range. We were traveling up-glacier from Little Switzerland to Kahiltna Basecamp (about 25 miles). We had to hit a very narrow slot through a massive field of crevasses, and were skiing three men on a single 50 meter climbing rope. There was a steady 10 mph down-glacier wind, and it brought a complete white-out down the glacier. The visibility dropped quickly to one rope-length, and after skiing along in the reduced visibility several minutes I noticed that the wind, which had been hitting me in my face, had shifted around to the back of my head. I called a halt, got out my compass and confirmed that in only 10 - 15 minutes we had skied a gradual 180 and were now skiing back down-glacier.

We swapped directions and resumed skiing up the glacier following a compass bearing, hit the passage through the crevasse field dead center, continued up-glacier until our altimeter read 7,000 ft., made a 90 degree turn to the East, and skied into basecamp. 25 miles, all in a total whiteout. 1980, so pre-GPS days, but it impressed in me a love for map, compass and dead reckoning that I have to this day, whether on land or at sea.

alpinista, that's a great story, thanks for sharing that. That shows that old-school techniques and paying attention to your surroundings can take you a long way, even in a very challenging environment.

Neurologically, there is an interesting part of our ancient navigation brain that is our system a shot of dopamine when we find something we are looking for, be at your car keys in the morning or your camp in a white out. So, it actually is intrinsically rewarding to successfully navigate, and biochemically, your brain is responding in a way that makes you want to do it again. (This may also explain why certain people "lose" their car keys or wallet for a few minutes almost every day, because it feels so good to them when they find a short time later.)