Compasses absent from gear lists

[Shane S.]

Scrolling through many of the gear list, I have noticed how few of these list include a physical compass. Not sure why? I would be adverse to depend on an electronic gadgets for route finding.

[Lester Moore]

If you adhere to the 10 essentials as a systems approach, then anything that meets the criteria for reliable and effective navigation is the key (map, compass, gps). For trips with significant navigation challenges (long off trail sections, multiple confusing trail intersections, especially in flat terrain, etc) a physical compass seems like an important backup to whatever electronic gadgets one carriers. For trails like the JMT I would still carry a light compass and physical maps, but some people make the case for leaving them behind on such an obvious and well-signed trail. For short, familiar day hikes or trail runs near the frontcountry with no chance of getting lost, I don’t bother to carry a compass and may leave other 10 Essentials items at home too.

[Brad P]

I agree with Lester about well marked vs. less obvious trails.

If the compass is on your list, then you also need maps.

[Shane S.]

A day hike or familier trails I understand, but thru-hiking?

[David Thomas]

I go back and forth.  I can use my watch to get with 5-10 degrees.  More accuracy than that only helps with detailed paper maps or a mapping app that you enter your bearing from a known position.

But it is possible to get turned around on a cloudy summit and even a button compass or zipper-pull compass/thermometer will get you heading down the correct ridge.

But the mossy side of a Boy Scout always faces north, right?

I prefer the old Indian trick: photovoltaic panels always point south (on my continent).

[Nick Gatel]

Many people have completed the AT and PCT without a compass or even knowing how to use one.  Think about it… how many times have you actually needed a compass, assuming you had good maps?

I’m not advocating not bringing one.

[Jerry Adams]

I carry zipper pull compass

That would be enough to keep going in straight line and avoid going in circles

[John Vance]

I have a cheezy little compass on a thermometer fob that does the trick for me.  Mostly to get oriented in cloudy, foggy, or heavily timbered conditions.  I tend to hike by sight but spend as much time off trail as possible.  I used one quite often on the CDT in 1984 but didn’t need one very much on the PCT in 1983, where it was used primarily to gain peace of mind that I was traveling in the direction the map indicated when I couldn’t see.

If doing a thru now, I would most likely just carry a phone and use an app for the AT and PCT.  I might add a few map sections for the CDT to supplement.  If you are behind the herd or in the bubble you may not need anything for all three trails. ?

[Lester Moore]

Under what strange circumstances would one really want a compass on an obvious trail like the PCT? One unlikely reason would be a forest fire cutting off the trail ahead and behind, requiring escape through trailless country. But you’d also want regional maps of the area too, outside the boundaries of most PCT map sets, or at least notes on bailout locations. Given the remote chance of this scenario actually happening, a very light zipper pull compass or equivalent seems reasonable, plus having at least a rudimentary idea of bailouts along the trail section you’re hiking.

[Katherine .]

goes in the “never use – always have” pile along with the emergency tinder and bandaids. a cheap one is so light .

I’ve started taking my emergency backpacking stuff on casual day hikes too, out of habit. Cause it’s often the day hikers who get in trouble!

that said, I actually do use mine- a proper one with adjustable declination and a baseplate – by choice as a challenge to myself.

What I’m negligent on is downloading the Gaia app for backup…

[Bob Moulder]

I hardly ever carry a “real” compass any more but about once a year I use my little tag compass for a “sanity check”.

A couple of years ago on one of those mornings when a milky, overcast sky totally obscures the sun, I walked about 2 miles in the wrong direction. I was SO sure that I had departed camp in the correct direction that I still  didn’t believe the compass… took a while to accept that I needed to backtrack.

Very similar thing about a year before that, but I was seriously turned around on that one and knew it… and the same conditions—milky overcast.

Hey, watch out for milky overcast, maybe, lol??    ;^)

[W I S N E R !]

It is simply very rare that I need to use one, even traveling XC.  Following handrails will typically get the job done just fine.

But perhaps more important…

How many people that carry a compass actually know how to set declination, take a bearing, follow a bearing, translate bearing from field to map and vice versa, properly orient a map in the first place, or understand how to triangulate a position?

I strongly suspect that a large contingent of people that carry them know little about using them aside from identifying cardinal directions at best.

[Bob Moulder]

I do, but I navigated in the Whites of NH long before GPS and cellphones came along.

You haven’t lived until you’ve followed a blind bearing in a whiteout.

But map & compass is quickly becoming a lost art!

[Rex Sanders]

About 15 years ago, on a southbound PCT section hike, I went straight at an unmarked Y junction. After a couple of miles realized I was still near the top of the ridge instead of down in the valley shown on the map. Much swearing and some compass-following bushwhacking later, I returned to the PCT.

Maybe the PCT is well-marked northbound and you don’t need a map and compass …

— Rex

Yes, that experience reinforced the “stay found” lesson.

[Paul McLaughlin]

I carry one, but i cannot recall the last time i used for navigation. Have done plenty of off trail travel and ski trips without using it, but then i travel primarily in alpine terrain where a good sense of direction and facility with reading a topo map and visulizing terrain from the map works pretty well. what i do use it for is orienting the map while sitting atop a peak so as to identifhy the surrounding peaks more accurately.

 

[Nick Gatel]

I carry one, but i cannot recall the last time i used for navigation.

I have to mention that map and compass is a skill that needs to be practiced periodically. In the military I was truly an expert — woods, mountains, jungles, deserts, white-out snow conditions in the Rockies — it didn’t matter.

Over the years as a civilian I never really needed a compass… until about 5 years ago. My skills had really deteriorated. I didn’t get lost but did struggle a bit. A few trips practicing map and compass on strictly off trail routes got me back to speed.

[David Thomas]

Most likely use of a compass: trade goods should I be time-teleported more than 1000 years into the past.  For similar reasons, I carry sewing needles, stainless steel fishing hooks and monofilament line.  What else has as much value/weight to a Cro-Magnon?

In case it is for a shorter period of time, I also keep the patent application for the transistor on me at all times.

[Dave @ Oware]

I only used a compass in the CA sierra nevada above timberline when at night or in winter whiteout. Even then it was together with a GPS and maps and maybe also with a radio to a com van looking at route topography to check for avalanche hazards.

Other parts of the country, especially off trail in thick trees, I find a following a compass bearing is often quicker than the GPS.

[HkNewman]

For the long trails (or obvious trails), one suggestion has been lighter compasses such as orienteering finger compasses, the already mentioned tag compass, etc…  ….assuming no massive snow is imminent.

 

There are limits to most maps and compasses however.  I remember a local talking to me about the stretch of the PCT between Cabezon and Big Bear (iirc), … there’s a line where some lost hikers dead end on a cliff trying to get down to the lights.  Most aren’t going to be able to interpret the typical topographic map in the heat or night to avoid that.

[Link .]

. Our Reliance on Technology Makes the Backcountry More Dangerous .

[Greg K]

I used to carry a compass but found that I never used it.  Even for off trail travel.  When going off trail, I have a topo map.  Used to carry an altimeter and found that that was more useful in combination with the topo map than the compass + topo.  Virtually all of my hiking/backpacking is in the mountains of the Western US, and all of my off trail has been close to or above timberline where you can see where you’re going, see the ridges and peaks and match them to the topo map.

Because I found I never used my compass, I usually don’t take it nowadays.

I’ve never hiked with a GPS and don’t plan using one in the near future.  One of the reasons I go backpacking is to take a vacation from gadgets.

 

[Roger Caffin]

I suspect that here in Australia most serious walkers ALWAYS carry map and compass. But we don’t have many ‘clearly marked trails’, so we have to navigate through the bush.

Cheers

[Shane S.]

Good article. I surmise the  flagrant disregard for establishing a proper skill set and experience before embarking on a thru hike or the like is the result of many  precarious situations.

[Bob Moulder]

I agree with much of what is said in the article and I don’t quibble with the gist of it.

However, to lead off with a seriously incomplete accounting of the unfortunate circumstances of Geraldine Largay is misleading. This poor woman had profound cognitive issues and should never have been in the woods alone, and there were numerous examples of near-miss incidents even when she was hiking with a companion. It’s really too bad because she seemed otherwise to have been a wonderful and decent and healthy person, and she was also tantalizingly close to self-rescue if she had possessed some basic knowledge and the wherewithal to act on it.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some dumbasses in the woods depending totally upon electronics, and failing badly; I’ve seen a few of them.

 

[Ken Larson]

Is 1.0 ounces a big deal when it may serve you OR even maybe someone else  when you least expect it!  There is a point when counting ounces/grams becomes a moot point when it relates to ones/group safety.

AND yes….

“Not all who wander are lost.”

j.r.r tolkien

 

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