3 ms·

Ya, lunacy to do any outdoors without paper map + compass beyond the there-and-back loop where you can still hear car traffic.

eternityforest 3y ago
Does anyone know how to use a map and compass? I don't think I could outside a city. Everyone talks about the physical maps, but the bigger issue is without the skill the map is useless, and if you've always had a phone, the true terror of being lost and alone might not enter your mind till you're there. I guess I'm lucky that I often forget my charger and wind up having no clue where I am and trying to get back by asking directions, I'm well aware of how awful it is to have no idea where you are or what direction you're facing or if you're in the right city!
- ghaff 3y ago
  Sure. I usually just use GPS but I absolutely know how to read a trail map. Orienteering off-trail is a bit rusty but I can absolutely deal with most map and compass navigation.
- dogman144 3y ago
  I do not know anyone serious about the outdoors that does not know how to use a map and compass. Extremely straightforward to learn. I hike with a Garmin foretrex, I route plan and land nav when out there with a map. The garmin sanity checks me once in a while. There is a significant amount of bad stuff that can go very wrong, to start, just bc your Garmin’s altimeter and calibration is bugging out while you mindlessly follow. And when you’re in areas where this matters (ie “can I hear street noise” judgment”), the out of the box technical land navigation tools tend to not work out of the box. I’ve had an updated and calibrated Garmin put me 5-600m away from where I definitely was via map, compass triangulation and then sanity check with a iPhone b/c the difference really surprised me. 5-600m difference is quite consequential. Mix in Garmin using optionally Glonass (Russian satellites), there’s just a lot of stuff that can go sideways. Easy enough to buy a compass, map protector, local map. Even something like knowing what and how to shoot an emergency azimuth can solve an otherwise crisis situation.
  - eternityforest 3y ago
    Everyone serious about the outdoors probably does, but lots of more casual people don't. I'm assuming that's how a lot people get lost, because the casual people suddenly decide to try something out of their skill level without knowing it's out of their skill level, because GPS has always hidden their lack of skill. I don't think just buying a map and compass is a guarantee, for the casual people who don't know what they're doing, and the military has entire navigation classes, seems like it's a real nontrivial skill that you have to actually learn. Definitely a good idea to learn, but GPS makes it easy to not know how much you don't know.
- dvdkon 3y ago
  My current phone's GPS receiver is broken, leaving me with a map and compass, just inside my phone. The Czech countryside is full of marked trails and named points to use for finding your position on a map, so I haven't found navigating very hard. Experience does make it easier, though.

eternityforest 3y ago

Does anyone know how to use a map and compass? I don't think I could outside a city. Everyone talks about the physical maps, but the bigger issue is without the skill the map is useless, and if you've always had a phone, the true terror of being lost and alone might not enter your mind till you're there. I guess I'm lucky that I often forget my charger and wind up having no clue where I am and trying to get back by asking directions, I'm well aware of how awful it is to have no idea where you are or what direction you're facing or if you're in the right city!

ghaff 3y ago
Sure. I usually just use GPS but I absolutely know how to read a trail map. Orienteering off-trail is a bit rusty but I can absolutely deal with most map and compass navigation.
dogman144 3y ago
I do not know anyone serious about the outdoors that does not know how to use a map and compass. Extremely straightforward to learn. I hike with a Garmin foretrex, I route plan and land nav when out there with a map. The garmin sanity checks me once in a while. There is a significant amount of bad stuff that can go very wrong, to start, just bc your Garmin’s altimeter and calibration is bugging out while you mindlessly follow. And when you’re in areas where this matters (ie “can I hear street noise” judgment”), the out of the box technical land navigation tools tend to not work out of the box. I’ve had an updated and calibrated Garmin put me 5-600m away from where I definitely was via map, compass triangulation and then sanity check with a iPhone b/c the difference really surprised me. 5-600m difference is quite consequential. Mix in Garmin using optionally Glonass (Russian satellites), there’s just a lot of stuff that can go sideways. Easy enough to buy a compass, map protector, local map. Even something like knowing what and how to shoot an emergency azimuth can solve an otherwise crisis situation.
- eternityforest 3y ago
  Everyone serious about the outdoors probably does, but lots of more casual people don't. I'm assuming that's how a lot people get lost, because the casual people suddenly decide to try something out of their skill level without knowing it's out of their skill level, because GPS has always hidden their lack of skill. I don't think just buying a map and compass is a guarantee, for the casual people who don't know what they're doing, and the military has entire navigation classes, seems like it's a real nontrivial skill that you have to actually learn. Definitely a good idea to learn, but GPS makes it easy to not know how much you don't know.
dvdkon 3y ago
My current phone's GPS receiver is broken, leaving me with a map and compass, just inside my phone. The Czech countryside is full of marked trails and named points to use for finding your position on a map, so I haven't found navigating very hard. Experience does make it easier, though.