Considering to ditch the compass

[paul]

I cannnot recall the last time I used my compass for navigation. I do use it to orient my map when I am looking at the view from a peak or pass and can't cleary identify three peaks to line up on, just so I can tell which peak is which in my view. So I could safely leave it at home, I guess. But its only an ounce, so its worth it just for the view alignment.

[Jimr]

I'm old school as well. Map, compass and PLB. That's it. I used to have a cheap watch buckled onto my pack, but ditched it after years of having it and never looking at it. I use the position of the sun. I've rarely used the map and compass, although there were times I should have. I do a lot of map reading prior to my trips. It's easier to understand the lay of the land once I'm there.

IMHO, using electronics to point the way tends to allow your navigational skills to erode. In the days of street maps, I would learn the way from point A to point B after the first time of driving there. When I was going back and forth from L.A. to Oakland often, I used a Garmin GPS and merely followed her directions. It took me a year and a half to memorize the way to point B as well as the address I was going to. I got lazy, so if Garmin died, I would not be showing up at point B.

[Gogd]

.. if Garmin died, I would not be showing up at point B.

LOL! You just answered a question I sometimes ponder when out there: Is civilization still going to be be there when I get back? A big hint will be no GPS signal anywhere!

Ed

[Wandering Daisy]

Reminds me of 9/11. We got released from work and I was not going to waste the opportunity so went on a 4-day backpack. Day 2 I quit seeing airplanes. Day3 the same quiet. I did wonder what I would come out to.

Sort of also reminded me of being a little kid and air raid drills during the cold war. If you could run home in under 5 minutes you could die with your family; if not you got to die in the basement bathrooms of the schoolhouse. I always wondered sometimes if it was real or just a drill. PS- I learned to run fast and I did not need a compass or map to get home.

[rlown]

GPS is satellite based. It'll be there after we die.

[maverick]

I have carried a compass since the 60s; besides using the mirror, I have only needed it once during whiteout conditions. The Sierra has plenty of topographic features, which makes orienting one's map easy, but I will continue to carry it out of habit.

[Jimr]

Mav, remember when we were on Clyde glacier and I pulled my phone out to use an app to pinpoint our exact location? I could have done it faster with the map and compass.

[Gogd]

GPS is satellite based. It'll be there after we die.

It will probably be the first strategic target China or Russia take out at the start of a major conflict, given our dependence on the system for much of our tactical advantage.

Ed

[rlown]

Probably right. At the same time all the missiles fly. When the Earth flips her magnetic field, we all better know how to read a map.

[Gogd]

Mav, remember when we were on Clyde glacier and I pulled my phone out to use an app to pinpoint our exact location? I could have done it faster with the map and compass.

Yea, good idea to know how to use tech before you hit the trail. I had an experience - two actually - with two friends that often camp with me. They LIVE on their smart phone apps. Twice we were on trails that petered out in highly contoured terrain. We wished to determine which way the trail was routed, and avoid clueless meandering about over hill and dale. So I get out my map and compass, and they each check their GPS apps. Before I could triangulate our position they were off on their way, following their apps. So I just stashed the map and compass, and followed. Fifteen minutes later we failed to locate a trail or ducks pointing the way. Out comes their GPS apps and my map, again, rinse and repeat. And repeat, repeat, repeat, until 45 minutes later, I tell them to f-in stay put long enough for me triangulate our location. They then disputed my conclusion, BC the latitude/longitude value of the USGS map did not correspond with the numbers on their displays. So off we go, again, on our trail snipe hunt, until 90 minutes later they gave up in desperation, and let me get us back on route. It wasn't until the second experience on a subsequent trip that I set them down and got to the bottom of all of the confusion. On this occasion we were hiking the lower Kern, and stopped to confirm the junction we were standing by was the fork we were to take off the river trail to the bluffs above. They argued I was wrong despite this was the only junction for a 15 mile stretch of trail. They insisted our actual location wasn't even on my map! Sigh. They eventually acknowledged they didn't realize navigation was more that just looking at a screen and following tech "bread crumbs". Other than the fact they could not translate their GPS displays to the real world, the other problem was they did not understand latitude and longitude notation can be recorded in three different formats: HH:MM:SS; HH:MM.mmm; and HH.hhhhh, with the lower case alpha positions indicating decimal values of hour or minute values. One friend was using the decimal minutes format, while the other used decimal hours; my USGS maps obviously were in the trad HH:MM:SS notation. Lesson learned? They still use differing notation formats, and fall into the same chaos. ARGH!

Ed