This is a very easy lesson, and I would say, not sufficient for those who would
like to travel safely in unfamiliar terrain.  The
first thing you need to learn, are the directions. North, South, East and West.
Look at the figure and learn how they are. North is the most important.
There
are several kinds of compasses, one kind to attach to the map, one kind to attach
to your thumb. The thumb-compass is used mostly by orienteers who just want to
run fast, and this is the kind of compass I normally use. But not in this tutorial.
I would recommend the third kind of compass. Let's take a look at it: 
You see this red and black arrow? We call it the compass needle. Well, on some
compasses it might be red and white for instance, but the point is, .
Got that? That's basically what you need to know. It's as simple as that.
But
what if you don't want to go north, but a different direction? Hang on and I'll
tell you. You've got this turnable thing on your compass. We
call it the Compass housing. On the edge of the compass housing, you will probably
have a scale. From 0 to 360 or from 0 to 400. Those are the degrees or the azimuth
(or you may also call it the bearing in some contexts). And you should have the
letters N, S, W and E for North, South, West and East. If you want to go in a
direction between two of these, you would combine them. If you would like to go
in a direction just between North and West, you simply say: "I would like
to go Northwest ".  Let's
use that as an example: You want to go northwest. What you do, is that you find
out where on the compass housing northwest is. Then you turn the compass housing
so that northwest on the housing comes exactly there where the large direction
of travel-arrow meets the housing.
 Hold
the compass in your hand. And you'll have to hold it quite flat, so that the compass
needle can turn. Then turn yourself, your hand, the entire compass, just make
sure the compass housing doesn't turn, and turn it until the compass needle is
aligned with the lines inside the compass housing.
 Now,
time to be careful! It is extremely important that the red, north part of the
compass needle points at north in the compass housing. If south points at north,
you would walk off in the exact opposite direction of what you want! And it's
a very common mistake among beginners. So always take a second look to make sure
you did it right!
A
second problem might be local magnetic attractions. If you are carrying something
of iron or something like that, it might disturb the arrow. Even a staple in your
map might be a problem. Make sure there is nothing of the sort around. There is
a possibility for magnetic attractions in the soil as well, "magnetic deviation",
but they are rarely seen. Might occur if you're in a mining district. When
you are sure you've got it right, walk off in the direction the direction of travel-arrow
is pointing. To avoid getting off the course, make sure to look at the compass
quite frequently, say every hundred meters at least. But you
shouldn't stare down on the compass. Once you have the direction, aim on some
point in the distance, and go there. But this gets more important when you use
a map. There is something you should look for to avoid going
in the opposite direction: The Sun. At noon, the sun is roughly in South (or in
the north on the southern hemisphere), so if you are heading north and have the
sun in your face, it should ring a bell. When do you need
this technique? If you are out there without a map, and you
don't know where you are, but you know that there is a road, trail, stream, river
or something long and big you can't miss if you go in the right direction. And
you know in what direction you must go to get there, at least approximately what
direction. Then all you need to do, is to turn the compass
housing, so that the direction you want to go in, is where the direction of travel-arrow
meets the housing. And follow the above steps. But why isn't
this sufficient? It is not very accurate. You are going in the right direction,
and you won't go around in circles, but you're very lucky if you hit a small spot
this way. And that's why I'm not talking about declination here. And because that
is something connected with the use of maps. But if you have a mental image of
the map and know what it is, do think about it. But I think you won't be able
to be so accurate so the declination won't make a difference. If
you are taking a long hike in unfamiliar terrain, you should always carry a good
map that covers the terrain. Especially if you are leaving the trail. It is in
this interaction between the map and a compass, that the compass becomes really
valuable. 
This is the important
lesson, and you should learn it well.
It's when you use both compass and map
the compass is really good and you will be able to navigate safely and accurately
in terrain you've never been before without following trails. But it'll take some
training and experience, though. I am not covering map reading
here, guess you would have to consult other sources for that, but the lesson will
be useful if you have a sense of what a map says. First, a
quick summary of what you will learn in this lesson: - Align the edge
of the compass with the starting and finishing point.
- Rotate the compass
housing until the orienting arrow and lines point N on the map.
- Rotate
the map and compass together until the red end of the compass needle points north.
- Follow the direction of travel arrow on the compass, keeping the needle
aligned with the orienting arrow on the housing.
Here is our
compass again: 
The principles are much the same as before but this time, you are using the map
to tell you which way is correct instead of your intuition.
 Take
a map. In our first example, we look at a map made for orienteering, and it is
very detailed. Well, not really. We look at a fictitious map I drew myself, but
never mind. To the point - You want to go from the trail-crossing at A, to the
rock at B. Of course, to use this method successfully, you'll have to know you
really are at A.
What you do, is that you put your compass on the map so
that the edge of the compass is at A. The edge you must be using, is the edge
that is parallel to the direction of travel arrow. And then, put B somewhere along
the same edge, like it is on the drawing. Of course, you could use the direction
arrow itself, or one of the parallel lines, but usually, it's more convenient
to use the edge. At this point, some instructors say that you should use a pencil
and draw a line along your course. I would recommend against it. First, it takes
a lot of time, but offers no enhancement in accuracy of the method.  Second,
if you have wet weather, it may destroy your map, or if it is windy, you may loose
it. You should keep your map (preferably in a sealed) transparent plastic bag,
and if it is windy, tied up, so it can't blow away. But most important is that
any drawings may hide important details on the map. Time
to be careful again! The edge of the compass, or rather the direction arrow, must
point from A to B! And again, if you do t his wrong, you'll walk off in the exact
opposite direction of what you want. So take a second look. Beginners often make
this mistake as well. Keep the compass steady on the map. What you are going
to do next is that you are going to align the orienting lines and the orienting
arrow with the meridian lines of the map. The lines on the map going north, that
is. While you have the edge of the compass carefully aligned from A to B, turn
the compass housing so that the orienting lines in the compass housing are aligned
with the meridian lines on the map. During this process, you don't mind what happens
to the compass needle. There
are a number of serious mistakes that can be made here. Let's take the problem
with going in the opposite direction first. Be absolutely certain that you know
where north is on the map, and be sure that the orienting arrow is pointing towards
the north on the map. Normally, north will be up on the map. The possible mistake
is to let the orienting arrow point towards the south on the map.
And then,
keep an eye on the the edge of the compass. If the edge isn't going along the
line from A to B when you have finished turning the compass housing, you will
have an error in your direction, and it can take you off your course. When
you are sure you have the compass housing right, you may take the compass away
from the map. And now, you can in fact read the azimuth off the housing, from
where the housing meets the direction arrow.  The
final step is similiar to what you did earlier on. Hold the compass in your hand.
And now you'll have to hold it quite flat, so that the compass needle can turn.
Then turn yourself, your hand, the entire compass, just make sure the compass
housing doesn't turn, and turn it until the compass needle is aligned with the
lines inside the compass housing.
The
mistake is again to let the compass needle point towards the south. The red part
of the compass needle must point at north in the compass housing, or you'll go
in the opposite direction. It's time to walk off. But to do that with optimal
accuracy, you'll have to do that in a special way as well.  Hold
the compass in your hand, with the needle well aligned with the orienting arrow.
Then aim, as careful as you can, in the direction the direction of travel-arrow
is pointing. Fix your eye on some special feature in the terrain as far as you
can see in the direction. Then go there. Be sure as you go that the compass housing
doesn't turn.
If you're in a dense forest, you might need to aim several times.
Hopefully, you will reach your target B when you do this.
At this time,
you may want to go out and do some training. Unfortunately, sometimes,
for some quite often, it is even more complicated. There is something called magnetic
declination. And then, for hiking, you wouldn't use orienteering maps. Read on.
 Unfortunately,
sometimes, for some quite often, it is even more complicated. There is something
called magnetic declination. You see, the compass is pointing towards the magnetic
northpole, and the map is pointing toward s the geographic northpole, and that
is not the same place. To make things even more complicated, there is on most
hiking-maps something (that is very useful) called the UTM-grid. This grid doesn't
have a real north pole, but in most cases, the lines are not too far away from
the other norths. Since this grid covers the map, it is convenient to use as meridians.
On most orienteering maps (newer than the early 70's), this is corrected,
so you won't have to worry about it. But on topographic maps, this is a problem.
First, you'll have to know how large the declination is, in degrees. This depends
on where on the earth you are. So you will have to find out before you leave home.
Or somewhere on the map, it says something about it. One thing you have to remember
in some areas, the declination changes significantly, so you'll need to know what
it is this year. If you are using a map with a "UTM-grid", you
will want to know how this grid differs from the magnetic pole. When
you are taking out a course, you will do that more or less as described in earlier
on, but this time, you must also look out so that you don't align the orienting
lines with the grid lines pointing west or east, or south for that matter. When
you have taken out a course like you've learned, you must add or subract an angle,
and that angle is the angle you found before you left home, the angle between
the grid lines or meridians and the magnetic north.  The
declination is given as e.g. "15 degrees east". When you look at the
figure, you can pretend that plus is to the right, or east, and minus is to the
left and west. Like a curved row of numbers. So when something is more than zero
you'll subtract to get it back to zero. And if it is less, you'll add. So in this
case you'll subtract 15 degrees to the azimuth, by turning the compass housing,
according to the numbers on the housing. Now, finally, the direction of travel-arrow
points in the direction you want to go. Again, be careful to aim at some distant
object and off you go.
You may not need to find the declination before
you leave home, actually. There is a fast and pretty good method to find the declination
whereever you are. This method has also the advantage that corrects for local
conditions that may be present (I am thankful towards Jim Cross who pointed this
out to me).
This is what you do: - Determine by map inspection
the grid azimuth from your location to a know, visible, distant point. The further
away, the more accurate it gets. This means you have to know where you are, and
be pretty sure about one other feature in the terrain.
- Sight on that
distant point with the compass and note the magnetic azimuth. You do that by turning
the compass housing so that it is aligned with the needle. You may now read the
number from the housing where it meets the base of the direction of travel-arrow.
- Compare the two azimuths. The difference is the declination.
- Update
as necessary. You shouldn't need to do this very often, unless you travel in a
terrain with lots of mineral deposits.
There are a few riddles and
rhymes to help you remember whether you should add or subtract. I don't know them.
If you live in an area where you don't go far for it to change between east and
west, it is so small you wouldn't need to worry about it anyway. So it's best
to just remember whether you should add or subtract.
You
can't always expect to hit exactly what you are looking for. In fact, you must
expect to get a little off course. How much you get off course depends
very often on the things around you. How dense the forest is, fog, visibility
is a keyword. And of course, it depends on how accurate you are. You do make things
better by being careful when you take out a course, and it is important to aim
as far ahead as you can see.  In
normal forest conditions we say that as a rule of thumb, the uncertainty is one
tenth of the distance traveled. So if it is like in the figure, you go 200 meters
on course, it is possible that you end up a little off course, 20 meters or so.
If you're looking for something smaller than 20 meters across, there is a chance
you'll miss. If you want to hit that rock in our example you'll need to keep the
eyes open!
In the open mountain areas, things are of course a lot easier
when you can see far ahead of you.
Fog makes things difficult, and in some
situations dangerous. When you hike, you will probably some day experience these
difficulties, and you'd better be prepared. The fog can come creeping very
fast. I have myself experienced from clear view to dense fog in 10 seconds. How
fast this goes, depends on where you are. Winter conditions can make things
a lot worse, when there is snow on the ground. The fog is white (or grey), the
snow is also white. You may get a condition we call a "white-out". It's
too late to read the terrain, and then the map isn't of much use. You can't see
anything anyway. You have no choice but to put blind faith in your compass. I
hope you knew where you were, because you need to take out a good compass course,
like described in the other lessons. If
you are skiing, you should tie your compass to your arm or something, so you can
look at it for every step you take. A rubberband is good. Check for more or less
every step you take that the compass needle is aligned with the orienting lines.
But if it is cold, make sure it doesn't affect circulation of blood in your arm,
because that will make you freeze. If you are going on an expedition where you
expect conditions like this, you should perhaps consider a arrangement to attach
to your chest.  Let's
consider a method to enhance the accuracy in conditions when you can't aim at
anything. If you are three persons in a row, like on the figure, and the last
one carries a compass (of course, it is better that all three carry a compass,
but the last one has command), he or she will see if you get off course because
one of those in front of him or her will not be covered by the person in front.
On the figure, the situation to the left is ok. The person on top is heading forward
and but he sees only the person in front of him or her. In the situation to the
right, it's time to stop. The last person can see the backs of both of them in
front, and they are about to leave their course.
The further apart you
go, the more accurate this method is, but it is also very important to have good
contact. Sometimes the conditions get so bad there is no way to maintain contact,
and then, the method may fail. There is also another method for two people,
where the lead person goes out on a compass azimuth, as far as the visibility
will allow. The person behind stands still and watches the lead person, telling
them if they are in the correct line or not. Once they have moved correctly into
line they then stand still and the back person joins them. They then have their
turn to move out ahead on the azimuth, and the whole cycle repeats. The problem
with this method is when the visibility is very bad, the lead person can't go
more that a few meters, and it would be dangerous to loose each other. Finally,
I'd like to comment on something that is seen in many standard texts on mountaineering
navigation: You are commonly taught to use methods that use terrain features that
are easily recognizable but far away. In my opinion, such methods are of little
use, unless you require surveyor's accuracy in knowing where you are (hikers rarely
do). As long as the weather is good, navigation is fairly easy and you'll naturally
use these features as part of a more general approach. However, when the visibility
is poor, you can't see these far-away-features and this makes the methods involving
them rather useless. Therefore, focus your training in navigation on using features
in your vicinity. Can it possibly get any worse than a situation in dense
fog? What if you haven't got a compass?.
You are lost. I mean really lost. Standing
in the middle of nowhere, and you have no idea where to go. If you are really
in trouble, remember two things first of all: stay calm, think rationally, and
you can survive a long time without food. What you need is to drink. Further
thoughts about extreme survival skills is beyond the scope of this page, seek
advice elsewhere beyond this introduction. This page deals with the situation
of finding your way, without the aid of a compass. What you have, is the sun,
the stars, and the nature around you. This page is mainly about the northern
hemisphere of the earth, actually north of 23.5 °, because I have never been
to the southern hemisphere myself (would like to go there of course!). The methods
described do of course apply to the southern hemisphere as well, but in some places
there may be a need to swap north and south to get it right. I hope you are able
to figure it out. For a start, it may be a good idea to climb a hill, and
get a good look around. Try to see traces of human activity. If you see nothing,
you should try to figure out in what direction would be the best to travel. If
you haven't got a map, try to draw one if you can of the terrain in front of you,
and try to mark off where north is, using the methods below. If you have got a
map, try to determine where you are. Remember, you don't want to climb more hills
than you have to. Also you should carefully consider not to climb if you are very
tired. In that case you should consider staying where you are. Consult other sources
for information on how to make it easy for rescuers. Let us start with
the most accurate method. This method requires that you have a pretty clear sky,
though, and takes a lot of time. One of the advantages is that you don't need
any equipment. You would need a straight pole about 1 meter (or a yard) long,
two small sticks or rocks, another stick (or rock) that needs to be a little sharp,
and something that can act as a string.  In
the morning, at least before noon, the trick starts. Stick the long pole in the
ground, upright. The ground around the pole needs to be horizontal. Now, you can
place one of the little sticks in the ground exactly where the shadow of the pole
ends, like on the figure. Then tie the string to the base of the pole, and tie
the little, sharp stick, to the other end, so that when the string is stretched
it reaches exactly the little stick standing there in the soil. Then, scratch
half a circle in the soil with your sharp little stick, and wait... Wait. Wait
until the evening. During the day, the shadow will get shorter and shorter, until
noon, when it gets longer again. At noon, when the shadow is at its shortest,
you may want to mark the point. The shadow is now pointing north (if you are north
of 23.5 ° north). It is however not very easy to see exactly when this is,
but it is useful anyway. Finally, the shadow reaches your circle again, and when
it does, place your other little stick at the spot where the shadow ends. If you
haven't got a string, you could use a pole that has the right length, or try to
come up with some other improvised solution. Just make sure what you draw is a
circle.
Now, the line from the first stick to the second is west-east,
like on the figure. Actually, you may want to mark points regurlarly, because
any two points that have exactly the same distance from the base of the pole will
give the West-East line. If it is partly cloudy, this may be a good idea.  There
is a short, fast version of this one as well. This is only approximate, though,
and the further away from the equator you get, the more inaccurate is it. You
don't need the sharp stick and the string. Just wait 20 minutes between placing
each of the sticks, and the line between the two sticks will be approximately
west-east, like on the figure. Often, you wouldn't need anything more accurate.
At night, you can navigate after the stars. You should, however, be careful
with walking, it is easy to stumble and fall and get injured, and also easy to
lose sight of the stars as you go, and you might start going around in circles.
 If
you have an analog wrist watch, you can use the time to find north. Hold your
watch up in front of you, and let the short hand, red on the figure, that indicates
hours point at the sun. While holding it like this, cut the angle between the
red arrow and 12 o'clock in two, (noonwards if the time is before 6am or after
6pm), that way is south. (The reason you need to cut it in two, is because the
clock takes two rotations while the sun takes one around the earth, it is of course
the other way around, but never mind.)
Many people wear digital watches
these days (I do myself, if I wear one at all). If you do, draw an analog watch
face on a piece of paper, and then mark the hour hand on using the digital watch.
The rest of the method is identical. This method can be used even when
it is pretty foggy. Although you may not be able to see the sun, it may still
cast a shadow. If you take up a straw or a tiny stick, and you may see a shadow.
You just have to remember that the shadow points the opposite way from the sun,
but the rest of it is quite similar as above.  Want
to make your own compass? Sure. You need a needle and a glass of water. A needle
can in fact float on the water, or that is, on the surface tension forces if put
carefully on the surface. Just put it carefully down on the surface of the water.
This demands a lot of patience though. There are three tricks that makes it go
easier. One: Put the needle on a piece of paper. If the paper floats too, there
is no problem, and if the paper sinks, it'll probably leave the needle. If you
put some grease on the needle that isn't water-based, it'll go easier, or if you
put it carefully down with a fork or something. Once it has got there, it stays
there pretty good.
If the needle is magnetic, it will act as a normal compass
and be very accurate. A problem is though, that you don't know north from south.
All you know is that it lays north-south. You would have to use one of the other
techniques to find out, or make a good guess. The greatest problem with
this is: Not many needles are made of magnetic materials these days.... You can't
just use any needle. You may just have to look around to see what you can find,
if you want to make yourself a compass. What if there is no shadow? Then,
there are a few methods based on natural signs. It is very much about trees.
First of all, there will be fewer branches to the north. This is usually easiest
to see if you look up along the trunk of the tree. The north face of the tree
would be more humid than the south face, which is something most species of lichen
(or moss) likes, and consequently, there will be more of it on the north face.
It is also worthwhile to look at how snow melts. In the spring in the mountains,
snow will melt faster on the south face of rocks, or in south faced slopes. Also,
vegetation and undergrowth will typically be thicker on the South facing slopes,
and also fruits ripen earlier on the South facing slopes. These methods
are not very reliable, I am afraid. Winds may alter the average conditions significantly,
and cause deviations. If you use natural signs, you should use as many signs as
you can before you draw a conclusion. This was the last of the lessons
you should know. Now it is time to log out and get into the backyard, and then
backcountry. Try it out! That is after all, the only way to learn this properly.
Good Luck! Kjetil Kjernsmo © 1997
kjetikj@astro.uio.no
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