compass. do you use it.

do you use a compass

  • always

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • some times

    Votes: 17 60.7%

  • never

    Votes: 11 39.3%
  • Total voters
    28
GPS's are nice, but they break. The last two Garmin GPS's I had broke within the first year. Both broke while I was trying to figure out where I was. One of the times the GPS said I was 5 miles from my real location. I knew that because my friend also has a GPS, and the terrain around us did not match where my GPS said we were. You must know how to use a compass, even when on trail. I have taken wrong trails before, and in dense forests like the Pacific Northwest it is very easy to not realize you are going N instead of NE.

For those that have never needed to use a compass, I suggest you first buy a good one. Then take you compass, GPS, and map, and get lost. Unitas are great for that. There are tons of off-trail lakes. Try and hit one using only the compass and map. When your GPS dies is not the time to realize that you have no clue how to get back to your car by map and compass.
 
fiber said:
For those that have never needed to use a compass, I suggest you first buy a good one. Then take you compass, GPS, and map, and get lost.
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honestly i have a hard time imagining being able to do that. may be if i walked around blindfolded, but that sounds dangerous. i've known people who could get lost, easily, but personally, i've never been able to lose track of what drainage i started in, which way is down hill, which way the sun is going, etc. i've been in trees dense enough to limit vision. and i've taken a wrong trail, but i've generally realized it within a hundred yards, because i had a map with me. which i feel is much more important than the compass, and, so far at least, sufficient on it's own. i'm uncertain what good, if any, the compass really does on it's own.
 
The last trip I took with my brother-in-law he noticed that I had a compass in my day pack. He made fun of my for having it. Some how it made out if my bag and into the back seat of his truck. After getting home he continued to make fun of me. I received a call from him he told me that he was worried about me. I asked why? He told me he found my compass in his truck and he was wondering how I was finding my way to and from work. He's a real funny guy...
 
I wouldn't call him a funny guy...... more like s*****. Don't let him badger you, you could get the last laugh.
 
Weight wise I substitute my watch for a compass. Since I always have a map, its a better trade off for me, as my watch can give me direction, altitude, baro and temperature. Its not the most accurate but easy and convenient. I have thought of getting a hand held GPS but its just more convenient to use my phone with GPS software.

Now if we ever lose GPS Sats, it will be a sad day as few people can even use a compass.
 
A watch has batteries, compass doesn't. With a GPSr, batteries last way longer than a phone. I know......watch batteries last forever, but, they can fail at usually the wrong time...... ;)
 
I hear ya Bob. I have thought about those issues and it just depends on my situation as to what I would bring. For the winds or somewhere I don't know or am going to be off trail I would make sure someone in the party has a compass with a signal mirror and a handheld GPS. Other than that I'm very comfortable in the uintas with my setup. Before I even go on a new hike, I check out the sat images and when hiking every time I stop I look at my phones map and take in my area for landmarks. Plus I love to take pics so I get a good feel for the area as it is.

My Watch is very rugged and solar powered. Even without a watch I can do ok with the sun or signs to give me a very rough idea of my direction. I really do need to learn celestial navigation though.

For over night I carry a 2.5k mah battery backup that's light and small. Extended trips or with more people I will bring a 7.5K or 10K mah battery backup so we can juice up. If its longer than 3 days then I can charge the batter backup with a solar panel. 5 Watts for myself or a 12 Watt if needed. Add that everyone also has a phone with GPS and NAV software its pretty redundant.

If all else fails and I cant imagine ever getting that lost, I have my Spot and a map of the whole uintas. I can msg my friends find me or get picked up at another trail head or road. Worst case have a SAR team get me. Its getting harder to get lost nowadays as there is roads everywhere and harder to go a day without bumping into people.
 
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I carry both a compass and an altimeter, both of which get used only sporadically; the altimeter probably gets used more often than the compass for navigation. My compass mostly gets used for orienting a map or on occasion for verifying where I think the sun is going to set and rise if I'm setting up camp in a deep basin in the mountains. I like to site my kitchen and lounging area to have an easy view of the sunset and have maximal sun exposure late afternoon/evening, and site the tent to have good exposure to the sun in the morning.
 
ogg said:
I carry both a compass and an altimeter, both of which get used only sporadically; the altimeter probably gets used more often than the compass for navigation.
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I like a man who antis up his actual elevation with his Topo! that little trick comes right out of outward bound! ten points!
 
A compass and altimeter is included in my GPS handheld.
As backup I always carry a compass and a Topo map of the region where we're.


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I've been wanting to buy an altimeter for years now. I feel that using a GPS is "cheating". Most higher end GPS units have a built in physical barometer. I always have my GPs unit off and therefore never use it to find the altitude. A Suunto barometric watch would make navigating by map and compass a lot easier in the mountains.
 
I always carry one, but rarely need to use it. There are usually lots of big landmarks in the west. When I backpacked in West Virginia I used it constantly - couldn't see anything but trees.

When I climb Mt. Shasta I always have it around my neck - I know a guy who went down the wrong side in the fog and stumbled around lost for a few days.
 
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I just carry a GPS, with the electronic compass turned off. The only way it tells me which way is "up" is when I'm moving.
 
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