Compass Use For Idiots?

M

Moving Target

Joined
Feb 8, 2000
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Can anyone recommend a good instructional book (readily-available) on the use of a compass for navigation and wayfinding, use with maps, etc. Something detailed and informative yet easy to understand ? Any help would be much appreciated!
 
What kind of navigating will you be doing? By that, I mean will you be in the woods off-trail, or in the mountains, or hiking on well marked trails?

It is probably best to start with something that matches your actual MO as closely as possible, rather than learning a bunch of stuff you won't use right away.

Scott
 
I will be hiking off-trail ('bushwhacking') from spot to spot but in an area where official trail are also present. I will be able to determine where I am starting from (say Mt. Peak "A") and will have a topo map of the area along with a compass. I will also know where I want to go from the map...so I need to know how to set my compass from my starting point to where I need to go so that I can hold my course true when I get down below the trees and will have no landmarks to read. Hope this helps...
 
I actually learned when I was in a search-and-rescue unit by doing field work on a compass course, so I can't recommend a first book per se.

I did pick up a lot of stuff from the Mountaineers' The Freedom of the Hills. That book has a ton of info not only about compasswork, but almost more importantly, about alpine and subalpine travel, even though it is a mountaineering book. It stays at a pretty basic level and emphasizes quality of skill more than knowing a lot of tricks. I think this is the best attitude to take and the most productive in the long run. I had the 4th edition; I think the 5th is out now.

Scott
 
Originally posted by beezaur
I did pick up a lot of stuff from the Mountaineers' The Freedom of the Hills. That book has a ton of info not only about compasswork, but almost more importantly, about alpine and subalpine travel, even though it is a mountaineering book. It stays at a pretty basic level and emphasizes quality of skill more than knowing a lot of tricks. I think this is the best attitude to take and the most productive in the long run. I had the 4th edition; I think the 5th is out now.

Scott
Click to expand...

I guess I'm showing my age when I say I have the 3rd edition. ;)

NOLS graduate, Wind River Mountaineering, 1974.
 
I'll jump in and recommend "Be Expert with Map and Compass"
by Bjorn Hjellstrom. I've read some books that left me baffled. This book is totally brainless. Even I was able to figure it out, and drugs fried most of my brain cells in highschool.
 
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