_edited.png)
How to Find Your Way Without a Compass
Like most outdoor skills, using a map and compass is a bit of an art. Each person hiking from point A to B will have their own way of getting there, from how they find their compass bearing, to how they plan the route, to how they move through the environment. No two people will accomplish it the same way, yet if they are familiar with these tools, they are likely to be successful.
But what if you’ve lost your map and compass in a river crossing, or down a ravine? The map got wet, or dropped in the fire? Your compass hit a rock and broke? If these tools are no longer available, what now? There are a lot of fun and useful techniques to help you find the cardinal directions without modern technology.
If you’re not good with cardinal directions, I like saying: never (north), eat (east), soggy (south), waffles (west) to remember them. If you’re facing north, turn clockwise 90 degrees to point east, again to face south, and again to look west.
If you can’t figure out which way leads to safety or continuing to move is hazardous due to darkness, storms, wildlife, visibility and so on, stop moving. Wait until you have a solid rational plan and conditions are reasonably safe. If you’re badly hurt or lost, be still and make yourself visible to searchers. Hiking burns up a lot of calories, uses a lot of water, and exposes you to higher risk of injury than settling in and signaling for help.
Here is a taste of some direction-finding techniques:
Sun
It rises in the east and sets in the west.
If you’re located north of the Tropic of Cancer, the sun will always be south of you during midday. If you’re south of the Tropic of Capricorn, it will always be to the north of you midday. Another way to think of this: At solar noon in the northern hemisphere, shadows point due north, and in the southern hemisphere shadows point due south.
You can approximate directions using an analog watch and the sun. The watch method gives you a general direction; accuracy depends on daylight savings, the difference between noon and solar noon on a given day, and other factors. However it’s useful regardless: Point the hour hand of a real or imaginary analog watch (you’ll need to know the local time or rough estimate) at the sun if you are in the northern hemisphere. Then “draw” an imaginary line between the hour hand and the 12 o’clock position on the watch face. This line runs generally north to south. Use other cues to determine east and west (like the concepts above). This works during sunlit hours. Note that south of the tropics, the method differs slightly (point 12 at the sun rather than the current hour hand).
You can use the materials around you to determine directions. This requires three things: two moments of full sunlight at least 10 minutes apart, a fixed point in space a few feet from the ground (usually provided by a firmly anchored and pointed stick), and a flat and level section of ground about 2 feet in diameter. Clear the flat area where the shadow will be cast; it should be as level and smooth as possible. Drive the sturdy and pointed stick into the ground (or anchor it firmly with rocks) in a position where the tip of the shadow falls about in the center of your cleared patch of ground. Mark as specifically as possible the location in the cleared space where the shadow of the stick’s tip meets the ground (I usually use a 2” section of dead grass stalk or a pine needle pushed into the soil). Wait about 10 minutes or longer, and mark the shadow tip again. Draw a line or place a straight stick or grass stalk between the two points. The first shadow mark will be west of the second one (sun moves from east to west; the stick acts as a fulcrum so the shadow moves from west to east). Bisect that line with a second line making a plus sign. Now you have north and south.
Snow patterns can provide valuable navigation clues. I remember waking one morning in the desert after a light snowfall and being amazed. I looked one direction and everything was covered in snow, while in the other there was none—just desert sand. Had I been right on some kind of line where the snow fell? No. The sun had already melted off all the snow on the east-facing side of the vegetation. As I looked east (toward the sun), it looked like a winter wonderland since I was looking at the west-facing side of the vegetation which had not yet melted. Even when the sun is not out, snow that has been on the ground for a while will have been influenced by the sun being lower in the sky in winter and in the southern part of the sky (assuming you’re north of the Tropic of Cancer). If you look at a landscape where most of the snow has melted, it will be on the northern aspects of all objects (mountains, trees, rock outcroppings, bushes, etc.).
Vegetation
Because the sun is always south of us at midday here in the continental US, more dry-tolerant, sun-loving plants grow on south-facing slopes, and water- and shade-loving plants grow better on north-facing slopes. Lefthand Canyon near Boulder, Colorado shows this principle really well. It’s a steep canyon with a creek at the bottom that runs east to west. The north-facing slope is covered in dense fir and spruce forest with rocks coated in moss. Snow lingers long into the spring there. Walk 400 feet north to the south-facing slope and you’ll see large, sparse ponderosa pines, lots of sandy, bare rock, yucca and prickly pear, and an environment that seems close to high desert. They look like completely different biomes 400 feet apart.
Isolated trees can also give clues about the directions. Trees reach for the most sunshine they can get to power their growth. Therefore, in the continental US, trees in the open without other trees or steep slopes casting shade on them will have thicker, larger, and more robust branches on their south side.
Wind
Weather, including wind, moves generally from west to east in the US, so there are several techniques to find direction based on wind effects.
In flat areas with low-lying or no vegetation, such as prairie or treeless snow fields, wind tends to blow from one direction for weeks or even months at a time. Once you determine that direction (using any of the concepts listed here) you can use the wind from then on to keep a very consistent bearing. Just re-check it occasionally to make sure it hasn’t shifted significantly.
You’ll notice when hiking on ridgelines that trees at the very top are often lacking branches entirely on the windward (usually western) side.
The tops of hemlock trees are flexible and have a tendency to flop leeward (downwind). So they often point east.
Snow drifts and cornices tend to point east on open, high points. Lower elevations in mountainous terrain tend to swirl wind around, making this technique less reliable.
Insects
In deserts where large ant hills are common, the primary entrance to the colony is usually on the southeast side of the hill as long as the hill isn’t shaded. Being diurnal, they like warmth and go dormant in cold weather. They therefore tend to make their entrance where the hill warms first in the morning.
Comments