qupkene / Gear / Navigation kit
Gear
Navigation kit
The phone is not the problem. Having only the phone is the problem.
A phone with offline maps is an excellent navigation tool and a single point of failure that is sensitive to cold, water and being dropped on rock, all three of which are likely. A map and compass fail differently, which is the entire reason for carrying them.
The map
For Norway the standard topographic scale is 1:50,000, where one centimetre is five hundred metres. Contour lines are the information that matters: their spacing is the gradient, and reading that spacing is more useful than any other single navigational skill. Carry it in a case or accept that it will disintegrate.
What a bearing is
A bearing is simply an angle from north. Taking one from the map means placing the compass edge along your intended line of travel, rotating the housing until its grid lines match the map's north-south lines, and then reading the number. Walking it means turning your body until the magnetic needle sits in the housing's outline, and going the way the arrow points. That is the whole procedure.
Declination
Magnetic north and grid north are not the same, and the difference varies by place and drifts over time. In Norway it is small but not zero. Over a kilometre it is the difference between hitting a col and hitting the slope beside it.
The techniques that matter more
- Handrails. Follow a linear feature, a stream, a wall, a valley edge, rather than navigating in open ground.
- Catching features. Identify something you cannot miss beyond your target, so you know when you have overshot.
- Aiming off. Deliberately aim to one side of a target on a stream or path, so when you arrive you know which way to turn.
- Timing and pacing. Knowing roughly how long a kilometre takes you, and how many paces it is, converts a bearing into a position.
Practise before you need it
Taking a bearing in a warm room is easy. Doing it in cloud, in wind, in gloves, with a group waiting, is a different task. A marked route across a boulder field in fog is the specific situation this is for.