I'd like to get some feedback of this groups experience/lessons learned with dead reckoning navigation in the backcountry.

Kind of an open ended question don't you think?

Are you looking for lost stories? Found stories? Heroic self-rescue stories? Stories of me walking in circles until I died?

I want to hear that one

Learn to read a terrain map, how to do basic intersection and resection, plot coordinates, and keeping a pace count. Always use the map in conjunction with the compass and know what terrain you are on at any time.

To add to Montanero's post, estimating the distance travelled is the most difficult thing to do IME.

I have done a fair bit of navigating solely by map & compass before the GPS days, and I still do it occasionally just to stay in shape. It can be done with very good precision as long as you're absolutely familiar with the basic concepts of land navigation.

Even in difficult, unknown terrain with short lines of sight I have been able to keep track of my position pretty well, being able to find my way to some particular landmark or (even more importantly!) finding the car at the end of the trip, which is a very small target and missed easily. But it is not for the faint of heart and certainly not something that I would recommend to someone without at least a modicum of field experience.

In theory, land navigation by map & compass is not that complicated. But dead reckoning becomes difficult when you're tired or if something unexpected throws you off balance. Fatigue is a major factor IMO, it could temporarily degrade your mental faculties by a large margin without even realizing. On one particularly scary occasion (in hilly backcountry and deep snow on top of it all) I reached the point where I wasn't sure any longer if the red end of my compass needle was supposed to point north or south.

Stuff happens and if you find yourself in a situation like that you really need to STOP immediately and pull yourself together before things spin out of control.

From what I've learned on my treks, people almost always overestimate the distance covered in a given period of time. More so in hard terrain. Ranger beads can be very helpful. If you are with a group it's a good idea to have at least two people performing a pace count just in case the designated leader happens to lose track of the count for whatever reason. Also, check your current position regularly against known landmarks whenever possible.

I've not actually used pace counting for distance.
Have always used orienteering-style handrails and stop points.
Maybe I died out there and haven't figured it out yet?

The going in circles part is what I do at work.....

This sounds like The Sixth Sense to me.

Jeanette Isabelle

me too!!

Most of my navigating is done in either mountainous terrain or in deep, entrenched canyons (where you need to keep track of the number of bends you have traversed) and positioning yourself by landmarks is pretty straightforward. I have rarely used a compass....I still carry one, because when you need one, you really need it.

The comment on counting the number of bends reminds me of years past and another type of navigation. When I went through flight training decades back (way before GPS) I flew a few low level navigation flights in Utah/Nevada. In dead reckoning you turn based on time if you have no other input; there was so much to see and stay found in that rugged country that DR was not an issue; I had checkpoints that were used simply as confirmation that I was near my intended track and time. At the end was a "target" which had an intended overhead time. On one leg I counted ridge-lines and simply turned down the middle of the valley. Another trainee took the "turn-on-time" option and turned down the wrong valley - doh! That happened to be my check-ride and I overflew the target within seconds of my intended time.

But that's DR with a view from 500 ft up doing 300 KIAS, not 6 ft doing 2 mph -- slight difference. Still, the same principle applies, take a heading and speed, and with no other input, turn on time. At some point though, you need to get a fix and find out for sure where you are located.

The real question when doing back-country navigation is, are you seeing the sights while navigating, or are you navigating while seeing the sights. Which comes first? Do you find yourself after getting lost or do you simply stay found? Trust me, the guy that flew down the wrong valley stayed lost.

Pretty much the same for me. I always carry a compass, and practice with it regularly, but don't often need it.

I think it is paramount to develop really good map reading skills. In mountainous terrain, if you have a decent topo map, and pay attention to the terrain as you move over it, you can usually tell pretty closely where you are. If you are adept at reading contours, you can often infer a great deal from subtle changes in slope as you walk along. You can do a lot with good map and the old Mark I eyeball.

In my experience a compass comes more into play in flatter terrain, or when visibility of landmarks is poor due to forest, brush, bad weather or darkness. I've rarely if ever had to do a resection of three landmarks to find my position. More often I've used the intersection of a bearing to a single landmark with a linear feature such as a ridge or creek (sometimes called a "handrail" or "line of position"). I've also used the "angle off" method to find a spot on a linear feature. When I've used pace counting it is usually just to get around an obstacle and get back on course.