Originally Posted By: KenK
Glad they are OK.

I am a BIG fan of what personal locator beacons can do, and I heartily recommend folks heading into wilderness bring one along. They are so cheap and simple to use today.

As I've said before here, I am big believer in people going into wilderness bringing a good paper map of the area, a compass, and a GPS (even a very basic one will do) ... and KNOWING how to use them together.

They have to know how to take a waypoint from the GPS and find it as a coordinate on the map, so they know where they are. For this I like https://maptools.com/ tools and tutorial.

If they can know exactly where they are, often just using the compass can help them know the correct directions when faced with a choice.


If you can get the map oriented with true north, you can often figure out where you are from the surrounding terrain. An analog watch and the sun/shadows will get you the general neighborhood. If the magnetic field is really wonky, you print out an elevation/azimuth table to establish the local declination. IIRC, the Vikings used a very crude azimuth compass. It was only good for a few days and a few degrees, but it would keep you pointed in the general direction you needed to go.

https://planetcalc.com/4270/
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