Appalachian Mountain Club - Delaware Valley Chapter

Navigation Overview

Various tools are available for staying found in the woods. In order of importance, they are:

Drinking and Eating: Most mistakes are caused by dehydration. Getting lost is usually caused by making a mistake.
Staying calm: Usually, if you're off-track, it's not that far back to a known point. Staying calm avoids making another mistake. Have a drink and handful of GORP while considering the situation.
Map: A compass (or GPS or ...) may take you north. Unless you know the lie of the land, north may be over a cliff.
Compass: To avoid going in circles. Best used with a map.
Watch: To know how much daylight you have left.
GPS: Will tell you your exact location. May not help if you don't have a map to know if this location is north or east of your car. Also, the batteries can stop working!
Altimeter: This tells you your altitude. Can help you to know if it's too late to continue on to the summit. Again, the batteries may fail and it isn't much use if you don't know the lay of the land.
Natural Signals: Yes, you may be able to tell the time from the sun or the way the mosses are growing. However, this usually is only an approximation and requires expert skills (if you have such skills, you're probably not reading this page).

Tools the DO NOT help you stay found:

Mobile Phone: "Umm, 911 Operator, I'm in the woods with a stream running alongside and a big mountain behind me." Yup, I know where that is also. The 911 Operator may not be in the local town or even the same state.

We always welcome additional suggestions for training opportunities. Please e-mail any suggested additions or comments to the education chair.