Wilderness Navigation: Finding Your Way Using Map, Compass, Altimeter & GPS, 3rd Edition (Mountaineers Outdoor Basics)

Provided complete introduction to map reading and compass use. Well written and easy to understand. The only book you’ll need.

Outstanding book for newbies to learn and practice compass and navigation skills, and a fantastic review for those who have had some experience already. Logically laid out, well-written and mostly easy to understand. The difficult parts are only difficult because of such foreign and new concepts to this reader! But with continued focus and study, I was able to understand every bit of it ultimately! Grateful for the pratice sections at the back of the book. Also appreciate the repetition of the most important and fundamental points that must be understood and practiced in order to have success out in the real world! Finally, really appreciate having specific reviews and guides for equipment. That actually helped me know the compass I had was not very good, and helped me to select the perfect compass!

I have read Be Expert with Map and Compass (over a decade ago) and this book. I found this book went into a lot of information about map types, how to use a compass for various purposes, and how to use a compass in case you are lost. Lots of tips for getting around in the wilderness with a map as well as what to do when lost. I think it was worth the money spent. Be Expert with Map and compass seemed to have more on orienteering competition concepts, such as how to determine the best route in order to hit control points in an orienteering competition. But I do have a few concerns. One, the author doesn't recommend any compasses that don't have a declination adjustment. I went out and bought one that has such an adjustment as a result. But then, upon doing more research, learned that for orienteering competition organizers normally provide a map that has MAGNETIC north lines drawn on it -- not the True North lines with recommended declination adjustment at the bottom. If the author has spelled out that compasses without a declination adjustment feature are just fine for orienteering competitions, I would not have purchased the fancy compass with a declination screw and sighting mirror. Two, there is a table that compares features of various name brand compasses, which was really helpful, but I think it could be expanded to indicate whether the compass has a declination screw or other means of adjusting declination. I had to spend a lot of time online figuring this out from often poorly worded product descriptions that didn't indicate if these feature actually existed on the compasses. It was only when I saw the declination screw driver on some models that I actually had confidence the product had that adjustment capability. Three -- I had to really look at a few diagrams to understand the point. For example, there is one compass diagram that shows how a declination adjustment has been made. With how many arrows there are (orienting arrow, magnetic arrow, baseplate arrow) and the various ways you can read a bearing on a compass, some leader lines indicating where to look would have been helpful. He goes into altimeters and GPS, which was good, although I didn't read that part since I'm not interested in it right now. But I still am glad I have the book, and will be referring to it as my knowledge of orienteering grows. Already I needed to consult it about what township lines are, and where to get maps.

I used this book to brush up on my land navigation skills. As I noted in the headline, it covers everything from basic compass use and topographic map reading to understanding UTM grids and the efficient use of GPS units. In short, this is an excellent book. Yes, you can Google many of these topics, but for less than $10.00, can have all of them at hand. Besides, if you are new to land navigation, there is misinformation on the web that you need to avoid. This book and some time spent practicing with map and compass will keep you from getting lost and help you select the best routes to your destination. By the way, those of you who learned land navigation with a military compass will be referred to the field manual for the use of that compass. However, even in that case, this book is full of useful information.

This book has enough detail for me. Plenty of pictures and easy to read and understand examples of how to use maps and compasses for navigation. I'm a grandma and want to teach my 9 year old grandson about navigation. My son-in-law also wants to learn more. We were having an earth day celebration where we were pacing and navigating on my property to find prizes (such as a birdhouse, or some spring seeds to plant). We were using our phone compasses and found them to be inaccurate, (at least the way we were using them). Thought it would be fun to learn a little bit on each outing when we are camping, hiking, biking or just wanting to identify a mountain.

Excellent Book on Map and Compass but only one chapter on GPS. And most of the chapter is on how to buy a GPS. However I still must rate this with 5 stars since it is an excellent book on navigation, one of the very best. A compass doesn't need batteries so it is failproof. And it is diffcult for a compass to give a false reading. This information on how to read and navigate using a map is vital to know. The GPS shows this map and you need to know how to read it.. My days of map and compass training is what makes the GPS simple.

Product was exactly as advertised; it also arrived ahead of schedule. I will buy from this seller again.

Good book with basic and advanced knowledge about getting around in the outdoors. The info on using the compass is good. I really liked that it gave a work around for compasses with fixed magnetic declination scales by using tape. I took a star off for the lack of illustrations. Still good book

It's been 25 years since my Boy Scout days and this book really helped me re-learn how to use a compass. Very easy to read and the practice questions at the end of each chapter are of huge help. The key techniques are also summarized on 3 pages so you can just take a photo of them to bring with you on your phone when hiking instead of the whole book. I was able to successfully navigate through a thick woods using just my compass to find a spot pre-selected on my map. I was also able to find my location on the map based on different physical landmarks and plot a course in advanced using a topographical map. So the book really does work.

Generally good book for beginners. The author presented a new view on some techniques compared to other sources, which was helpful. Lots of maps in the book, very helpful, unfortunately of not so good quality making them difficult to read. Can recommend this book to anyone.

After trying very hard again and again on the internet to find out how to use a compass, I was confused, perplexed, frustrated, annoyed (with myself), and fed up. I have just finished "studying" this book, and it is BRILLIANT. The exercises at the end of each chapter were fun, and let you know whether you have really understood what you've been reading. Now I spend a lot of time every day outdoors with the dog, practicing, and it's amazing and fun. I can do it, I enjoy it, and really - it is easy!

A brilliant and very insightful book, I found this very helpful. It's very well written, very clear, and a must have for anyone who wants to venture into the wilds.

Excelente livro