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

Got this for my daughter and it seems like a good option for strengthening your orientating skills.

The seller keep me updated the entire time on the book. When it appeared the book would be late I was emailed about this and received it early the next day. That is the way you run a business. Thank you for the excellent service. Now to the book: The book is great and covers many important parts of navigation. I have never seen one book that covers everything but this book comes close. I highly recommend this book to start your journey into navigation.

Where to start... I enjoyed reading it, the practice problems were fun and a perfect way to help cement the material in my mind. I did notice that some of the map distance problems did not match up with the answers. I measured once, twice, and again, and the answers still did not match what I was getting (and I was using same technique with previous problems and no discrepancies). Hmm... Am I the only one to do the problems, or am I making an error somewhere? Other than that, partway through the book they assumed I had a compass to play with and observe, so the description about adjusting declination on the compass and how it and your readings would be affected was a little hard to understand. There was a different book I had picked up when I chanced to see it, "The Outward Bound Map & Compass Handbook" By Glenn Randall, that I looked at to see if it explained any better. It did! Don't know how the rest of that book is.... haven't read it yet (so many books so little time!!) But back to this book, overall it was an excellent introduction into navigating with a compass. I would definitely recommend it, and will read it again to thoroughly familiarize myself with the subject (after I get my compass and knock out a few other books:).

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.

Comprehensive and very useful.

This book will literally teach you everything you need to know. I had to read some sections a few times but when I got to the end of the book I feel very confident that as long as I have a map I’ll never be lost!! Great book

This is, by far, the best written book on basic land navigation that I have read. The subject is explained in clear and concise terms that leave no doubt in the mind of the reader as to what the authors are saying. Ir proceeds in a step by step logical fashion and those who choose to read it, and master its techniques, will be well equipped tp proceed with wilderness navigation.Two other observation. First, buy a full size Topo 1:24K to use with the book One of the few weaknesses of this book ( as well as all others) is that the maps used in the book are too small and poorly reproduced.Also, i may have missed it but the author really should emphasize more the need to go out and practice in areas that you already know very well---especially with taking azimuths , intersection and resection. "Picking out point" on your map sounds easy reading it in a book but it is a whole different story in real. Practicing ( and getting a good handle on contours) is a must if you are going to do serious wilderness navigation.

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.

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.

Excelente livro

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!

Es el libro que he visto mas actualizado en referencia al uso de las brújulas en diversas situaciones así como la interacción con sistemas como GPS y altímetro. Esta adecuadamente ilustrado, impreso en muy buena calidad y sobre todo tiene recomendaciones de brújulas y muchas más recomendaciones.

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.