Navigation: How to Choose

Phone navigation is excellent until it is not, and it fails in a predictable pattern: the battery runs down, the signal disappears, or the screen becomes unreadable in bright sun or rain. Paper and compass do not have those problems. The realistic answer for most people is both, with the paper version carried as the fallback rather than the primary.

How to choose

The decisions that actually change the outcome.

• A paper map and a baseplate compass cost under $40 between them and work indefinitely. Start there.
• Learn to take a bearing and to identify your position from two landmarks. These two skills cover most situations.
• GPS devices and watches add track recording and waypoints, and use far less battery than a phone.
• Satellite messengers add two-way communication and an SOS function where there is no mobile coverage at all.
• Whatever you carry, carry it where you can reach it without taking the pack off.

What to buy, by use case

Matched to what you will actually do with it.

• Baseplate compass

  Use case: Every trip, as the non-electronic fallback

  No battery, no signal, no failure mode. Learn to use it and it will outlast every electronic device you own.

  $20 – 50 Check price

• Waterproof topographic map

  Use case: Planning and as the primary reference in poor visibility

  Shows terrain shape, water, and paths — the three things you navigate by. A laminated or synthetic sheet survives rain.

  $12 – 25 Check price

• Handheld GPS unit

  Use case: Expeditions, long treks and off-trail travel

  Runs for days on two AA batteries and holds a recorded track you can follow back in whiteout. More rugged than any phone.

  $200 – 600 Check price

• Satellite messenger / PLB

  Use case: Anywhere without mobile coverage

  The only item here that can call for help. A personal locator beacon has no subscription and does one job extremely well.

  $150 – 400 + subscription Check price

• Offline map app with downloaded tiles

  Use case: Every trip, as the primary convenience layer

  Excellent when the battery and the screen cooperate. Download the region before you leave and carry it in aeroplane mode.

  Free – $40/year Check price

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Pitfalls to avoid

The expensive ways to get this wrong.

• Relying on a phone with no downloaded offline maps
• Carrying a map and compass but never having used them together
• Not knowing your own position at the start, so a bearing is useless
• Assuming the trail on the map is the trail on the ground after ten years and a flood
• Leaving the navigation kit at the bottom of the pack
• Estimating distance by time travelled, which is wrong in every direction on rough ground

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