Orienteering Guide 07
Bearings and Orienteering Techniques
Navigation Techniques
A bearing is a direction expressed as an angle from north, measured clockwise from 0 or 360 degrees through 90 degrees east, 180 degrees south, and 270 degrees west. Bearings are useful, but good navigation combines them with terrain features and distance.
Take a bearing from the map
- Place the long edge of the compass baseplate so it connects your starting point to your destination. Make sure the direction-of-travel arrow points toward the destination.
- Rotate the bezel until the orienting lines inside the capsule are parallel with the map’s north-south lines and the orienting arrow points toward map north.
- Read the bearing at the index line.
- If the compass does not have adjustable declination, convert the map bearing to a magnetic field bearing using the current local declination. If the compass is already adjusted for declination, no additional conversion is needed.
You do not have to rotate the whole map to magnetic north before measuring a map bearing. The compass baseplate and the map’s printed north lines provide the geometry.
Follow a bearing across open ground
After setting the bearing, rotate your body until the needle aligns with the orienting arrow. Choose a tree, rock, post, or other object directly along the direction-of-travel arrow, walk to it, and repeat. This reduces side-to-side drift.
Attack points
An attack point is an obvious, easy-to-find feature near a harder-to-find destination. A trail junction, bridge, hilltop, bend in a stream, or edge of a clearing can serve as an attack point. Navigate confidently to the large feature first, then use a short, precise bearing or careful terrain reading to reach the final point.
Handrails
A handrail is a long, easy-to-follow feature such as a trail, stream, road, fence, ridge, shoreline, or vegetation boundary. Following a handrail can be faster and safer than trying to hold a compass bearing through difficult terrain. Do not choose dangerous features such as cliff edges as a walking handrail.
Catching features
A catching feature is a major feature beyond the destination that tells you that you have gone too far. A road, large stream, ridge, or obvious trail can work well. Planning a catching feature before moving helps limit the size of a navigation error.
Thumbing the map
Fold the map so the current travel area is visible and place your thumb at your current location. As you move from feature to feature, slide your thumb forward. This makes it faster to relocate your position after looking away from the map.
Aiming off
When navigating to a point on a long linear feature such as a trail or stream, deliberately aim a little to one side of the target. When you reach the linear feature, you then know which direction to turn. Without aiming off, a small compass error can leave you uncertain whether the target lies left or right.
Back bearings
A back bearing points in the opposite direction of a bearing. Add or subtract 180 degrees, staying within 0 to 360 degrees. Back bearings are useful for checking alignment with a point behind you and for reversing a route.
