Land Navigation · 8 min
Position, relocation and a lost party
Why this matters
The skill that matters is not staying found. It is what you do in the ten minutes after you realise you are not. That is a procedure, and procedures can be learned before the day you need one.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- Locate a position by triangulation and by terrain association
- Use handrails, catching features and aiming off
- Run a relocation procedure with clients watching
Terrain association, the everyday method
Good navigators rarely triangulate. They keep a running match between map and ground: that pond, that saddle, the stream you just crossed, the point where the grade eased. Position is maintained continuously, so it is never lost by more than a few minutes.
The habits that support it:
- Thumb the map. Keep your thumb on your position and move it as you go
- Check off features aloud as you pass them. Clients like it and it forces you to keep up
- Look back regularly. The return trip looks nothing like the outbound one
- Note the time at each identified feature. Elapsed time plus known pace is a position estimate
The three route-finding tools
| Tool | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Handrail | A linear feature you follow rather than navigate | A stream, a ridge crest, a lakeshore, a woods road |
| Catching feature | Something across your path that tells you you have gone too far | A river, a trail, a sharp elevation change, a road |
| Aiming off | Deliberately aiming to one side of a target on a handrail, so you know which way to turn | Aim 15° left of the lean-to on the stream, hit the stream, turn right |
Aiming off is the most underused of the three. Aim exactly at a point and a small error leaves you guessing which way to walk. Aim deliberately wide and the error is resolved before it happens.
Triangulation
When you genuinely do not know where you are but can see landmarks:
- Sight a bearing to an identifiable feature, convert magnetic to true by subtracting the west declination
- Plot the back bearing from that feature on the map. You are somewhere on that line
- Repeat with a second feature, ideally 60 to 120 degrees away from the first
- The intersection is your position. A third bearing gives a small triangle; you are in it
One bearing plus a handrail also works and is often quicker: a bearing to a summit crossed with the stream you are standing on gives a position.
When the party is lost
The order is deliberate, and the first step is the one people skip.
S T O P
Stop. Sit the party down. Nobody walks further while unsure. Movement multiplies error and burns daylight.
Think. When were you last certain? What have you passed since? What direction have you been travelling and for how long?
Observe. Map out, compass out, what does the ground actually look like. Which way does the water run. Where is the sun.
Plan. Decide, then act deliberately. Returning to the last known point is usually better than pressing on toward a guess.
Manage the clients while you do it. Announce that you are stopping to confirm position, get people into layers, get food and water out. A calm five-minute halt reads as competence. Wandering while visibly uncertain reads as panic and is also worse navigation.
And know when to stop for the night. If daylight is going and the party is uncertain, a planned bivouac in a sheltered spot with everyone warm is a far better outcome than an unplanned one at the bottom of a drainage. Nobody was ever hurt by camping early.
From the field
An hour past the point where the herd path should have met the trail, nothing matches. You stop the party, get out food, and work backwards: the last certain feature was the stream crossing 50 minutes ago, and you have averaged 1.5 mph, so you are within about a mile of it. Back bearing to the crossing, walk it, restart from known ground.
This lesson is part of the NYS Licensed Guide Exam course. Open it in the course to answer the retrieval checks that go with it, track what you have read, and quiz the whole unit. Lessons, quizzes and the glossary are free.