A phone solves positioning faster than anything else, right up until the battery dies, it gets wet, or the signal goes. A paper map is not clever, but it never switches off.
Three basics for knowing where you are: reading contour lines on the map, orienting the map with a compass, and matching the large landforms around you to the map. These three can be learned in one session and used for a very long time.
Reading contour lines
- Each contour line joins points of the same elevation. Lines close together mean steep ground, lines far apart mean gentle ground.
- Lines forming closed rings that shrink inward are a summit or a knoll.
- Lines forming a V that points towards higher ground are a gully or a stream bed.
- Lines forming a V that points towards lower ground are usually a ridge.
- The interval between two adjacent lines is given in the map legend, so read that first.
Orienting the map
Lay the map flat, put the compass on it, then turn the map and compass together until the needle's north lines up with north on the map. At that point everything on paper faces the same way as everything in front of you, and matching them becomes much easier. Magnetic declination in Vietnam is small, but you should still read that information in the legend of the map you are using.
Keep the compass away from your phone, power bank and any large metal objects, because they pull the needle off.
Fixing your position from the landforms
Find two or three large features you can see that are also on the map: a ridge, a bend in a stream, a place where forest gives way to open ground. Your position is the only place on the map where those features appear in the right order and the right directions. For a beginner, the easier approach is not to get lost in the first place: look at the map every fifteen to twenty minutes and note where you are.
On ZUNGZA trips this habit helps more than any technique, because finding your position after getting lost is always harder than keeping yourself from getting lost.
A few questions you often send us
Can a phone compass be used
It works, but it is easily affected by magnetism and it needs battery. It suits being the second option, while the first should be a small mechanical compass.
What should I do first if I am already lost
Stop. Sit down, drink some water, and recall the last point where you knew for certain where you were. Walking on before you have oriented yourself usually only widens the distance back to known ground.
Should I print the map at home
Yes, and print some of the area around the route rather than only the route itself. Once you are off the route, the blank paper at the edge of the map is the part you need most.