this information is nothing new, your average hill walker, mountaineer are aware of these problems. .... carry a spare compass ? .... wow, theres a new one ! .....

brilliant article, sound advice . i stumbled over in a total white out on the balachulish horse shoe in deep snow ,placed my gloved hand down to assist standing up, with silva compass tethered to glove/wrist,a shuffle and shake, then check the nav. NO FLIPPIN COMPASS DIAL! the fall had clearly popped the centre out.......needle in a haystack.thank george mallory for my spare one.take heed! jeff ..........,but how else do newbies learn this stuff without good articles like this esp. on social meeja
,stay humble ,live long!

wouldn't you have to carry the spare compass well away from the main one because they would affect each other??

Great article. Really useful information reminders regardless of how experienced you are. Its easy to get complacent with the tools we so often rely on, and so easy to end up in the scenario you described. Thanks.

Very good point (no pun intended) as this has happened to me several times over the years mostly with slip on wrist watch strap button compasses which I find mostly handy in for basic navigation in an unfamiliar urban city/town environments rather than when out in the wilds, but on rare occasions to my main compass used for taking and walking on accurate bearings in untracked or wooded, areas, low visibility and night navigation.

*DON'T dump an expensive compass if this happens as they can be easily recalibrated just with two strong permanent magnets whose polarity is known (easy to find out with a correctly polarised compass and mine are dual role powerful fridge magnets). The method is to place the N pole of one magnet so it attracts what has become the inaccurately or fully reversed S pointing N end of compass needle. Then correctly place the N pole of other magnet to the S end of the needle so it starts to realign the needle's polarity. Gradually move the first magnet away with the second keeping the now correctly polarised S end of the needle pointing at the N pole of the magnet. Leave for 5 or 10 mins then place the S pole of the first magnet correctly to the N end of the needle and leave overnight to give the needle a strong polarity.

I always keep my main compass' lanyard attached to a protective see through, velcro entry flexible map/walking guide case which it lives inside of to protect it whilst keeping it visible, only coming out when a bearing needs to be taken and keeping it with the map and less likely to lose or drop. The see through case is also handy for drawing out a route without marking the map underneath and making any notes with a waterproof chinagraph pencil. I started using the see through map case to tie the compass to and carried more than one bearing taking compass ever since an unusually strong gust of wind blew my compass off a bridge wall into the river below at night causing me to lose it. In winter I also have a little key ring plastic cased thermometer/wind chill calculating sheet and built in mini button compass attached somewhere on my clothing or rucksack.

I'm old school, can't be bothered carrying an expensive GPS after 40 years of outdoor navigation, and have learnt (sometimes the hard way, as in the wind blown lost compass) over many years from my time in the military, solo backpacking/trekking in the UK and Europe. Anyone who has served/is serving as an active member on an MRT knows how necessary it is to use how many paces they do to 100m in order to accurately micro navigate combined with map and compass to within 5m of a target grid reference at night/low visibility or foul weather conditions.

I'd advise making it a habit to check a compass before venturing out from home where you know exactly where North is, or if away on a trip, take note of where it is when you arrive at a location and check your compass again before setting off after an overnight stop.

Prevention is better than cure and a compass should be left on a flat level surface where it's needle can swing freely to adjust if it's affected by magnetic fields because it's when the needle can't move or has restricted movement it's polarity can be changed (eg compass hung from it's lanyard or on a tilt inside a bag or pocket near a powerful speaker magnet).

As well as static magnetic fields, take care to keep a compass well away from any mains electrical cable with current flowing through it as that alternates 50x per second, too fast for the compass needle to react and swing even if it's on a flat and level surface. A cable's alternating magnetic field will at best reduce the magnetism or at worst demagnetise a compass needle if left for long enough in one place. If this happens by accident because the cable has been concealed (as has happened to me), time for two strong permanent magnets with known polarities to recalibrate and correctly magnetise the needle.

As well as man made navigational aids, I'd also recommend making it a habit to rely on natural senses as much as possible for orientation, such as the number one eyeball in fog, mist or cloud cover, in daytime the brightest area of the sky is where the sun is and combined with the time of day gives you a fair idea of where north is. At night time learn to identify the Plough star formation in the sky so you can easily find the Pole Star by extending an imaginary line formed by the last two stars.

Use the physical feeling senses, as during the day and night the prevailing wind in the UK is mostly from the west, coupled with cloud movement (also useful to learn cloud formations to predict weather), it's temperature can also tell you whether it's got a north or south bias. Of course it can reverse to an easterly, usually for brief periods and sometimes even for weeks and months at this time of year (Feb, March & April 2013) as we've just experienced with the cold blast from the Artic or Siberia.

The thing is not just to rely on a compass or even Gucci gadgets like a GPS or smartphone that could easily get broken or disabled by water, or more likely lose battery power, and to develop a high awareness, by using your senses to assess your surrounding environment as the more you combine the navigational clues around you, the less likely you are to get lost or into difficulty even if your left paddleless up the proverbial creek.

With all due respect this is blatant common sense I believe? The first thing I was told when taught how to navigate was that, "like people the needle can wander to the wrong direction if attracted by bad influences, ie: magnetic fields of any kind". Yes, it sounds ridiculous, but that's why I remember it.

William, "but how else do newbies learn this stuff";

there is a 'vast' library of mountaineering books out there where newbies can learn some techniques and just as importantly, they can learn from the history of how mountaineering has developed over those years and from its important characters.

Social media won't give you all the important things you need to know about this activity.

"hold it well away from your body when using it"

This is not what is taught on courses. The opposite in fact.

Why ?

Christian - if it's such blatant common sense, why did you need to be taught it as one of your first lessons, and have it given in an amusing similey to help you remember?

Margaret - No-one claimed this article contained all the info on the subject, but it's useful advice for anyone new - and timely reminders for everyone else.

Related perhaps:

"G2 watch (moderate Geomagnetic Storm expected) in effect for 13-14 April

A G2 watch (moderate geomagnetic storm expected) is in effect for 13-14 April. Data from the ACE spacecraft currently shows the slow rise in low energy particles ahead of the advancing interplanetary coronal mass ejection (blob).

The S1 radiation storm continues, although levels began declining around mid-day yesterday. -FERNANDO"

Not an expert, but I know Geomagnetic Storms can influence comms & navigation tools like GPS, whether tools like the silva & the like are influenced presumably would depend on the strength of the Geomagnetic Storm.

So I mention this G2 watch just in case. G

Chris, I didn't refer to the value or otherwise of the article above.

I pointed William (and other 'newbies') in the direction of a large amount of information about Mountaineering and gave the opinion that Social Media is maybe not the best place to find the important things a 'newbie' needs to know.

There have been many such storms over the past decades and I don't think they have effected compasses.

Incidentally, sunspots and their associated storms can be helpful to Radio Amateurs by assisting with long distance contacts.

There have been many such storms over the decades but |I don't think they have effected compasses.

Incidentally, those storms can be helpful to Radio Amateurs by assisting with longer distance contacts.

A salutory lesson. This happened to me recently in the Ogwen Valley during a Welsh winter weekend. The compass needle was well away from anything magnetic but it pointed South. Fortunately, I didn't need it as the ground was familiar and the sun was coyly visible, so that combined with knowing the time(GMT) North was easily established. All I was doing was a triangulation exercise in order to establish my exact position. I spoke with another guy later on and he had experienced exactly the same phenomina

Iron ore in the Lake District rocks, iron in crampons, ice axes etc can cause issues. Difficult to navigate within 5 degrees but holding away from bags and rocks is good idea for accuracy.

I would probably only carry spare if walking solo in poor conditions as usually a landmark or a companions compass to reorientate if polarity reversed. It has once hapened to my Silva and I got very confused before I realised wind direction will not have completely reversed.

I note that my boat has 3 compasses on board for safety but that is due to lack of landmarks in open sea.

More relevantly on hills carry 1 compass round neck or in pocket as map cases get blown away in bad weather and I've seen rucksacks fall down mountains and end up 1 mile away

Great article.

Stroking the needle is easiest with the (transparent base) compass upside-down, otherwise the needle goes mad! I would have thought that you'd need to stroke the full length of the needle, so that it is fully remagnetised.

Personally I'd use a bar magnet for the job, not a fridge magnet.

I became aware of this at the Spring Bank holiday, Me and my daughter walked up to Great Whernside and then I took out my compass for a walk over to Buckden Pike in heavy mist, visibility down to 30 metres after consulting my compass several times and after a few hours I came upon two large reservoiirs, they were not on my map, where was I ? I decided to follow my nose and after scrambling over peat bogs and sundry hills ended up on a hill overlooking a valley and a village walked down and the village was West Scrafton, not on my map either. Knocked on a door and found I was in Coverdale 10 miles East of my target. The kind lady gave us a lift back to Kettlewell, compass no longer points North, all because I had my smartphone in my belly pocket of my jacket along with the compass ! lesson learned.