MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Fall Winter 2019

32 words :: Carmen Kuntz In between the ancient practice of navigating by the stars and today’s detailed satellite images, getting where you wanted to be relied on one thing: the compass. Pocket-sized and reliable, a compass works when clouds obscure the sky and cell service is out of reach. Pair a compass with a paper map—providing you know how to use them—and the gateway to adventure cracks wide open. The principal design of a compass has changed very little from early prototypes made over 2,000 years ago.The ancient Chinese used string or water to suspend pieces of lodestone, a mineral with natural magnetic properties. This primitive compass was designed for divination and feng shui–balancing the flow of energy through a village, structure or room. Discovering the same technology could be used for orientation and navigation, ancient Chinese dynasties were using the compass proficiently for 150 years before the tool appeared in Europe. The modern compass uses the same principle as its ancient counterparts—a freely rotating magnetic needle—but these days additional navigation features like a direction of travel arrow, ruler, and rotating outer ring (bezel) are included. Reliance on modern technology has made us lazy but unlike (almost) idiot-proof Google Maps, a compass functions regardless of weather, cell service or battery power. But if you don’t know what declination means and can’t proficiently read a topo map, triangulate your location or shoot a bearing from one peak to another, your compass is little more than a heavy necklace. Go find someone with a bit of grey in their hair and ask for a lesson. Carrying a compass is clever. Knowing how to use it, essential. TIMELESS GEAR THE COMPASS Pair a compass with a paper map—providing you know how to use them—and the gateway to adventure cracks wide open. While there is no clear date on the invention of the binocular , the advantage of mounting two telescopes side-by-side has been known and explored since the 17 th century. JUSTIN KIOUS