>>298619What you should be asking is "how do I use a map and compass?" The answer is that you don't have to be an expert in orienteering to get a lot out of it. At minimum, a map can be a simple guide through the trail.
Take this map, for example. You start out at Sawmill Campground, and head west. After 1/4 mile, you will cross a small creek. Follow the trail another 1/4 mile west, and you'll come upon some structure (marked on the map as the Carnegie Institute Experimental Station). Continue hiking another 3/4 miles of relatively flat terrain, and after that, you'll come to the start of a really steep hill. 1/2 mile of hiking up the hill, you'll come to a small lake. If you can't see the trail for snow cover at that point, you can note the route on the map heads right from the lake, and climbs out of the basin on the north side. You gain ground up above the high-point you see above the lake, and continue roughly west across a snow-field to a ridge, which you follow west-ward to the peak, which should be visible at this point.
Without a map, all those details would have been surprises, and the compass simply helped you confirm which direction you were hiking. No orienteering skills were required.
>>298708>get a cheap button compass so you can at least have a vague idea where you're headedA cheap compass is fine, but button compasses are garbage by design. I have three in my gear drawer that I got from various places, and none of them are capable of reliably giving me a bearing. The dial spins based on whether you have it level, and the bubble is big enough to set the dial off horizontal, and makes it impossible to get perfectly level.
The bare minimum compass should be something like a Silva Polaris, which you should be able to get for under $15 from any outdoors gear store, and will last you a lifetime.
