Be Expert with Map and Compass: The Complete Orienteering Handbook

The classic map and compass navigation guide, updated with new features and tips

Be Expert with Map and Compass is a popular, easy-to-use orienteering handbook that has been helping people find their way for more than 70 years. This new edition contains a variety of updates on the essentials of map reading, with new photos and stories included throughout. In this refreshed, modern take on the classic outdoor navigation guide, readers will learn:

• How to read a map, map symbols, traveling by map and compass alone or by map and compass together, finding bearings, sketching maps, and traveling in the wilderness
• Compass design basics, how to test your compass skills, understand declination, and special uses of your compass in fishing and hunting
• Competitive orienteering basics, with information on how to organize an orienteering event and prepare the course beforehand

The Fourth Edition of Be Expert with Map and Compass remains the book of choice for professional outdoorsmen, novice orienteers, and outdoor organizations as well as teachers, scout leaders, recreational hikers, hunters, and others around the world seeking to feel more comfortable in the wilderness.

Author: Carina Elgin,Bjorn Kjellstrom
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Published: 10/28/2025
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.30w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9781394375615

About the Author

Carina Kjellström Elgin developed her love of nature and of orienteering by literally following in the large footsteps of her father, Björn Kjellström, on almost daily excursions into the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation that neighbored her childhood home. She lives on a farm in Virginia with too many animals.

The late Björn Kjellström, an enthusiastic outdoorsman, experienced wilderness traveler, and cross-country skier, was a Swedish champion in orienteering. He was a founder of the Swedish and the U.S. Orienteering Federations, as well as Vice President of the International Ski Federation. He helped invent the modern protractor-based compass (still the industry standard), and cofounded internationally renowned compass company, Silva.