r/searchandrescue • u/Money-Violinist9176 • 23d ago

Geiserailie Compass Reviews?

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I’m the director of a brand new search & rescue team with very minimal funding. As much as I would love to purchase Silva compasses for all my volunteers, there’s no way we can swing it just yet. Putting on an orienteering class at the end of the month. I’ve seen these all over Amazon and Temu. Any experience with these cheap alternatives? This will be ideally just for class and not for wilderness rescue.

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u/thebyrdhouse 23d ago

Are actual SAR teams still using compasses? Genuinely curious if any teams are actually using them and how? I’ve never had a patient give us a compass bearing, if even if they did, we’d just plot it in SARTopo.

I know it’s been outdoor dogma forever, but in the last decade of personal outings alpine climbing, ski touring, canyoneering, ect, I haven’t carried one. Beyond personal recreation, compasses seem particularly unnecessary in well-managed SAR context. Perhaps this is an unpopular opinion, but a compass seems like a “tacticool” prepper accessory in 2025 and of little practical utility.

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u/smittydc 23d ago

It’s still important to understand the core basic concepts of cartography and navigation but I agree some units are a bit over obsessed with some of the old school nitty gritty. “What if your phone battery dies”? Well, then I use the garmin gps I’m carrying, or the gps in my watch, or I recharge the phone, or we rely on my teammates for backup. What if you drop your compass? No, I will not be estimating my step cadence on beads instead of using this perfectly good satellite positioning system.

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u/sauvagedunord 23d ago

Our team still uses compasses. Knowing the foundations and fundamentals of traditional navigation makes use of modern methods more effective. We use GPS and SARTopo as a primary; we have paper map and wet compass as a back-up. Additionally, the most experienced navigators on the team will use a combined method: Modern methods while planning and stationary; a wet compass while moving to stay oriented.