When navigating in the backcountry and especially when navigating offtrail, a handrail refers to a feature you can follow towards your intended destination while maintaining accurate knowledge of your location, at least along one axis. Examples of handrails include rivers and streams (the most classic example), a fence or power line, a specific altitude in mountainous terrain, the shoreline of a large body of water, a linear canyon, or even other man-made features such as roads.

Combined with a basic direction a handrail can serve to make navigating in the backcountry a bit more like following a trail of sorts.

Using a Handrail in Backcountry Navigation

By hiking up or down the handrail in the correct direction using at least a basic hiking compass while travelling parallel to the known and mapped terrain feature serving as the handrail and keeping it in sight, one can utilize the feature as a “handrail” and as an additional guide throughout that portion of a hike. Using a handrail may result in hiking a farther distance, especially when using a handrail that winds back and forth like a stream, but it simplifies navigation vs. a straight line, bearing to bearing based hiking approach during offtrail travel.

Editor’s Note: This Jargon installment originally appeared in Issue 47 of TrailGroove Magazine. You can read the original article here.