Handrails, catching features and attack points

The basic idea: a line is much easier to hit than a point. A single boulder in a forest can be missed with even a small direction error. A stream flowing across your route, by contrast, you will almost certainly hit. These techniques use long, easily recognised terrain features to make navigation forgiving of errors.

A handrail runs alongside your route: path, stream, fence, forest edge, power line, valley floor. As long as you have it beside you, you know roughly where you are. A catching feature lies across your route beyond the target and acts like a stop sign. The attack point is the last sure point before the target; only the short stretch from there is navigated precisely by compass and pace count.

On top of that there are features you simply pass on the way: a stream crossing, a clearing, a hut. They confirm you are on course without you having to aim at them exactly. Dividing your route into legs like this lets you notice mistakes much earlier.

Plan each leg with a short list: which handrail do I use? Which features must appear on the way, and in which order? What is my catching feature? Where is my attack point? This planning only takes a few minutes and makes a lot easier on the way.

Tick off the features as you go. If an expected feature does not appear – the stream does not come, the clearing is missing – that is a warning sign. Then stop and check instead of hoping it will 'turn up any minute'. A common mistake is taking the wrong line for the right one, for example a different stream. So always check whether direction, size and surroundings match the map.

The attack point should be as close to the target as possible and unmistakable. The longer the last stretch, the more room there is for errors. A good catching feature prevents a missed target from turning into a long detour.

A handrail shows the direction, not whether every spot is passable. Using streams and rivers as handrails means walking above them on the slope or on a path beside them – not in the water and not into gorges. Banks can be undercut and suddenly give way, and stream gorges often end at waterfalls or drop-offs.

Here too: go around cliffs, avalanche slopes and rockfall terrain, and turn back if there is no safe way. Also pay attention to the age of the map. A newly built forest road can look like a handrail that does not exist on the map at all, and a path drawn on the map may have disappeared.

These techniques are ideal when you are off marked trails, in forest or in fog. They make navigation more relaxed because you do not have to walk every metre precisely by compass. The route along a handrail is often a little longer, but much safer and often even quicker in the end than a dead-straight bearing through difficult terrain.

In terrain without recognisable lines – such as wide plains, large snowfields or a whiteout, when sky and snow blur into one – they hardly work. Then you need compass, pace counting and, when in doubt, the decision to wait or turn back. You also need a map at a suitable scale on which the lines can be seen at all.

Take a map of your local forest and plan a short loop with a handrail, a catching feature and an attack point. Write down the features you expect on the way in the right order and tick them off outside. You will notice how much calmer you feel when you always know what has to come next.

Orienteering events are a good chance to practise these techniques playfully. Many clubs offer easy courses for beginners and families. The terms originally come from this sport and from land navigation.