How To Find Your Way Without A Compass, Part Three, The Shadow-tip Method©

The Shadow-tip Method of finding your way, picture taken in Algonquin Provincial Park by the author.

You are “misplaced” in the wilderness, you don’t have a compass and you aren’t wearing a watch: now you are wondering if there is a way to locate the approximate direction of north and south, some way that doesn’t require a compass or a watch. 

First things first, what were you thinking?  Have ever heard of “be prepared” or the “Ten Essentials”?  But yes to answer your question, there is; it is called the “Shadow-tip Method”, although perhaps it should be called the “Quick Shadow-tip Method” to differentiate it from other methods that take more time.  The “Shadow-tip Method” is quick and easy and, particularly around noon, very accurate.

You should all know all about how the Sun moves through the sky during the day and throughout the year, however if you don’t read “How to Find Your Way Without A Compass, Part One, Orientation By The Sun”, HERE and “How to Find Your Way Without A Compass, Part Two, The Watch As A Compass”, HERE. 

Adapted from Survival: Land, Sea, Jungle, Arctic, p. 41, Fig. 16, by the author

It is important to remember that everywhere in the world the Sun rises, mostly, in the east and sets, mostly, in the west: only on the Spring Equinox (March 21^st) and the Fall Equinox (September 23^rd) does it rise exactly in the east and set exactly in the west.  It is also important to remember that without a compass you will be unable to determine the exact direction of magnetic north and you will not be able to find a specific point or location.  However, if you are simply trying to maintain a general heading then, without a compass, the Sun’s arc is your best point of reference.  So, keeping those two things in mind, the “Shadow-tip Method” will give you the general direction of north, south, east and west, no matter when, where or what hemisphere you are in, as long as there is enough sunshine to cast a shadow. 

An excerpt from Survival FM 21-26.

To Find Your Directions With the “Shadow-tip Method

·       First find a relatively straight, twig less branch or stick that is about three feet (one meter) long, to use as a shadow stick.  Next find a fairly flat, brush-free spot, where the Sun will cast a shadow.  The exact size of the shadow stick is not important, however the closer to three feet (one meter) that it is, the wider apart the tips of the shadows will be.  Also, you don’t need to look for a large level piece of open ground, any flat dirt spot the size of your hand will do: it only has to be large enough for two shadow tip markings.

If you do not have anything to make a shadow stick with, any stationary object, like a rock outcropping, the end of tree branch or anything else that will cast a shadow will do, because only the position of the shadow tips matter.

·       Push the shadow stick into the ground so that it is standing upright, it doesn’t need to be perfectly vertical with the ground to work.  If you have to incline the shadow stick, to get a good shadow on the ground, it will not affect the accuracy of the “Shadow-tip Method”.  Also, the base of your shadow stick can either be above, below or beside the flat dirt spot, it doesn’t need to be in the center of it.

·       Mark the tip of the shadow that the shadow stick casts, with a stone, pebble or stick: this is your first mark.

Photo by the author.

·       Wait for about ten to fifteen minutes, during which time the tip of the shadow will have moved between one and a half to two inches (four to five centimeters), and mark the tip of the new shadow: this is your second mark.

 

Photo by the author.

·       Draw a line from the first mark to and past the second mark, by about one foot (about 30 centimeters).  This is your east-west line and the first mark is always to the west of the second mark: anywhere on the earth, no matter what time of day or what time of year.

Figure 1: The movement of the Sun and the shadow cast by the shadow stick in the northern hemisphere above 23^o 27’ north latitude, diagram by the author.

·       In the northern hemisphere, above 23^o 27’ north latitude, the Tropic of Cancer; the Sun is always south of you, and the shadow cast by the shadow stick is always to the north side of the stick. 

An excerpt from Field Service, (Second Edition), 1912, p. 74; the Sun is obviously behind the person in the picture; he must be in the northern hemisphere, above 23^o 27’ north latitude.

If you stand with your left foot on the first mark and your right foot on the line extending through the second mark, then above 23^o 27’ N. latitude, both the Sun and the shadow stick will be behind you.  If you extend your left arm, it will be pointing west and if you extend your right arm it will be pointing east and you will be facing north.

Figure 2: The movement of the Sun and the shadow cast by the shadow stick in the southern hemisphere above 23^o 27’ south latitude, diagram by the author.

In the southern hemisphere, above 23^o 27’ south latitude, the Tropic of Capricorn; the Sun is always north of you, and the shadow cast by the shadow stick is always to the south side of the stick. 

So, if you stand with your left foot on the first mark and your right foot on the line extending through the second mark, then above 23^o 27’ S. latitude, both the Sun and the shadow stick will be in front of you.  Just as in the northern hemisphere, if you extend your left arm, it will be pointing west and if you extend your right arm it will be pointing east and you will be facing north¹.

In the tropics between the Tropic of Cancer, 23^o 27’ N. latitude, and the Tropic of Capricorn, 23^o 27’ S. latitude; the Sun’s position and whether the shadow cast by the shadow stick is north or south of the stick is little confused: it depends on if the Sun is above or below the Equator, your location and what time of the year it is.  From the Spring Equinox, on March 21^st, to the Fall Equinox, September 23^rd, the Sun will be north of the Equator and between the Fall Equinox and the Spring Equinox, the Sun will bet to the south of the Equator.

However, in any case, just like anywhere else in the world, the first shadow-tip mark is always more west than the second mark.  If you stand with your left foot on the first mark and your right foot on a line extending through both marks then if you extend your left arm, it will be pointing west and if you extend your right arm it will be pointing east and you will be facing north.

Bradford Angier, in Survival With Style, noted on page 75, that “…this method is surprisingly accurate during the middle of the day.  The line runs a bit south of west in the morning.  Afternoon it tends somewhat north of west.  During a day of travel by this method, however, these inaccuracies will average out” 

I decided to experiment and as you can see from the photographs below, in the morning calculated north deviates from true north by about 20^o to the west, around noon the calculated north points to true north and in the afternoon calculated north, again deviates from true north by about 20^o, this time to the east.  So Bradford Angier stated correctly that the “Shadow-tip Method” is surprisingly accurate and any inaccuracies cancel each other out over a full days travel.

This photo was taken at 1:12 pm, daylight savings time, during August, and there is no difference between the direction of north calculated with the “Shadow-tip Method” and actual north; photo by the author.

This photo was taken at 9:51 am, daylight savings time, during August, photo by the author.

This photo was taken at 3:02 pm, daylight savings time, during August, photo by the author.

Bradford Angier’s statement that “The line runs a bit south of west in the morning.  Afternoon it tends somewhat north of west” confused me at first, but I believe that what he is describing is the Sun’s rising and setting further and further to the north of the Equator, between the Spring Equinox on March 21^st and the Fall Equinox on September 23^rd.  This northward progression culminates with the Summer Solstice on the 21^st of June, when the Sun is at its farthest point north.  In the morning during this time, the Sun rises to the east-by-northeast and it will cast a shadow to west-by-southwest, so a line drawn between two shadow tips will have a northeast to southwest axis.  In the afternoon as the Sun sets towards the west-by-northwest, it will cast a shadow towards east-by-southeast and a line drawn between two shadow tips will extend from the northwest to the southeast. 

I intend to experiment further with the “Shadow-tip Method” on both the coming Fall Equinox and on the days after to see if, “the line runs a bit southeast to the northwest in the morning and afternoon it tends somewhat southwest to the northeast” to paraphrase Bradford Angier.  It should because between the Fall Equinox and the Spring Equinox the Sun rises in the east-by-southeast and the morning shadow should fall towards the west-by-northwest and in the afternoon as the Sun sets in the west-by-southwest the shadow should fall towards the east-by-northeast.  Look for the results of my experiment in “How To Find Your Way Without A Compass, Part Three, The Shadow-tip Method – Revisited”.

Also, Bradford Angier mentioned that “All you need is sunlight or moonlight strong enough to cast a shadow”, so look for “How To Find Your Way Without A Compass, Part Three, The Shadow-tip Method – With Moonlight” where I will experiment with the “Shadow-tip Method” at night.

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Notes

¹  In Survival FM 21-26, on page 11-2 it states “Stand with your left foot on the first mark and your right foot on the end of the line you drew”.  And on page 11-3 it notes that having stood with your left foot on the first mark that “If you are in the northern temperate zone, you will be facing in a northerly direction…If you are in the southern temperate zone, you will be facing in a southerly direction”.  I believe that this is an error, Paul Risk in Outdoor Safety And Survival, on page 285 to 286 explains where I believe that the authors became confused, “Standing with the toes on the marks and the vertical stick in front of the observer (emphasis by the author), you will be facing roughly south if above 23.4^o N. latitude and roughly north if below 23.4^o S. latitude”.  If you look at the figures 1 and 2 you will see that by putting your left foot on the first mark and your right foot on the second mark above 23^o 27’ N. latitude, the shadow stick and the sun will be behind you and you will be facing north.  Above 23^o 27’ S. latitude, if you stand with your left foot on the first mark and your right foot on the second mark, then the shadow stick and the sun will be in front of you, and again you will be facing north.

Sources

Airlines War Training Institute,Survival: Land, Sea, Jungle, Arctic, [The Infantry Journal, Washington, D.C., 1944] p. 41-42

Angier, Bradford, Survival With Style, [Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA, 1972] p. 75

Boswell, John, Editor, The U.S. Armed Forces Survival Manual, [Times Books, New York, NY, 1980] p. 25-27

Headquarters, Department of the Army, Survival FM 21-26, [Washington D. C., March 26, 1986] p. 11-1 to 11-3

“Field-Expedient Methods of Determining Direction” [Army Study Guide, QuinStreet, Inc., Foster City, CA, 1999 – 2018]

https://www.armystudyguide.com/content/army_board_study_guide_topics/land_navigation_map_reading/field-expedient-methods-of-determining-direction.shtml, accessed 7/30/2019

Jackson, Andrew, J., “Shadow Tip Method – Field Expedient Direction Finding” [Prepopgraphy: The Art & Study of Self-Reliance, January 4, 2013] http://prepography.com/shadow-tip-method/, accessed 7/30/2019

“Other Methods of Finding Direction (MGRS)” [Offroadsafety.org]

http://www.offroadsafety.org/get-out/land-navigation/other-methods-of-finding-direction-mgrs, accessed 7/30/19

Moss, Captain James A., Field Service, (Second Edition) [The U.S. Infantry Association, Washington D.C., 1912], p. 74 https://books.google.com/books?id=5aFDAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=%22complete+campers%27+manual%22+field+service&source=bl&ots=h_jmTeYA_D&sig=ACfU3U0tH-qTqeuEGfWKGFnj9pYicoYL_w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjHuvm5saPkAhVwUN8KHYX_BF4Q6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed 8/27/2019

Risk, Paul H., Outdoor Safety And Survival, [John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY, 1983] p. 285-286