For me it depends on the terrain. I can spend a week in the Rockies without a compass and never get lost, yet I can walk 300 yards into the swamps around here and not be able to find my way back to the truck with a compass. On our last trip into the swamp, all 4 of us had compasses and 2 had GPSs. One of the guys with a GPS got a little too deep into the swamp and soaked his compass so that it wouldn' t work. He forgot that he had a GPS in his pack and wandered around in there for 2 hours before he remembered his GPS and found his way out. Just goes to show that even if you have the equipment if you don' t use it or know how to use it, you can get really turned around. By the way, I came out of the swamp less than 50 yards from where I went in using just a compass. After being lost in there once, I make sure I keep a close eye on my compass.