Every hiker should be able to navigate without a phone, because batteries die, screens break, and signal vanishes in valleys, forests and remote mountains.

The core kit is simple and cheap: a printed topographic map of your route, a baseplate compass, and a pencil for marking your position.

The core skills are equally simple: orient the map to north, identify landmarks around you, take a bearing to your next waypoint, and check your position regularly.

Practise these skills on a familiar trail first, keep your map accessible rather than buried in your pack, and always tell someone your route and expected return time.