UKH

me and a mate are doing the medium score omm this october.

im in need of a new compass and have been looking at thumb compasses....anyone know how the OMM harvey maps are made up, are they easy to bend and thumb or am i best to go with a plate compass ?

Easy enough to fold - I use a base compass but have the map folded to fit in one hand which would be fine for a thumb compass.

They do tend to start leaking on the folds, but (so far) not enough to matter.

Whichever you choose, don't do what I did, which was buy a new compass and then shut it in the car door 5 minutes before I was due on the bus, and then have to dash to the shop to buy another one, and miss my allocated bus and end up all of a fluster with the evil eye of the 'Bus Master' upon me!

thanks folks.....ill keep away from the buses too !

My personal preference is for a thumb compass which you can use to take bearings off like the one in the link below.  Using a basic thumb compass in mountain marathon terrain can be a little limiting especially if you need to follow a bearing.

https://www.compasspoint-online.co.uk/product/moscow-3-xl-r-thumb-compass/

Apologies if it's teaching Granny to suck eggs, but a couple of tips: Use the compass in your non-dominant hand so you keep you dominant hand free to rotate the bezel and dib with, and go and practice using a thumb compass before the event -- they can take a bit of getting used to

They are generally fine with thumb compass. As other said, they have had sealing issues occasionally.