How to navigate without a compass?

I'm playing the second episode of The Long Dark / Wintermute and my map has some cache locations marked on it that might have useful resources. However my experience of travelling in bad weather cross-country is that it is easy to get disoriented.

Obviously the map doesn't show you current location as that would be too GPS-like and electronics are all dead.

I guess that compasses are unavailable as they would be unusable due to the geomagnetic anomaly. This makes it impossible to work out which direction you are facing - apart from when a familiar landmark is in clear sight.

How can I find my way to a cache on the other side of the map without severe risk of getting hopelessly lost - especially if weather deteriorates.

Praise the sun.

Just like before compasses existed, the sun is your guide. It rises in the east and sets in the west. At midday or night, you will have to remember which direction is which or wait until you can see the sun's direction. Additionally, you can use charcoal to update your map with stuff that you can see.

Otherwise, you'll just have to study the map before you set out and hope that you can find landmarks along the way.

... and drop a stick.

On Reddit 3 days ago TheLedVette said

Drop a stick. I know it seems so simple but when you drop something it will always fall the same direction.

Seems to work! A dropped stick points consistently north in ML at least.

For now at least, maybe this will change in the next release.