Meh, I'm okay with any amount of cheating on any level in Minecraft, so long as it doesn't negatively impact people around me. I assume, however, that most people aren't. Still, I don't see much harm in deciding to use a program like Cartograph just once, especially after spending several hours working on a single thing, dying in a silly way, then being unable to relocate it. But~ that's just me. If you want to keep things as vanilla/honorable as possible, I'd definitely have to agree with Hourai! Also, you could make a second compass and a chest, then leave the chest- with the compass in it- close to spawn, in case you ever die, and find yourself in need of one again. While you're at it, it might be a good idea to fill it with other things you think you might need, too!