Navigation Articles & Top Tips

Navigation
Good navigation is the key to safe enjoyment of the mountains. It’s the art of knowing where you are, where you’re going, and how you’re going to get there. Micro navigation is about getting all this right, right down to the last detail, especially when it really matters.

Navigation is always a serious business. Did you know that the cause of the majority of accidents in the hills comes back, at some point, to a navigational error? But learning about it can be loads of fun too, and we aim to have plenty of fun on our courses.

The courses will introduce you to essential navigation techniques via a practical presentation with hands-on learning, with map and compass, building a platform of skills to develop and practice on the mountain.

You will get quality advice and guidance on gear for the mountain day, where summer micro-navigation techniques are extensively covered along with top tips for route planning and preparation.

Top Tips:

Navigation Tactics

Always time navigation legs in poor visibility at half the normal time, with good visibility 2-3km is about right.

Features will look much larger in poor daylight visibility and torch light in darkness; never make assumptions always get a clear 360 degree feel of your position.

Use a good head torch with a powerful beam and white light function.

Remember! Features will always look and feel different on the ground to what you expected – the key tip is to always use scale to identify terrain, feature length and width combined with observation of shape and angle .

Practice walking on a bearing in a straight line in poor visibility, its quite hard to attain 100% accuracy, only a well practiced navigator will be successful.

In poor visibility, navigate to more obvious terrain features and avoid small features. Always choose terrain features with significant shapes and angle .They are much easier to locate.

SLOPE ASPECT YOUR ULTIMATE SURVIVAL TOOL

Navigation can be very frustrating when you are faced with foul weather situations. It may seem a better idea to simply avoid bad weather ,but guaranteed good weather in the British mountains is quite rare .
Slope aspect comes into its own when you need to critically determine your position on the mountain in poor visibility such as hill fog or darkness. The most efficient navigation technique for determining your position is technique known as SLOPE ASPECT
The technique essentially informs you about direction of travel whether ascending, descending or contouring and you can use it any time of on the mountain in any weather conditions.
The more practice in all conditions, the better your judgment will become when faced with tricky route finding decisions on mountains in poor visibility.

When unsure of you position consider the following steps

Take a bearing
Stop and take a bearing down or up the current line of travel (if contouring take the bearing at 90degrees to your travel line either up or down the slope)
Map setting
Map setting is not hard ,but it is the single most skill to be learned. Simply drop your compass on to your map and orientate map grid North to North on your compass .Remember this technique is used all the time in navigation especially in poor visibility when observing features on the ground to map is difficult.
Position compass on map
Position the compass on the map roughly in the area you have been walking, maintaining the North arrow in the compass housing parallel with grid North on the map use the North lines on the map to assist you with accuracy
Slowly move your compass across maintaining North to North in the area you suspect you might be .Remember to maintain parallel lines with the compass and map whilst doing this .

Lines on base plate crossing at 90 degrees with contour lines
As you do this you will note the aspect or direction you have been walking or established bearing indicating line of travel.
Where the lines on the compass base plate or edge of the compass cross the contour line at exactly 90 degrees. It will indicate your approximate line of travel and position.

Assessing your height and location
Using a watch altimeter which you have set correctly from a previous known height , confirm your current height and cross reference with the contour at 90 degrees as above . Depending on the shape of your contour match the height from your watch to the map and you have your location

Understanding Contours: Click Here

Understanding your Map: Click Here