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    Navigation: Techniques and skills for walkers
    Navigation: Techniques and skills for walkers
    Navigation: Techniques and skills for walkers
    Ebook232 pages1 hour

    Navigation: Techniques and skills for walkers

    By Pete Hawkins

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    About this ebook

    This conveniently sized guide is an invaluable point of reference for all walkers. Written by an author with a wealth of experience teaching navigation skills, it provides a clear and comprehensive guide to the key techniques - giving you the confidence to navigate successfully with map and compass and to plan and execute your own routes.

    All topics are clearly referenced and easy to find. Chapters cover scales and grids, map symbols and contours, compasses, bearings, navigation on the hill, route planning and night and bad weather navigation. This new edition also incorporates new content on walking with a GPS device, with notes on how technology can complement map and compass. The text is illustrated with explanatory photos and diagrams as well as extracts from real maps and map keys, and - since the best way to learn is through experience - throughout the guide, practical exercises are suggested to help you practise and develop your skills.

    Perfect both for novices seeking an introduction to navigation and also those wishing to brush up on old skills, this book is an indispensable companion to mastering the essential techniques. These valuable skills will enhance not only your safety but also your enjoyment of the outdoors.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCicerone Press
    Release dateMay 13, 2024
    ISBN9781783627882
    Navigation: Techniques and skills for walkers
    Author

    Pete Hawkins

    Pete Hawkins trained as a geography teacher and taught in schools for a year before escaping to the Peak National Park’s Environmental Centre for an outdoor job.  As a navigation instructor he has taught both beginners how to read a map and compass and the more experienced how to hone their navigation skills.  He runs the Silva-sponsored Silva Navigation School from his Peak District home. He has written for a variety of outdoor magazines, has worked for the BBC as a local radio reporter and leads walking holidays both at home and around the world.

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      Book preview

      Navigation - Pete Hawkins

      Navigation

      TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS FOR WALKERS

      by

      Pete Hawkins

      JUNIPER HOUSE, MURLEY MOSS,

      OXENHOLME ROAD, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA9 7RL

      www.cicerone.co.uk

      About the author

      Pete Hawkins has been teaching walkers to navigate for over 35 years. He runs the Silva Navigation School from his home village of Tideswell, in the Peak District.

      As a writer and journalist, he has contributed to a variety of outdoor magazines for many years as well as contributing to BBC local radio. He has also spent many years leading walking holidays around the world.

      Other Cicerone books by the author

      Map and Compass

      This book is dedicated to Clare and Stephen – two

      people I am immensely proud of – and to Sue who gives me the space to pursue my dreams.

      © Pete Hawkins 2019

      Second edition 2019

      ISBN: 978 1 85284 891 0

      Reprinted 2022 (with updates)

      First edition 2007

      Printed in China on responsibly sourced paper on behalf of Latitude Press Ltd

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      All photos and illustrations by the author unless otherwise stated.

      Acknowledgements

      Numerous people have been enormously helpful in the preparation of this book. First and foremost are the many participants I have encountered over the 30+ years of running map and compass courses; they have provided me with ideas, amusement and inspiration.

      A dutiful word of thanks must go to the folks at Cicerone for their support, encouragement and for spotting all my silly errors – you make me sound lucid, thank you.

      I would also like to thank Silva for sponsoring my courses and for providing the compasses; Tracklogs for giving me access to their digital mapping software; and the Ordnance Survey and Harvey Map Services for permission to reproduce their maps.

      This product includes mapping data licensed from Ordnance Survey® with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

      © Crown copyright 2019 OS PU100012932

      Map on page 18 reproduced with permission from Harvey Maps.

      Orienteering Maps © Derwent Valley Orienteers, the Orienteering club for Derbyshire

      CONTENTS

      Preface by Alan Hinkes, OBE

      Foreword

      Chapter 1 Why use a map and compass?

      Chapter 2 Map essentials – scales and grids

      Chapter 3 Map symbols and contours

      Chapter 4 Walking with the map

      Chapter 5 Introducing the compass

      Chapter 6 Choosing your compass

      Chapter 7 Taking a bearing from the map

      Chapter 8 Taking a bearing from the ground

      Chapter 9 Walking with map and compass

      Chapter 10 Route planning

      Chapter 11 Night and bad weather navigation

      Chapter 12 Technology – GPS and computer mapping

      Chapter 13 Where now?

      Appendix A Answers to questions

      Appendix B Useful contacts and addresses

      Appendix C Further reading

      Appendix D Navigational aid

      PREFACE

      By Alan Hinkes, OBE

      I have always been fascinated by maps. Perusing OS maps for O-level geography at Northallerton Grammar School was a pleasure for me. My hillwalking began over 30 years ago on the North York Moors and finally led me to the Himalaya, where I climbed all of the world’s highest mountains: the fourteen 8000m peaks.

      Weekend school trips would be spent tramping the moors and dales, learning to map read. I soon learnt how to take compass bearings and navigate, often in the rain and mist – thick hill clag, as we called it. As a teenager it gave me a thrill and sense of achievement to be able to find my way over featureless terrain and safely lead a party in the hills.

      When working as an outdoor education teacher, basic map reading was usually on the agenda, and I always tried to make it fun and simple. Pete has a knack for writing a book that is both interesting to read and which covers all the finer points of map reading and using a compass to move safely on the hills.

      As a mountain guide I’ve been instructing and guiding in the hills for many years, and I am aware of some people’s anxiety about navigation. Pete’s book will help to raise your knowledge of this essentially satisfying skill. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced hillwalker, there is plenty of information to be had out of this book. Pete knows his stuff!

      I have been climbing all over the world, yet still relish a day in the British hills with my map. This book will make your hillwalking and map reading more enjoyable.

      Get out there, navigate and enjoy yourself!

      Alan Hinkes, 2007

      FOREWORD

      I started using the humble map and compass in earnest over 35 years ago, and for all those years I have been their greatest advocate. Over the three and a half decades both have given me immense pleasure, and hundreds of lucky souls have learnt that pleasure from me too!

      Looking back over my 35 years of teaching navigation, I find myself thinking about what has and hasn’t changed. The ability to use a map and compass is as important now as it ever was. Something else that hasn’t changed is that the majority of people I see out on the hills don’t seem to have the requisite navigation skills and appear to complete a walk more through luck than judgement; a guidebook or a route taken from a magazine is no substitute for being able to plan and execute your own route.

      Something else that hasn’t changed is the fact that acquiring the right skills to navigate safely is easy. The book you have in your hand is a great first step and may be all that you require, but adding a practical, hands-on course, like those I run through the Silva Navigation School, can quickly transform you from a bumbling, always-getting-lost walker into a confident hillwalker.

      What has changed, certainly over the last three decades, and especially during the past 10 years since this book was first published, is the use and availability of navigation technology. In the first edition of this book, technology was treated as an add-on as GPS units were generally unreliable and complicated to use. Over the past 10 years the growth in the use of smartphones has not only placed simple navigation technology in most people’s pockets, but it has also helped simplify dedicated handheld GPS units.

      In this new edition, navigation technology has been incorporated throughout the book. Each section will take you through the more conventional way of doing things while also offering technological navigation solutions. I will highlight times when technology doesn’t provide a solution, as well as the rare instances when technology can supersede conventional, old-fashioned ways of doing things.

      In adapting this book to reflect the growth of technology in navigation, I still remain firmly of the opinion that being able to read a map and compass properly, without relying on technology, is vital.You should never bypass these essential skills and head straight for the technological solutions. Technology can fail and can also be misleading; good map reading and compass skills will never let you down.

      Pete Hawkins, 2019

      CHAPTER 1

      Why use a map and compass?

      Glance along the bookshelves of any outdoor equipment shop and you’ll see a wealth of guidebooks to every corner of the UK and the world. The quality will vary, but all will contain a number of routes in your chosen destination along with some kind of a map: perhaps a simple sketch map or an extract of the full-colour official map with the route overdrawn. The better guides will also provide some information on the history or ecology of the area.

      Guidebooks are an ideal way of getting to know an area in advance; study the guidebook and locate the most interesting places. However, many people simply use the guidebook to direct them around the route. I advocate a different approach. Take out the map of the area you intend to walk and compare the guidebook route with the real map. Put the guidebook away and turn the suggested route into something that suits your purposes, depending on where you are staying, proximity to a bus stop or safe place to park, or perhaps an interesting feature you’ve seen on the map that wasn’t mentioned in the book, and so on. The walk then becomes yours and you can use your own map skills to follow the route rather than rely on the book.

      As you progress through this book, you’ll notice your map skills improving. You will be looking at the map in far more detail than previously. The symbols you missed before, or ignored, will be more familiar; you’ll be able to spot features on the ground that you’ve identified from a close study of the map. Your days of getting lost will fade into distant memory, your confidence will increase and, thus, your reliance on guidebooks will decrease.

      So, what about the compass? What role should this play in your walks? Most walkers carry one in their rucksack, but few know how it works. Rest assured it is a simple tool to use and can make a walk in poor weather or darkness a far safer and more enjoyable experience.

      Knowing the right compass techniques in bad weather or at night is invaluable. If you know you can confidently continue with your route, or come up with a safer alternative, you’re

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