Navigation Skills for Walking and Hiking
Good navigation skills, whether you are using map and compass with or without a GPS device, can reveal whole new areas of the countryside allowing the average hiker to leave the relative safety of the tourist paths and explore.
With no navigational skills the countryside can rapidly become a very dangerous place - a place where fatalities are not unknown.
In Navigation Skills for Walking and Hiking we aim to provide a growing database of tutorials that will furnish most walkers with basic navigation skills - from advice on GPS Devices, identifying the parts of a compass to how to give a basic grid reference.
Just use the links below to access each tutorial.
We plan to update and add topics to this section on a regular basis but if you have a particular area that you would like us to cover - let us know using our feedback form.
There are two things to remember though:-
Don't leave navigation to others -
even the most confident and able people make mistakes
and
Navigation is supposed to be fun (!)
- Aiming-Off
- Aspect of Slope
- Attack Point
- Back Bearing - when on a line feature
- Back Bearing - when not on a line feature
- Basic Navigation Tips
- Catching Feature
- Compasses for Walking and Hiking
- Gathering Feature
- Reading and Giving Grid References or OS Coordinates
- Handrailing
- How to sound like an expert
- Jargon
- Line Feature
- The National Grid
- Night Time Navigation
- Pacing
- Post-it Note Scale
- Setting the Map
- Suitable Maps for Walking
- Target
- Tick Features
- Timing
- Transits
- True North
- Walking in the Dark