Map reading and navigation - Dylan's Ride Blog

Some occasional musings on mountain bike rides and walks in North Yorkshire, with odd bit of discussion on mapping technology thrown in for good measure

Map reading and navigation
06/09/2006

I have just added some notes on how to read a map, and various other navigational techniques of use to mountain bikers to the site. A quick bit of googling found there's actually not that many places which have a simple summary of map reading and navigation techniques in one place.

It's not intended as substitute for experience, nor will reading it ensure you never get lost again. Hopefully it will give those of you who are a little bit rusty a timely reminder. After all, geography in school was a long time ago, and you may not have been paying attention. Now that summer is on the wane, we have low cloud and early nightfall to look forward to, and navigation cockup are both easier to make, and more potentially dangerous. After all, nobody likes being lost in the middle of nowhere, just as the sun starts to set.

I haven't described taking a bearing in any great detail, as it's just not something you'll use that often, and it's hard to explain.

If anybody has suggestions, or disagrees, please let me know.

Comments

At 21:22 on Sunday, 10/09/2006 Murdo Munro wrote:
Mountaincraft and leadership, by Eric Langmuir is the classic you should look at.

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