Bespoke Navigation Skills Training Day in The Lake District. Saturday April 11th 2015.

Last Saturday, Iain spent the day with Chris Lees from Carnforth. Chris had been searching the internet looking for someone to provide him with some Navigation Skills Training and also an appraisal of his ability.

He had found our website which "leaped out at him" as the business with which to do this training.

Chris has already done his NNAS Silver Navigation Award and as he works a lot with the ATC, he is looking at gaining a formal qualification in outdoor leadership in the mountains.

Once we had met and discussed Chris's aspirations, it became clearly that Chris had more knowledge than the average client who attends our Navigation Skills Training Courses run here in The Lake District. He already knew about the importance of orientating the map (aligning it with the landscape) and already had an idea of pacing. He could also take a bearing and use one to help identify and unknown feature from a known location - now that is a fairly advanced skill!

Chris could work with six figure grid references but didn't understand eight. Now this is a fairly essential skill we feel and we always make a point of getting clients to this standard; and generally manage it fairly easily too!

Look at it this way - a six figure grid reference puts you in the bottom left hand corner of a 100m square within a 1 kilometre square (all grid squares on Ordnance Survey 1:25 & 1:50 and Harveys 1:40 scale maps are 1 kilometre square) However an eight figure grid reference puts you in the bottom left hand corner of a 10m square within a 1 kilometre square; and that is a high degree of accuracy!

After getting Chris to understand eight figure grid references. We spent the day up above Staveley with Iain putting Chris through his paces walking from one grid reference to the next. For each leg between grid references, Chris had to provide Iain with a bearing, an accurate measurement of the distance and an estimate of the time to get there using Naithsmiths rule on a reckining that he could walk at least four kilometres in an hour.

Chris's map reading & navigational ability proved to be very good. He was able to provide the right information; and then importantly - use it to find the next grid reference. And he was spot on every time!

Our view - Chris is a very competent navigator and we think he should book staright on to a Summer Mountain Walking Leader Training Course - it's only a shame we can't provide it for him.

However, for everyone else, we can provide you with Navigation Skills Training Courses here in The Lake District which will give you the confidence to go and venture into the mountains of the UK with confidence without spending a fortune. One of our weekend courses will cost you a  mere £80 for two days and there is no need to endure the rigmarole and expense of going through an award scheme such as that provided by NNAS.

Chris was very satified with the outcome of his day of Navigation Skills Training in The Lake District; and Iain's subsequent assessment of his ability.

If you would like more information about how we can help you with your aspirations to become proficient at mapt reading and navigation in the mountains check out our weekend Navigation Skills Training Courses in the Lake District on the website or contact Iain for more information. We look forward to working with you.