Navigation Skills Training Weekend in The Lake District. March 4th & 5th, 2017.

At the weekend, Iain was out with the Miller-Page family who had travelled up from Surrey to attend one of our Bespoke Navigation Skills Training weekends in The Lake District.

The family own a cottage in the area and are regular visitors. They enjoy fell walking, but have experienced a few occasions where they've encountered difficulties with route finding. A bit of online research led the family to four companies offering Navigation Skills Training in The Lake District and we were one of those.

Seemingly, we presented ourselves in the best way; and the family booked with us. Now that's good news - we must be doing something right!

Day one was spent up on Green Quarter Fell, just north of Staveley. The weather was surprisingly good considering we were supposedly of the fringe of a low pressure system. We started off in our usual format (see here) and by the time photo one was taken, we were progressing well with how to find and how to give grid references, helped, in no small part, by the Roamer Scales on our excellent Silva Type 4 Expedition Compasses and Iain's method of explanation.

When photo two was taken, the family had just completed navigating to their first grid reference, by using "Hand-railing", to an "Attack Point" and by pacing from there to the feature (a small tarn) by walking on a bearing. Good Skills!

After a most successful day one, conducted in perfect dry & calm weather, we were expecting it to be somewhat different on the second day - colder, wetter..definitely not as nice. But it didn't turn out that way.

We drove further up the valley on day two; and finished up on the east side of Shipman Knotts where Iain pushed the family on to more exacting terrain. In photo three, they had been compelled to transpose from the 1:25 to the 1:50'000 scale map in order to to identify features on the opposite side of Longsleddale because the features were "off" the 1:25'000 laminated map they were using. Again, they were successful in doing this and identifying all features requested by Iain. Marvellous stuff !

Eventually, we arrived at the top of Shipman Knotts and from here, Iain directed the family to find a distant stream head south of Kentmere Pike Summit. Looking south, it was clear that a forecasted front was approaching and that we could, in all likelihood, expect to get a little wet, but somehow, the showers never quite reached us (photo four)

The family successfully navigated on to the top of Kentmere Pike and then back to Green Quarter locating a further four grid references along the way.

The Miller-Page Family thoroughly enjoyed their Navigation Skills Training Weekend in The Lake District with us and go away with a whole new "toolbox" of skills with which to enjoy further forays into the mountains with improved confidence; and you can too - by booking your own Bespoke Navigation Skills Training Course with us or by booking on to one of our Upcoming Navigation Skills Training Courses - but hurry! Our March Course is almost full and the others are filling up fast!

We look forward to working with you in the mountains.