Tuesday 24 September 2013

Bespoke Navigation & Map Reading Skills Training Courses in The Lake District. Saturday 14th September 2013.

Christine Thornton contacted Iain at Kendal Mountaineering services with a view to improving her map reading & Navigation Skills in order that both herself and her friend Val could enjoy walking in the mountains of The Lake District with increased confidence in their ability to know where they are and where they are going walking at all times.

The pair asked for a one day Map Reading & Navigation Skills Training Course in The Lake District, so Iain met them at Staveley and took them to Green Quarter Fell for their one day course.

We started off by orientating the map, measuring & pacing distance and looking for "tick off" features along our route (photo one) in order to get the pair reading off the map and on to the ground.

We spent the next few hours progressing along a bridleway identifying features on the map and locating them along our route.

Christine & Val's confidence rapidly improved as did their map reading skills. Eventually, after a bit of coaching, the pair were also able to find a location on the map with a six or eight figure grid reference.

This progression led us on to learning the next skill which was working out a compass bearing and then being able to walk on that bearing and pace to be able to find such insignificant features as the small pool of water in photo two.

There is no reason why any of our Map Reading & Navigation Skills Training Courses in The Lake District should not have a "natural history"  twist to them and indeed - Iain has spent most of his life in The Lake District and knows what can be found where.

With a skill such as this you should find any Map Reading & Navigation Course with us an enjoyable and informative experience - and not just about map reading! In photo three Iain fished a White Clawed Crayfish (the native UK variety) out of a very small stream to show the pair who were delighted.

Iain also knows a great deal about the history of the area so if you want to have an interesting day in the mountains - come out with us.

If you also would like to learn Map Reading & Navigation Skills and get really good value for money in the process then book on to one of our Autumn Map Reading & Navigation Skills Training weekends here in The Lake District. Priced at only £80 per person for the two day course they really do represent exceptional value for money!






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