Navigation training

As part of a recent working holiday that was based at High Snab Farm , one of the things we did was have a navigation training session.  We used a walk up from High Snab and around the walk known as the Horseshoe Round as our training ground..

On a nice sunny day when viewed from the valleys, our Lake District hills look very inviting and benign but the weather can change very quickly.  Sometimes within an hour or less, those enticing, sunny summits can become windy, rain-lashed and shrouded in low cloud.  That footpath that you could see stretching ahead of you is now lost to view and thick mist can be very disorientating.  The only safe way to deal with that situation is to have good navigation skills and equipment.  GPS has its uses but, like all technology, is not totally dependable.  Maps, compasses and the skills to use them can be life-savers e.g. maps show you where the unexpected crags are located.  So, I always give our working holiday groups the opportunity to learn or brush up and then practice map and compass work.

The Keswick Mountain Festival is coming up on May 16-20 and I’ll be offering some free map and compass navigation sessions there.  So if any blog readers are at the festival, do come and find me – if I’m not doing a navigation session, I might be at the National Trust’s yurt on Crow Park.

Sunny was with the working holiday group on our big mountain walk – he busied himself going around the group and satisfying himself that they stayed together!  He is really good at getting along with people.  He’ll soon be going home to his own family and I suspect even Reiver will miss him.