An important and fun part of any trip out into the hills or any walk is the planning. Unless you are using a published walk by someone else whether it’s from a book, magazine, website, or app. Then following on from the planning when you are actually out on the route you have the fun activity of navigating the route.
This post is all about the tools I use for both planning my routes and whilst out on the hill.
“Not all who wander are lost”, J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Riddle of Strider”, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
And yes I’m taking an often used select quote from LoTR. Why wouldn’t I being a massive Tolkien fan. The big surprise is that it’s not in the posts title. But I think that’d be stepping over some imaginary line and too tacky and predictable.
The most obvious place to start is with a map. I’m refreshing my maps (not all of them at once obviously, just the ones in areas I will be walking in initially) with new OS Maps. These now come with digital download codes! So going to the OS website you can redeem the code to get the map as a download in the official OS app. I love this. I don’t have to subscribe to their service, and I can browse the map on my iOS devices at work or home. So at the moment I’ve not used the OS app in anger to plan a route. I’ve also not looked at alternatives (which I assume will cost money as well). Thoughts on the OS app will be the subject of a future post I’m sure. In the meantime this is a great little bonus to buying the map. My preference is the 1:50k Landranger but I also get the 1:25k Explorer as and when I think it’s more appropriate. Although I do like the Harvey water resistant hiker maps at 1:40k for areas like the Lakes or Brecon Beacons.
I actually splashed out on a new compass, and got the Silva Compass 5. This is a feature rich compass. It has the all the standard stuff you expect on a compass such as romas, rulers, magnifying lens, etc. However it also has luminous markings, a detachable distance lanyard with scales to measure longer distances, and a built in permanent adjuster for magnetic declination. It comes with a Slope card that helps assess avalanche risk, slopes and extra distance.
Being able to navigate especially in poor weather conditions is an important skill to have. One of those skills to aid this is pacing. To aid in keeping an accurate count of my paces taken I got some Coopers Bay Pace Count Beads.
Both the compass and pace count beads will be kept on the belt in an old Satmap gps case I have for easy access and safe keeping.
My routes and notes will be written in a Rite in the Rain Waterproof Paper Universal Pocket Top Wire Bound Spiral Notebook. Obviously the size and being waterproof is a big factor in getting this particular notebook. Having rulers and measurement conversion tables on the inside back cover is a handy addition.
I will be keeping the notepad in a Rite in the Rain Weatherproof Cordura Fabric Notebook Cover (I have a spare one of these if anyone wants one, first person to comment/contact me gets it). This will also have pens, pencils, the Silva slope card, timing card, and protractor in.
The Clear Half Round Shape Plastic 0-360 Degrees Protractor Map Reading Measuring Tool is the degree version of the mills one I have. Mainly used in planning and saving me have to convert between mills and degrees for bearings.
The map needs protecting from the elements and to do this I have an Aquapac Small Waterproof Map Case.
Being lazy and not wanting to do any maths I got a Navigators Timing Card from ShavenRaspberry.com. Handy when planning to get a rough idea of how long the route might take. But even handier on the trail when needing to work out timings for a leg of the route or even a route adjustment quickly.
Garmin eTrex 32x gps. I needed a new gps. I’ve not been able to locate my old Satmap gps. Now even though I have this its main use will be to give me a precise location to confirm on my map that I am where I think I am. And possibly have a digital copy of the route on it. But to do that will need me to use mapping software of some kind. And I’ve not spent any time investigating current options, especially for the iPad.
My iPhone! If I’m using this for navigation then things have gone pretty pear shaped. Somehow I’ve lost all of the above.
A rant!
But these two gadgets bring me onto a rant about outdoors YouTubers. Maybe I’m watching the wrong ones. But you very rarely see them use a map and compass. Instead you do see them use their mobile device with some sort of navigation/map app. Giving the impression that’s all you need, and that’s all they are using.
Since the appearance of affordable (subjective I know) gps technology for the public the critism has always been that technology fails. So you don’t rely on it solely. You need a map and compass. And just importantly know how to use them.
It’s a valid point.
Yes technology improves. Battery life increases, etc.
However if something happens to the phone/gps, gets dropped, wet, battery dies, or some other unfortunate event. You are stuffed. Depending when this happens it could be dangerously so.
Yes maps and compasses also have weaknesses.
I’m a fan of a belt and braces approach. Use the map and compass as your main navigation tool, and have the gps/phone as your backup. Use them as a tool alongside the map. Just don’t rely on them being your main or sole navigation tool.
But this isn’t what these YouTubers show. You see no map. No compass. You see them using just their phone. So not even a dedicated gps. You don’t even see any disclaimer telling people not to use just a phone etc. Which I think is shocking.
What do you think of my navigation toolkit or my rant? Let me know in the comments below.