Proficient map and compass skills are essential for enjoying the outdoors safely. Once you know how to navigate you can properly explore the countryside and mountains without having to stick to the honey pot routes that all others are walking about on.

Top Tips to help you with your navigation skills from Will4Adventure:

• Orientate the map to the ground. It will make far easier to see where you are heading.
• Break your route into navigational stages: 'coarse' navigation should be easy navigation to obvious features (attack points). Follow this with 'fine' navigation to your target location.
• Follow hand rails (linear features such as streams and wood lines) to save continually looking at your map.
• Use timing to check distance covered over long legs, and pacing for shorter legs up to 1000m.

Essential Equipment for map reading: Ordnance Survey or Harvey’s maps, a compass, and some sort of waterproof map case. Additionally we would recommend buying Memory Map software combined with waterproof paper allows you to print off your walks at home.

Great places to learn the skills are the hills of the Peak District. Following the basics get out and explore Dartmoor or the Yorkshire Dales. Follow these up with days out in the Lake District and Snowdonia.

Learn to map read: Bronze, Silver and Gold weekend courses with Will4Adventure.



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