Navigation course, the conclusions

Climbed by year and month

Climbed by year and month

The course taught me navigation. It was worth the money. And it was a nice place, but I'm not sure I enjoyed it as such.

The instructor could have shown more awareness of the group's tiredness and moral. Most of us were knackered at some point or another, except possibly John, but he didn't suggest a breather or snack stop. When the back marker, usually me, rejoined the group at a stop he was off immediately. At least once none of us moved when he set off. I mentioned it on the 'feedback form'.

There was also the organisational faux pas' which were a little 'tedious'; a mix up over which minibus we were going to jump in and whether there was room. And dropping us off at the wrong car park and not knowing where abouts we were - even if he didn't initially want to say, it became obvious he was lost. What hope for us?!

So what did we do? The lot. Finding out how many steps we take on flat and on hilly ground to cover 100metres. Timing and pacing a section. Taking bearings from a map and walking on them, and vice versa. Slope aspect and it's uses. We did a bit of route planning, a lot of contour interpretation, and discussed first aid on the hills. Used the 1:50000 and 1:25000 OS maps, and the Harvey's walkers map with it's odd shading and 15m contours. We even did a wee bit of scrambling up Coire an t'Sneachta.

And bagged the odd Munro just because it was there.
Brilliant!