Piers Gill Navigation Course (Open course)

This navigation course will visit the Piers Gill area on the Corridor Route up Scafell Pike. Piers Gill  has increasingly become an accident black-spot and is of great concern to the Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team.

During this navigation course, we will walk up to the Piers Gill area and examine different skills and techniques that should stop you making basic errors in places like this. The skills you will learn are directly transferable and relevant to every other mountain area in the UK where navigational skills are required.

On this Piers Gill navigation course we will look at and practice:-

Map/Compass Skills

• Choosing maps for outdoor activities such as walking/hiking.
• Interpreting a map (paper – or digital on-screen).
• Orientating the map in good or bad visibility.
• Planning a walking/hiking route.
• Following a planned route successfully.
• Avoiding common navigational errors.
• Simple uses for a magnetic compass.

GPS (including Mobile Phone Skills)

• The pros and cons of different physical GPS devices.
• The pros and cons of different types of mapping on these devices.
• The pros and cons of using uploaded .gpx files.
• How to plan your own route for a GPS device.
• Different navigational modes and when to use them – and when not to use them.
• Following a planned route on a GPS device.
• Making use of other relevant features on GPS devices.

By the end of the day you should be much more aware of the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to navigation and be confident that you can avoid navigational black-spots safely.

The cost of the Piers Gill Navigation course is £60 per person based on a minimum of 4 people attending.

Alternatively, take a look at other navigation courses that we offer and see what ‘Open’ courses are available in our Calendar.