Mountaineering maps (Part 2)
(You can learn more using maps in the mountains on a navigation course in Snowdonia, the Lake District, Yorkshire, and the Peak District.)
Now for the second part of preparing a fit-for-purpose mountain map.
Hopefully, if you followed last month’s tip you now have some small A4-sized maps of your preferred mountain areas.
The next stage is to add some useful extra information. For those who have been on my, or any other, navigation courses you will know that timing and pacing are crucial navigational skills. (if you have no idea what I’m talking about then there are still a couple of places left on the course in May!). So, using Excel or something similar, prepare some tables of the timing and pacing data over different distances and on different terrain and at different speeds.
These tables can then be printed in miniature and cut out to be stuck onto the map in unobtrusive corners of the map where you would never walk. They are then ready to refer to at a glance and avoid all that horrible mental arithmetic.
For specific areas, other information can also be prepared – for example a mini-map of the summit of Ben Nevis with the critical bearings for a safe descent in zero visibility – and stuck on at the side of the map.
Now the map is beginning to become a map, a guide book, and a navigational manual all in one A4 sized package.
