Last night Chris and I went 'Night Navving' near Widdop Reservoir (between Hebden Bridge and Burnley). It was a lovely clear evening, great for star gazing and not too cold. It is debatable whether this is ideal conditions or not because it depends why you are walking about on the hills in the dark.
Yes. Why are we walking around in the dark? Well a few months ago Chris came out with me in preparation for my Mountain Leader Assessment and now Chris is doing his in a few weeks. On the ML, as it is affectionately called, you walk round at night in a group of about four people. Naturally you have your head torches on. The assessor will point out a location on the map to one of the group and he or she will have to get there. Then another person is asked to take the group to the next spot.
A location might be at the corner of a path or the end of a wall - not too bad. On the other hand it might be a tiny kink in a contour line that you can only see when you look through the magnifying glass on the compass - much harder. The tough thing is that you have to take over from the person before you and you don't know where they were told to go. They may not even have successfully taken the group to the place they were told to. So you have to be on the ball, You need to know where you are on the map at all times. In the dark!
That's why a lovely clear night might not be the best conditions. On my ML it rained all the time and we were in mist so you really need to practice in bad conditions as well.
We set off from the car park along the track and then up through the woods until leaving the path to find a small group of rocks. This was the first location. Before going you need to decide what the locations will be. From there we worked our way around between groups of rocks, tops of small streams (re-entrants in orienteering parlance) and corners in the path before returning to the car.
We achieved about half of what Chris had planned. It takes ages in the dark over moorland to get anywhere.
So how can you find your way around? Well, your main tool is your compass. Take a bearing on the map and follow it. To decide when you have gone far enough you can estimate the number of paces and how long it will take. You would know in advance how many paces was 100 m on a flat path and how long that would take but you have to adjust that estimate to take account of the gradient and the underfoot terrain.
There are other tactics that orienteers use, that you can adopt. A good strategy is to try to break it down into 'legs'; walk to a wall, follow the wall to a corner, then take a bearing, for example. Following a wall is called 'Handrailing' and getting closer before taking the bearing is called 'finding an attack point'. You can use a catching feature. If there is something behind the target destination, then you know you've gone too far if you reach it. If you are heading for a point on a linear feature like a stream it is better to 'aim off'. Deliberately go slightly to the right or left so that when you hit the stream you know which way to turn.
That's just a sample. There are many static orienteering courses you can use for practice but you really can't beat being out in the dark. There is that slight frisson of excitement especially when a grouse suddenly takes off noisily about 2 metres away. It's exhilarating and of course it's fantastic practice in case you ever do get caught out at night.
Yes. Why are we walking around in the dark? Well a few months ago Chris came out with me in preparation for my Mountain Leader Assessment and now Chris is doing his in a few weeks. On the ML, as it is affectionately called, you walk round at night in a group of about four people. Naturally you have your head torches on. The assessor will point out a location on the map to one of the group and he or she will have to get there. Then another person is asked to take the group to the next spot.
A location might be at the corner of a path or the end of a wall - not too bad. On the other hand it might be a tiny kink in a contour line that you can only see when you look through the magnifying glass on the compass - much harder. The tough thing is that you have to take over from the person before you and you don't know where they were told to go. They may not even have successfully taken the group to the place they were told to. So you have to be on the ball, You need to know where you are on the map at all times. In the dark!
That's why a lovely clear night might not be the best conditions. On my ML it rained all the time and we were in mist so you really need to practice in bad conditions as well.
We set off from the car park along the track and then up through the woods until leaving the path to find a small group of rocks. This was the first location. Before going you need to decide what the locations will be. From there we worked our way around between groups of rocks, tops of small streams (re-entrants in orienteering parlance) and corners in the path before returning to the car.
We achieved about half of what Chris had planned. It takes ages in the dark over moorland to get anywhere.
So how can you find your way around? Well, your main tool is your compass. Take a bearing on the map and follow it. To decide when you have gone far enough you can estimate the number of paces and how long it will take. You would know in advance how many paces was 100 m on a flat path and how long that would take but you have to adjust that estimate to take account of the gradient and the underfoot terrain.
There are other tactics that orienteers use, that you can adopt. A good strategy is to try to break it down into 'legs'; walk to a wall, follow the wall to a corner, then take a bearing, for example. Following a wall is called 'Handrailing' and getting closer before taking the bearing is called 'finding an attack point'. You can use a catching feature. If there is something behind the target destination, then you know you've gone too far if you reach it. If you are heading for a point on a linear feature like a stream it is better to 'aim off'. Deliberately go slightly to the right or left so that when you hit the stream you know which way to turn.
That's just a sample. There are many static orienteering courses you can use for practice but you really can't beat being out in the dark. There is that slight frisson of excitement especially when a grouse suddenly takes off noisily about 2 metres away. It's exhilarating and of course it's fantastic practice in case you ever do get caught out at night.
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