Improving map reading skills

[Mourneman]

First day on the forum,must say really enjoyed reading over some of the stories & articles posted by other members.I'am always looking for ways to improve my navigation skills & was wondering do any other members have techniques for practising reading co-ordinates.when I 'am not on the hills I Facebook my hiking mate 6 digit grid references on marked features on  a OS 125 scale,this helps me read the map quickly for a bearing.Does anybody else practise similar way of navigation .

[Spud]

My map reading skills could do with improving so we be glad of a few tips myself!

[whoRya]

As much as I love the Mourne wall, it has us somewhat spoilt.

[Mourneman]

You're totally right mate,the wall is a great feature for taking a bearing from, I recently walked Cuilcagh in Cavan,which apart from it's frontal ridge it pretty much featureless

[LandyLiam]

As i've just bought a garmin etrex i fear i may never look at a map again    the mourne wall is indeed great, but make sure you follow the right wall  (as i learnt the hard way one misty evening  )

[Mourneman]

I've a garmin etrex as well that I use for geocaching,but I have found that unless you have the high spec gps with preloaded and downloadable maps the a gps had limited function,Ie the straight line is not always the best path to follow,another example of this is a recent geocaching venture I had with fellow member ,mountain goat,we started off up the ott trek heading for geocache,"lake of the foxs"with our preloaded waypoint,weather conditions were very poor,with a very heavy fog down to about 10 feet in places,we crossed over the wall at slieve loughshannon and carried on down the gully to the lake,collected the cache & made in the direction of Doan,for our second cache,having found the cache we made our way down using our last way-point as a reference,but the gps,will simplify any route without the caution for dangerous features,in poor visibility the gps can also be dangerous tool,leading you sometimes to unseen features,crags,cliffs,marches,lately I've been using mine as a back up feature & trying to rely only map reading skills,don't get me wrong they are very useful piece of kit,but for me they're second place to a map  & compass,or even thing that should be used with a Map & compass

[LandyLiam]

very true, can't rely on them totally, but if they have good maps on them with all the features listed then paper map isn't needed any more, unless the batteries run out 

see this thread for some free map info
http://www.ni-wild.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1168.msg10254#msg10254

[Mourneman]

nice one mate,good call,interesting,what about sports-tracker or google earth have any of guys used them for displaying way-points or routes?

[RedLeader]

I could definitely do with some practice at mapreading. We're considering an evening out at one of the Lagan Valley Orienteers for some mapreading fun.

[Spud]

I could definitely do with some practice at mapreading. We're considering an evening out at one of the Lagan Valley Orienteers for some mapreading fun.

I would deffo be up for that, keep us posted!

[Mourneman]

sounds good red leader,Orienteering is a great way to improve navigation skills,keep me posted

[Paul72]

There's a good series on youtube with Simon King (the wildlife cameraman) which might be basic for some but are very good nonetheless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRb2gRiTQxY

[Mourneman]

Nice one Paul,I'll check that out later,I heading to to find a few cache's

[LandyLiam]

i've been wanting to try orienteering too, but never wanted to turn up alone, i'm very shy 

your not heading to dundrum for a cache by any chance? chance of a first to find there 

[mt goat russell]

As i've just bought a garmin etrex i fear i may never look at a map again    the mourne wall is indeed great, but make sure you follow the right wall  (as i learnt the hard way one misty evening  )

Aaa liam never relay on ur gps all the time I only use mine as a last resort if i'm not 100% sure were I am as i'm more a map & compas man ask john what happined with him using his gps & me using a M&C when vis was down to 10-15 m...