I had a great day out today with Jo and Dean who I took up
Tryfan back in February. They wanted to go over some navigation techniques and skills so we headed up to
Gelli Iago to see if I could get them lost. We had a fantastic stroll up to the top of
Cnict and round to
Llyn yr Adar covering contour interpretation,
identifying features on the ground and relating them to the map, pacing and compass work. It is a great area to do this as the paths are generally pretty vague and it is easy to get off the paths and make your own way through the wilderness. It also has the added
benefit of being quite and very beautiful.
I
beleive that the key to good navigation is being observant of all the features of the landscape around you and the ground under your feet. So do do this you need to get into the habit of looking around, getting all the clues from the land and then looking at the map, rather than just burying your head in the map!
Jo and Dean with Cnict in the background
Dean, Chris, Jo, Garry and myself on Tryfan
I then finished off the day with a hours bouldering at the
Cromlech in the
Llanberis Pass. With the clocks going forward tonight the time for evening climbing missions is now upon us - just bring on the sun!!
