Some of our clients come to us to learn new skills, some come to have an experience, but recently we had the pleasure of welcoming a client on a Navigation Course who had a specific goal in mind; he had entered a 24 Hour Adventure Race and needed to brush up on the Navigation skills and maybe learn a trick or two that would give him the edge in the competition.
Needless to say, this was a serious undertaking and we knew that we would have to pull something special out of the bag.
The course centred in the Brecon Beacons near Pen-y-Fan, an area that would represent the race area as close as possible - Northern England.
Friday night was taken up with the introductions, setting up camp and running through the itinery for the weekend. We then set off to a nearby gorge to practise abseil skills - one of the Adventure Race's disciplines! We ran through setting up the ropes, putting on the harness and the safety procedures before 'going for it'. Several different belay devices were tried, plus the 'deadmans brake'. We continued until our client was totally happy with everything. That done, we walked back down to the camp site for a reasonably early night - it would be a long weekend!
7am Saturday morning we were up and about, preparing for a day on the hills. UK Mountains prefers to teach skills in the field rather than the classroom, so, after a kit buddy check and final safety briefing we were off up the hill. As we went, we stopped frequently to check the map, check for expected features and discuss how we could locate ourselves on the map. Eventually via a circuitous route, we arrived at the summit of Pen-y-Fan, the highest mountain in Southern Britain, totally in the clouds, the wind blowing, and no view - situation normal! We dropped over the Eastern side to shelter and a well-earned rest for food and hot drinks. Due to the snow on the peak, it was a careful descent that bought us to the foot of Cribyn where a route choice presented itself to us.
Checking the map and discussions about the various choices led us along a contour path to the far side and more route choices. Here it was time to get the compass out - up until now we had not used it. Our philosophy is to introduce skills one at a time and teach the clients how to navigate with the minimum equipment.
Bearings were next on the list of skills to add to the toolbox and so we took a bearing to the far side of the Neuadd Reservior and headed down. What if we had to change bearings? We did, several times, and walked a zig-zag route to the reservoir itself.
By now it was lunchtime so a well-earned rest in the trees was taken before we set off again, this time our client was given a Grid Reference to navigate to with the associated route choices. We were well pleased to arrive spot on! Now for a harder route, this one had much more choice and had serious consequences if the wrong choice was made. No need to worry, the abundance of brown lines helped us to make the choice!
This time, the destination was a random spot on the hillside and the benefits of the GPS were introduced as the final skill on this session - not that they are allowed in an Adventure Race, but it was a useful skill to learn for other times.
Back at the camp, we relaxed, had a Barbeque and waited for dusk. This signalled the next exercise - a night navigation. Tired legs set off into the hills again. Eventually it was fully dark and only the lights on our headtorches lit the ground around. Methods of navigation in this environment were discussed and tried out. The Gods were smiling and the sky was totally clear. The important constellations for navigation by the stars were pointed out, as was the various benefits and risks of using stars as navigation references. Eventually we returned to our camp, via a dark and spooky forest and welcome sleeping bags.
Sunday was the Mountain Bike navigation session. Over dinner yesterday, the grid references for the route were given out, as they would be in the actual race, giving the competitors time to route plan. We packed away the camp site and after a quick check to ensure that all rubbish had been cleared, drove the short journey to the start location and we were off.
On the bikes, things happen much quicker and reading the maps accurately becomes much harder than walking or running, particularly when the mud that is flicked up by the wheels confuses things. Frequent checks are essential. This was an exercise for the client to take charge of route finding with our supervision and advice when things went awry. We can report that our client acquitted himself admirably with very few mistakes being made, although he did say at one point that the route had clearly been set by a sadist! We couldn't possibly comment.
During the ride and afterwards, we suggested a few improvements and changes to techniques, plus the obvious one of practise, practise, practise!
A final 'wash-up', summary and presentation of the certificate and it was all over for another course. We fully expect our client to win the race, but if not, it won't be the navigation that lets him down!
