Living There
Before we set off on our adventure we need to decide which map its best for us, some maps have a lot detail but do not cover a lot of land whether some other maps, loose some features but cover much wider areas.
Do not worry we will soon find out which map is best for you!
1: 2000 to 1:15000
Great choice for practicing all the navigation skills and techniques , you can cut the learning time in half by using those scales, I promise!!
I recommend you get some!
Those are orienteering maps and you can generally buy them at a tourist information office or you can contact your local orienteering club to get some. They are my favourite for practicing and teaching all navigation techniques in a relatively small and safe area.
I used them a lot when I was consolidating for the Mountain Leader award.
Other useful map scales
1:25000
Benefits:
This map offers a good level of detail, things like fences and walls are shown, but also small tracks. This map is for you if you plan to go hill walking in poor visibility, want to walk the dog in a big forest with lots of small tracks or go mountain biking. Also great for paddlers as it shows weirs.
Downside :
It covers a relatively small area, therefore it would not be ideal for someone doing road cycling over long distances or motor biking, as a whole side of a map could easily be crossed in just 1 Hour !!
1:50000
Benefits:
Great for a good birds eye view of the main landscape, mountain formations and valleys . All the smaller features like fences and small burns are omitted.
During winter those features in the land are covered by snow making contours the main source of navigational information.
This is why this scale is used in winter a lot.
The 1:50000 map It covers a lot more land than the 1:25000 in fact it covers twice as much, and still hold a lot of detail, thanks to the cartographer drawing skills. Great to use if you want to hike for many days and don’t want to buy a million maps, do winter skills but it could also be used for boating or cycle touring when intending to go cross country.
Downside:
Could be confusing to use at night or in poor visibility. The reason for this is that some features that are less than 50 m in length and 10 m in height could be totally omitted at this scale.
This could cause the a navigator to panic and think they have made a navigational mistake, even if you are good you can still get caught out!.
If an alien feature appears on your heading try to ascertain that the size of the feature is in fact below the mentioned threshold and keep walking on your bearing, maintaining accurate pacing count along side the use of timing until you reach your originally selected feature.
If you are 5 minutes late on your estimate to reach your destination then it means that you indeed made a mistake, try to retrace your last known fix by using a (back bearing)
1:40000
Benefits: This scale is generally made by Harvey’s in the UK. It offers a kind of orienteering contour drawing approach, very good detail even do the legend has quite a few differences from the Ordnance Survey range. This maps tend to be fully waterproof and light.
This size of map is perhaps the best middle ground between all the sizes because it retains a hell of a lot of in info considering the scale.
If you are a keen orienteer you will benefit most from Harvey’s range across all the scales.
Downside: If you are a determined road motorcyclist or always plan, unfold and live your adventures on a main roads, this map will be of little use. Instead go for a 1:100000
1:100000
Benefits:
This map has road cyclist and road cycle touring written all over it!!
Great for the fast moving adventurer on a road bike who can benefit the most from the extensive area covered by the map.
Downside:
This map will not be any good if you wanted to go hiking or mountain biking, paddling skiing, basically anything for which you need detailed information about your immediate surroundings.
Thanks for reading
Fernando Quintiliani
Founder of The Adventure Geeks
