Night navigation

[Adi007]

How many of you have practiced night navigation? Have you honed your map/compass skills at night along with other, natural methods? Do you practice things like "counting paces" and so on? :?:

I spent a few nights a few weeks ago practicing (I haven't put in any practice time at night for a few years) and was amazed as to how hard it is to concentrate and keep on top of it while dealing with the night (things like not tripping over and so on). However, it was a valuable experience! :-D Better to put in the time before I need the skills! :shock:

 

[Justin Time]

I'm quite comfortable walking around my local woods and fields in the dark, but haven't tried the navigation side of it, no need really...
Is it any different from navigating in the mist? and as for Pace counting, is that as difficult as it sounds?

Cheers
Justin

 

[Adi007]

Pace counting is daylight is easy, but as you are trying to cross unknown terrain (especially if it's rocky or muddy) I was quite amazed as to how difficult it is. Add to that the fact that I found that keeping a uniform stride length at night is harder (I think this is a confidence issue that stems from a fear of tripping over), it's trickier!

 

[Bear Stone]

A couple of years ago I went on a back packing trip around Cumbria. I unknowingly damaged my compass at the end of the third day. I walked all the following day going in completely the wrong direction; by the end of which I was more than a little confused.
Luckily, it was a clear night and I could tell from the stars that my compass was faulty. I had to walk a few miles across the hills in the dark to get to Keswick. I had to go that night so that I could navigate safely. I bought a compass the following day in Keswick.
Even though I had a mobile phone and other safety measures I was glad I didn't have to use them. Celestral navigation saved the resue services time and me a lot of embarrassment.

Bear

 

[woodsitter]

I did short trips on reasonable path in the woods. Well, with a good path a good map GPS and a headlight, it’s not very difficult. Also once in the Sahara in Morocco, we took a stroll thru the sand dunes of Merzouga (I really recommend that!!!). But that is in the desert, there is almost no humidity in the air so the sky is very very clear. With the stars and the moon (I have never see so much stars in my life) you could see almost as in daylight. Because of the sand you don’t have to watch your step and I kept a keen eye on the compass. Besides that, no hiking in the dark.

 

[alick]

I was born & raised in Cumberland. You've right that it's a good place to try night navigation. It can get so dark there on a moonless night that even walking down the middle of a road you can barely see the silhouette of the hedges against the sky.
My main tip is to be careful when doing it as I've had friends nearly walk off a cliff in fog, and that's just as easy at night.
It all depends on the moonlight and terrain. If it's really black, no torch, lost your bearings on rough and high ground, then bivvy down before you kill yourself.
If you have a light or there's a good moon then it can be OK, but I agree with Adi, everything takes lots longer.
Friends of mine were caught out after dark in the Cuillins on Skye and though they got back OK they took twice as long as planned coming back by torchlight.
If you have a good moon, and clear weather then it can be a terrific experience. I once did the whole descent from the Breche de Roland down to the Cirque de Gavarnie in the Pyrenees after dark. Near 3,000 feet of high snowfields and rocky tracks by moonlight and cavers acetylene lamp. That was surreal ! ):
Cheers,
PS - I don't trust my pace counting in those conditions, I always prefer linear features (handrails) as a guide, aiming off so I know which way to turn when I find them and looking for other marks that tell if I've overshot. I'm wary of dangerously deep gully's made by some of the streams up in the lakes too.
And never trust the cairns either. There are too many schoolkids and well meaning incompetents who chuck a rock on every pile in sight so it might just mark the top of the "steep" decent not a major path

 

[Chopper]

Something that may be of use to you if you lose or damage your compass and dont know your stars, is if you pick a star any star close to the horizon and either sit and watch it or mark its position with two sticks that line up with it then after about 15 mins it would have moved, now if it has moved to the left then you are facing north, if it moves down then you are facing west, up = east and right = south.

The easy way to remember this is to remember the following:

Lost Nomads Die Wondering.

Left = North, Down = West

This really does work, I have never needed it but have checked it, and the best bit is that it works all over the world unlike you compass of which you would need a northern or southern hemisphere model.

 

[Stuart]

I've spent over six years living in desert countrys and I've never met a lost Nomad :-D

the desert really is ideal for night navigation, perfectly clear skys mean that navigation buy the stars is easy and there is almost always enough light to see by

Add to that the fact that traveling by night is more comfortable and conserves water

you quickly start to understand why the arabs use a luna calendar a bedu anywhere in the desert can look up at the moon and know roughly the date then look to the stars to give him direction

 

[sargey]

practising navigation in the dark is a great way of practising navigation in bad weather, (reduced visibility) without the bad weather.

as you practise walking round in the dark you can develope a different sort of stride, bending the knees more. we used to have group of friends that went night hiking regularly. when someone brought a guest along, the guest would often end up on the floor, tripping in ruts, over rocks and branches, the regulars rarely did.

walking in the woods in the dark is a whole different game. mind your
eyes!

above all do not attemp to demonstrate any of this whilst under the affluence of incahol.

cheers, and.

 

[ditchfield]

I love to navigate in the dark or bad weather as it creates a nice challenge. Just make sure you have an up to date map. I one tryed to navigate an area of managed coniferous forest. It had almost doubled in size and completely changed in shape since the map was produced . This would have produced some confusion in daylight, but at night :shock:. It took along time and a lot of wandering to get back on track. :mrgreen:

 

[Viking]

In the army we often did navigation in the dark. I rememeber once when our maps didn´t was up to date, then it´s hard to find the right way =)

Still do night navigation sometimes...it´s in early day and in the late evening that the animals are moving.

 

[Roving Rich]

I used to do a bit of orienteering, both day an night. It is the best navigation training I have done.
Counting paces is an essential part of nighttime navigation. You can buy clickers to go on your compass to click every 100m so you don't loose count. Alternatively you can put beads on the lanyard and pass one down the cord every m, a bit like prayer beads crossed with an abacus.
So I'd measure the distance on the map. convert to a series of straight lines/bearings, then break down these lines to series of 100 m "clicks".
Walk these using the compass counting paces and bobs yer auntie.
It does help if you can leapfrog between landmarks so that you know your on course.
I started at Ashton Court just outside Bristol. Where there used to be a permanently set up orienteering course. You could buy a map and set off with your compass collecting letters to spell a word.
Cheers
Rich

 

[Bug Boy]

Night Nav is a good skill as it helps you improve your general nav skills. But if you are going to practice, make sure you leave a route card with someone you trust and give them a return time plus an action plan if you fail to return. Also carry adequate kit "Just In Case".

As for the practical aspect:

A few good points have been raised above, such as hand railing or linear features. Pacing is essential and a good thing to have in your knowledge bank. Clickers, Beads and knotted string are good techniques for keeping count, as is double counting i.e. Instead of counting every step, count only your left stride (or right, remembering to half your paces to the 100m) smaller numbers are easier to work with especially when your cold and wet.

Another thing to be wary of in poor light conditions and mist/fog, is navigational drift or bent, which is exaggerated in these conditions. Each person is different and the distance / direction they will drift is unique to them. To check it out, first get a friend to help you so you don't walk into a wall etc by accident, pick a point in the distance and orient yourself to walk towards it, put on a blindfold and walk in the direction of your chosen target. Your friend should be close by to stop you bumping into stuff, but shouldn't offer any directional aid. After you have paced out your 100m check out how far you have drifted of course, something to be aware of.

Another point when navigating in poor light is to shorten the distance between you checkpoints or way markers; this lessens the chance of errors.

When making up your route cards for a night nav, try and select features that will be visible at night such as skylined objects etc. Always check contours and relief, as this is a great aid, and if you expect to be walking uphill but are actually walking down, you could be going the wrong way!

Hope these points were of use, had to use them myself a few times and they do work - honest

 

[leon-1]

There are a couple of other things which will aid anyone who is learning to navigate at night.

Keep the legs of your journey short as this decreases margin of error on compass bearings.

Fill out a complete route card with bearings, distances/paces and descriptions of your waypoint to carry with you. In the military they use the white plastic inserts from ammo tins. They are semi-translucent and can be read at night without torchlight (allowing you to keep your nightvision intact, less stumbling around in the darkness).