It's been 5-6 years since my last proper HKAYP hike, and a long time since I seriously used a compass and map for navigation, without relying on the GPS. I thought it would be useful to do a refresher...so I signed up for...
Mountain Craft Course
First impression: 1st Theory class. I come into a conference room type classroom, 10 minutes early. The instructor is an average 50-60 year old man in quick-drying outerwear and hiking boots. He looks great for his age as he paced quickly around the room to set up the equipment.
Lots of basics were covered in a very systematic manner.
What to keep in your pack,
how much water to bring,
what food is dependable,
why emergency rations and what it should be.
How to use map and compass.
Features,
map editions - what the 1980s topographic maps looked like, how they changed over the years (old paths and human development)
various types of compasses and how to use them - USGS lensatic compasses are pretty cool!
From the beginning, the central theme were...
Attention to Detail.
Map reading? Attention to the terrain, directions and features.
Backpack packing? Attention to detail. Checklists. Final inspection. Prioritization. Placement. For example, whistle, walkie-talkie, emergency light should be in front.
Walking? Attention to walking pace, footing, distribution, posture, distance...
Pacing? Attention to one's gait. Count your steps. Know how far 10, 100 steps will go.
On the march? Keep hands free and don't read maps, use compass or drink while walking.
Stay Safe and Secure.
Find the most obvious, prominent features and use them. You will never be wrong. Use "your hunch" or small ordinary features and you will get lost. In the absence of all features, trust your compass and go to where you can see far. If we became lost, we had to go back to the last point we were sure of.
During the daytrips, we spent a lot of time trying to look for paths which were on the map but obscure in reality. When the path is at last found, we always feel a simple satisfaction. I got the sense that there was really no such thing as a lost path, because lost paths almost invariably get replaced by multiple openings or new paths.
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Exercises.
Pace Distance game. Using only pacing and previous steps/10m data, estimate distances up to 100m.
Pace Bearing game. Try following distance, bearings and see if you end up where you should be.
Find-the-hidden-path game. Find the path shown on the map. Winner gets map square.
Take bearings game. Triangulate your position.
Symbols-definition matching game. What's gray and rectangular?
6 steps before setting off from checkpoint to next.
HKAYP
I even met some guys and girls taking the course to preparing for AYP, enjoying the feeling of "been there, saw that, done that" while telling adventure stories. I think they will be very overprepared for the paths ahead, something I've pondered while walking.
Is it better to have been lost before and then found one's way, or to have been on track all along? I guess everybody has their path, and the road less taken is different for everyone.
Actually, I even met some guys who had done their AYP back in the day, and they had the misfortune to be the only male in their teams. To make things worse, they were forbidden from taking any kind of road. They became extremely good navigators who could carry everybody's stuff and still pinpoint where we were at just about every curve.
But perhaps most awesome of all were the stories the instructor told. Back in his childhood, one of his instructors was a former soldier. His scout outings involved swimming/wading/climbing up small rivers and tributaries, and they would just be wet for the remainder of the "hike". And oh, they didn't have the quickdry, lightweight gear we do today. I guess people were tougher back then, because I suspect that would be forbidden these days.
All things considered, it was a great refresher for everything we learned, tried to master during AYP.
