Blue Ridge Mountain Rescue Group
FTM Training Schedule - Fall 1999

The Art of Orienteering:

“Maps Lie and the Shortest Path BETWEEN TWO POINTS IS NOT A STRAIGHT LINE"

• Orienting the Map

Set the bezel on your compass to the declination marked on the map.  Lay the compass along the edge of the map.  (i.e. north to south on the map.)  Turn the map until the moving and printed arrows match.  The map is now oriented to the real world.  For example, if you were standing at A1020 and oriented the map, Hazel Mountain would be in front of you and Sam’s Run would be to your right.

• Never Trust a Single Piece of data

An expert navigator assembles data from multiple sources: estimated travel distance, land features, compass information, etc.  Any one source of information could have significant error for a variety of reasons.  Slavish reliance on any one “instrument” can cause inaccurate navigation.

• F ollow the contours

A straight path between two points will often lead you on repeated ups and downs.  Generally your travel will be quicker and easier if you take a longer route at roughly constant elevation.

• HELPFUL ORIENTEERING TRICKS

• Roads are your friends … most of the time.  Whenever possible, utilize roads and trails for cross-country travel.  Even if they are much longer than a “direct” route, they will provide quicker and easier travel.  But … the exact location of dirt roads and trails is often approximate at best.  Curves are particularly prone to be poorly mapped.  Furthermore, you will often encounter trails on the (20 year old) map that don’t exist on the ground and vice versa.

• Catching Feature:         An unmistakable feature, typically linear, that will tell you exactly where you are.  e.g., “Go west to point X.  If you hit the James River you’ve gone to far.”  The river “caught” you.

• Collecting Feature: An obvious feature that can be counted (“collected”) to help determine your position.  e.g., “From O-Hill dining hall, walk towards central grounds on McCormick Road.  The commerce school is the third building on the left past the bridge.”

• Attack Point: A point that may be easily reached from which more difficult navigation can be started.  e.g.  If you were going to Mt. McKinley, it would be much easier (simply in terms of not getting lost) to 1) Fly to Anchorage, 2) Take a bus to Denali National Park, and then 3) look for Mt. McKinley rather than simply walking a direct route straight from Charlottesville.  On a more typical SAR level, it might be easier to find a point by first going to the top of a hill and then going back down rather than navigating straight from the bottom.

• Aiming off:        Introducing deliberate error into your navigation to avoid confusion.  Imagine playing pin-the-tail-on the donkey with the donkey 20 feet away.  if you walk straight to the donkey, you might hit it, but more likely you’ll just hit the wall and not know whether to go left or right.  if you intentionally walked well to the left or right, you would know which direction to go when you hit the wall.  Similar tactics can be used in land nav.  for instance, if base is along a river, you might follow a bearing that would have you reach the river 1 km downstream.  If you tried to go straight to base, but missed, you would not know if you were upstream or downstream of your destination.