Much of the equipment that you will want to use is down to personal preference. Here is what I or colleagues have found useful and why. We have collected lots of this together and listed it in our Amazon shop on the Lupine website.
The Compass
Silva Expedition 4
It is no exageration to say that over 90% of Mountain Leaders will recommend this compass. It isn't the top of the range by any stretch of the imagination but if you are serious about navigating accurately, quickly and easially then this is the compass you should be getting. It generally sells for about £25 - £30 and so there are cheaper ones but these are the reasons why you should get this one.
- Oil Filled (the Compass floats and isn't as likely to get stuck at an angle).
- Long base plate (so when you take your bearings you can generally link up the two points rather than guessing).
- Three Romer scales for popular map scales (1:50000, 1:40000 and 1:25000).
- Magnifying glass for making the map clearer.
- Line Down the left side of the base plate for taking more accurate bearings, rather than using the edge of the compass.
Head Torches
If you are going to be out at night navigating then you are going to need a Head Torch. I always have 2 in my bag.
Petzel MYO RPX
My main torch is the Petzel MYO RPX. This is an expensive torch (about £60) but very powerful with an additional boost button. It does, however, really drain batteries fast so I usually carry spare batteries for it too.
Alpkit Gamma
My back up torch is the Alpkit Gamma. This is a bargain at £18. It has 4 different LED's (green, red, a big white and a small white). The red and green lights are for using on moonlit nights when you do not need the torch to walk by. When you need to look at the map using the red or green LED's will not destroy your night vision.
It also has a red light on the battery pack which I assume is for runners and cyclists. However, one of my friends has one of these torches and when he gallops off down the hill in the dark at the end of the day it is nice to see roughly where he is and which way I'm going to be heading.
Map cases
Buying a cheap map case is a complete waste of money. In fact I think that the word has at last got out as I am not even sure if you can get those rigid plastic ones that would split on the first or second use any more.
There are two types of map case that are both very good. One is made by Ortlieb and one by Silva. They appear to be made out of the same sort of material. Over the last decade or so we have purchased a number of both of these makes and have never had a problem with leaking.
Pacing Beads
When counting paces you have to keep track of how far you have gone. I suppose there are two ways you could do this. If your 100m pacing is 63 steps and you had to walk for 300m you could multiply 63 by 3 and then count 189 paces. Most people however pace 63 three times. If you are going to do this then you need a way to keep track of each of the 100m that you cover. In summer you can pick up stones or maybe hold some stones in one hand and transfer them to the other. In winter you can't do that if all the stones are covered in snow. For this reason many people have a number (5 or 10) beads on a string and move them up or down as they count off each of their 100m distances.
The beads shown have metal springs which 'could' interfere with your compass needle if you put them on your compass string. Having said that I have them on mine and have never had a problem with it but I do keep them away from the compass end of the string. Some people attach them to a separate string then then connect this to their rucksack strap. Other types of bead are available from outdoor shops without a spring but I have never used them.
Timing card
If you like to measure your distance by timing then having a timing card will prove very useful to quickly work out the shorter times. We have a number of walker's timing cards of different sizes that you can download from the Lupine Adventure website.
