Navigating in Winter

The principles of navigating in winter are exactly the same as navigating in summer. It can be, however, significantly more difficult. The main differences between navigating in summer and winter conditions are as follows.

 

winter nav1) Fewer features are visible.
Everything is covered in snow so you may not see smaller features like small streams or smaller contour features.

 

2) Weather is generally worse.
The weather is generally worse in winter giving a shorter visibility. The combination of low cloud and a covering of snow can even lead to whiteout conditions which can make you feel dizzy and sick as you are unable to discern what is the ground and what is the sky.

 

3) Shape of the land is clearer.
On the plus side if you can see the shape of the hills is clearer. I think that because everything is white there is less to distract your eye from the shape of the land. Most people navigate on 1:50000 OS maps or the new 1:40000 BMC maps in winter as the contours are much clearer on these maps than the 1:25000 map.

 

4) Distance judging can be more difficult.

 

5) Edges may be corniced.
You simply cannot walk up a hill and use a cliff edge as a catchment feature in winter without considering if that edge may be corniced.

 

6) Pacings tend to be different. 
My pacings go from 63 paces per 100 meters to 75 pacings per 100 meters in winter. Make sure you know if you have an adjustment and what it is. You will probably find that you pace a lot more in winter than you do in summer.

 

7) Walking on a bearing is different.
In some ways it is easier, you can simply walk on your bearing, you are not being distracted by remnants of path or easier ways around bits of bog or rocks. As there is a snow covering you can walk straight to your point, counting paces as you go. The problem is ‘where is your point’ with potentially poorer visibility and maybe no rocks to walk to you will get very good at discerning between slightly differently shaded patches of snow. You may also need to use techniques such as throwing things or getting someone to zig zag in front of you on roughly the right bearing to give you footprints to walk to.

 

steep slope8) Steeper slopes are technically easier and more fun.
When everything is covered in snow and ice you can walk up slopes that would be horrendous in the summer and it is even more fun. You do, however, need to be sure that steep slopes won’t avalanche.

 

9) Relocation is harder with fewer features.
Put simply. Don’t get lost. Make your navigational legs shorter if necessary. Don’t be afraid to zig zag via lots of known points rather then head out on a long leg.

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