Even a cursory look at some of the UK Mountain Rescue incident statistics indicate that poor skills around map reading and navigation is a cause of many callouts.

Whilst map. reading is widely recognised as an important outdoors skill, it rarely attracts as much attention as sunsets, campfires, knives, axes and expensive tents!

If you conjure up a mental picture of somebody navigating you probably summon up a romantic image of somebody halfway up a mountain, deep in a tropical jungle, in the middle of an arid desert or perhaps on a freezing polar ice cap.

Whilst all of those environments would definitely require sound navigation skills, in truth, they're the worst place to learn the foundation skills.

In my opinion, the best place to start to acquire these skills is much closer to home - your own doorstep in fact!

Let's look at this in a bit more detail.

You know your local area. ✅

It's safe, you can't really get lost. (That's an observation, not a challenge!) ✅

You can focus on the map as opposed to where you're going. ✅

You can develop some core skills, at the drop of a hat, with very little time required. ✅

If you're a newcomer to mapreading and are keen to dive into this fascinating subject or perhaps you're keen to dust off the cobwebs here are 5 simple steps to help you get started.

1. Obtain a map of your local area which shows your own home. Each country has its own mapping providers so you'll need to do some local research. If you're located in the UK then you can search for your local area map via the Ordnance Survey site. I would recommend looking at a map with a scale of 1:25,000 as it provides you with a large area to explore but with sufficient detail to help you better understand how a map works.

2. Take some time to identify your own home on the map and place a small circle around it.

3. Step outside, take a few steps from your door and then look around….. what can you see? Try and match what you see in the real world with the information on the map, even if it's as simple and obvious as your neighbours house, the road that passes your home, a road junction, roundabout or even a shopping centre.

If you manage that, give yourself a pat on the back as you've just related the ground to the map, an incredibly important navigation technique - well done!

4. Once you've exhausted what you can observe from your doorstep it's time to take a little walk….

Walk a route that is familiar to you. Perhaps it's a journey to your local shop, the school run route or your dog's favourite walk. As you're walking this route slow down and take stock of what's around you and what that looks like on the map.

How are those bridges shown on the map?

How are the trees in my local park represented on the map?

What do those farmers fields look like on paper?

How are those railway lines represented?

Is there anything you can see on the ground that you can't see on the map? Why might that be?

5. Plan to walk a different local route, but this time use the map as your primary method. Use the map to predict what you're going to see / find along the route.

Does the map suggest you'll be in a built up or open area or a mixture of both?

Which parts of your route will be uphill, downhill or flat?

What can you expect to see on your left and right?

What general direction will you be heading in, North, South, East or West?

I'm willing to bet that if you're a newcomer to this subject and you've undertaken the 5 steps above then you've learned something along the way and the 'dark art' of mapreading may no longer seem as inaccessible as it used to - welcome to the club!

So where do you go from here?

Well, the best place to go is back through Steps 3-5, but this time change your routes, wander further afield, perhaps visit some areas that you're unfamiliar with but are still relatively safe and close to home, all the time with the map in your hand!

By taking these small but important first steps into the world of Mapreading and Navigation you'll be building a solid foundation for further skills to be layered onto in the future.

Once you've walked a few routes let me know in the comments below what you discovered about your local area? What did you learn from the map/exercise itself?

Keep your eyes peeled for a future blog post in which I'll offer some help and guidance for getting started with using a compass.

If you find the video to be valuable and are serious about improving your outdoor skills then please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel as well as this blog so you don't miss out on future content.