Quote Originally Posted by mr brightside View Post
I remember the first time i went up Skiddaw from the Bassenthwaite side. I spent about 3/4hr wandering a hillside trying to work out if i was on the side of Skiddaw or not. Turned out i was below Carl Side and had mistakenly picked up a trod to nowhere. The confusion i was feeling seems silly now, but you have to cut your teeth in the real world on a nice clear summers afternoon in order to develop your skills; you have to learn to walk before you can run.

Half of learning to navigate is placing yourself in relation to topographical features i think, and that can't really be taught. When i look at a landscape now i see it as contour lines and legend, it's like Neo seeing The Matrix.
IanDP said about practice the other day.. thats the key.. a course can teach you skills but much of that is fairly much logical and common sense, handrailing, ticking off features, aiming off.. using height.. there's some theory, GR's and how to use a compass, but recognising contours and what that land looks like is something which just takes practice,.. at walking pace.. slowly finding harder and harder points..

I find I'm rusty even now, in europe you often never need to use a map even in places like Chamonix, Siere, its all signed and big trails so I just don't get out with a map at all.