Blog Archives

Hills of Hame has joined Harvey WorkingTogether scheme

Harvey maps and books are tools that I’ve made increasing use of since undertaking my Summer Mountain Leader training in 2012. I first encountered Harvey products when I found a second-hand copy of the Seven Hills of Edinburgh map, which

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Posted in Navigation

NNAS Navigator courses: Come out the weather’s yucky! Why winter is the time to train in navigation

Hills of Hame has been able to deliver NNAS Bronze and Silver National Navigation Award courses for a while as an independent provider but it took being confined to Edinburgh during the period when travel was not possible to give

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Posted in Navigation, Pentlands

An ‘L’ of a way with grid references

Nav voucher

Despite the big changes in approaches to teaching navigation over the last decade or so, grid references will need to be introduced and used at some point to allow progression. As with a lot of the skills required for using

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Posted in Mountain Training, Navigation, Trips

The pitfalls of left and right in navigation and route description

Sedimentary rocks

We’ve all had the experience of mixing up left and right, often when trying to explain a route to a driver when we’re feeling under pressure ourselves. Confusing left and right may have been a contributing factor to the rout

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Posted in Hill Running, Mountain Training, Navigation, Orienteering

Completed British Orienteering Event Safety and Introduction to Orienteering e-learning

During the long days of lockdown, I found myself starting to do a lot of work for an organization where we were looking at Open Orienteering Maps and MapRunF as adjuncts to outdoor learning. This led to a gradual reconnection

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Posted in Edinburgh, Navigation, Orienteering

UPDATE: Hills of Hame Winter Solstice competition: We have a winner!

Up UPDATE: ‘Tis the day of the winter solstice. Unusually it is the 22nd of December this year. The random number generator has done its work and the Edinburgh Forum (@edinburgh_forum on Twitter) have won the prize. To celebrate the

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Posted in Navigation, Pentlands

Book review: Navigation: Techniques and skills for walkers

Navigation: Techniques and skills for walkers. Second Edition. 2019 By Pete Hawkins. Cicerone Press 152 pp. RRP £9.95 (ISBN 9781852848910) Disclosure: This review is based upon a sample copy of the printed sent to Al McGowan, at his request, by

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Posted in Book reviews, Books, Mountain Training, Navigation

An Old Ne’er Day Review of 2018 and looking forward to 2019

The year has turned, by whichever of a selection of old European calendars you want to use, and the light begins to come back to the higher latitudes. In Scotland, today is the first day of the New Year. However,

Posted in Geological Walks, Mountain Training, Navigation, Scotland, Trips

Updated: Tale of a cragfast geology student from Strabeg bothy book

Update: The person who ended up stuck on the slope got in touch with me to give me additional details and, in particular, point out that they had a whistle, compass-clinometer and phone on them but were unable to use

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Posted in Geodiversity, Mountains, Navigation, Scotland

When compasses go wrong: A tale from the Angus Glens

Shadow, our dog, and I headed for the hills via Jock’s Road from Glen Doll. I’m still getting Shadow used to the bigger hills and longer distances. We’d done a drive up best forgotten through roadworks and heavy traffic in

Posted in Mountains, Navigation, Scotland, Trips
Al is a Summer Mountain Leader
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