The Rossendale Rambler

Do you? Er - have you heard of them? We met this technical type on the hill, and he said he uses them all the time. So when we got home I looked it up in a book.

Apparently on these route cards, you work out as many details of a walk as you can, before you go. Things like compass bearings, and which features you will find on the walk, like a bridge and the corner of a wood. Not to mention trig points, always assuming that someone hasn't dug them up before you get there. You also write down the distance between the features, and work out how long it will take you to get from one to the other. Then it seems you get an idea how long the walk will take, so that you can start early enough not to be still out when it gets dark - unless you are planning a night walk.

I don't know. When we lived in North Wales we had a first class walk leader in Graham (not his real name). He never did a route card, because he knew the area so well that nobody could tell him much about it that he didn't already know. He never got lost and he always got back when he said he would. And when a friend and I went up Pen-yr-helgi-du in snow one winter, we left a note on the chalk board at Ogwen Rescue Post that simply said. 'Alan and Ron, Carneddau’. Alan was in the Rescue himself, so everybody knew that he would be all right. We both knew the area pretty well, so there wasn't much chance of us getting lost. And we got down without any problems, so was it worth doing all that route card stuff beforehand? It seems a lot of trouble for something that you might never need.

Mind you, it might be worth working out the bearings beforehand, in case it's wet and windy. Nothing worse than a soaking wet map flapping about when you are trying to remember whether you take off or add on the magnetic variation - or even what the variation is.

And a route card would be a good idea for a novice. It would give him some armchair practice in map reading, and might save him some embarrassment on the actual walk. In a new area he might even have a better idea of the route than more experienced members of his group.

So there it is. Do you work out a route card one evening before you do the walk, or do you trust that you or somebody else knows the area like the back of the hand and perhaps work out a few bearings just in case?

Do you believe in route cards?

Me - I've got an open mind.

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