The Answer to the Question Can You Read a Map

março 06, 2022 Postar um comentário

How To Read A Map

"How to read a map?…", my fellow hiker muttered as he twisted and turned the map this style and that. We hadn't long started our hike in The Burren. In fact, we had simply only left the car. It didn't fill me with conviction that his map-reading skills weren't up to scratch, specially since we were going far off the beaten track.

Information technology's safe to say that we didn't gettoo lost that day merely, considering of this, I've decided to write a little guide on how to read a map properly.

Step ane – Cull The Correct Type Of Map

Step ii – Empathise The Features Of The Map

Footstep iii – Put The Map Into Exercise

Step ane – Choose The Correct Type Of Map

There are different types of maps to choose from. You want to be sure that you take the right one for your purpose. A tourist sightseeing map volition exist of no employ to you lot if you're in the remote parts of the West Highland Way. Below is a quick list of the types of maps and the situations that they're useful for.

Topographic Map
- Knowing how to read a map, especially topographic, is the most of import matter for hikers. It shows detailed information about the terrain, roads, points of interest and distances.

How to read a map, especially topographic, is very important for hikers

Road Map
- Route maps are a great accompaniment to bring on a road trip. They're very useful if you're going on a GPS-free trip, yet they practice often require a rider to be your map-reader.

Tourist Map
- A tourist map is useful for urban center breaks. They more often than not show the attractions and points of involvement around a metropolis. They are usually available in tourist offices or in lobbies of hotels and hostels.

An example of a Dublin tourist map

Choose The Correct Scale
- 1:l,000
  - The right scale of a map very much depends on what your purpose is. We'll focus on topographic maps, as this is usually where the calibration is important. The most common scale to employ while hiking is 1:l,000. This ways that for every centimetre on the map, in that location are 50,000 centimetres (or 500 metres) in real life.
  - Maps are broken up into grids, with each box of the grid measuring 2 centimetres. That means for every full box on the map, it covers 1 kilometre in real life. This is useful for quick estimation of distances at a glance.
- ane:25,000
  - More detailed maps have a scale of one:25,000 (1 centimetre = 250 metres in existent life). These maps are broken up into grids, with each box of the grid measuring 4 centimeters. That ways for every full box on the map, it again covers 1 kilometre in real life.
  - These more detailed maps testify features such as copse and rocks on the ground.

Dorsum To Top

Step 2 – Understand The Features Of The Map

Knowing the features is important when honing your skills of how to read a map. Listed below are of import features of a map and an caption about them.

Fable
- The legend gives a description and guide of the different features and markings on the map.
Championship
- The title of the map tells you what area the map is of.
Grid References
- A map is broken upward into grid boxes, with the offset 2 (or 3, depending on accuracy) digits beingness the x-value, and the last ii (or again, three) digits being the y-value. Each grid reference starts with the letter assigned to the map.
The Due north Arrow
- This pointer tells you lot which manner is north – it always points to the top of the map.
Scale
- The scale will tell you what scale your map is – whether it'south i:25,000 or i:50,000.

Dorsum To Peak

Footstep iii – Put The Map Into Practice

1. Point Your Map North

To point your map north, identify your compass flat on your map, pointing towards the top, and rotate yourself until the compass' needle points due north. Uncomplicated!

2. Find Your Location On The Map

Identifying your surroundings and relating them back to your map is the most of import thing when trying to locate your position. You usually won't know your verbal filigree reference starting out, so a proficient idea is to start at a grid reference that you lot practice know.

If yous began in a town or village and drove to the start of the hike, then start there on your map and re-trace your steps. In one case you're confident that you lot're in the correct general area, you can brainstorm to look around for landscape features.

These can be mountains, rivers, walls, spurs, saddles, roads – the list goes on. If you tin place 3 surrounding features in real-life and pinpoint them on your map, you lot can exist quite confident that you have located yourself.

three. Reading Contour Lines

Contour lines are the small blackness lines that wave around the whole map.

Contour lines show the elevation of the land

Each profile line on a 1:l,000 scale map represents a rise of 10 metres in a higher place sea level. Every fifth contour line will be slightly bolder, to brand it easily countable when yous're counting many contours at a time.

The closer the contour lines are together, the steeper the gradient. You tin can use this information to plan routes on gentler slopes to ease the difficulty of climbing.

iv. Identify Features Of The Landscape

Spur
- A spur is recognisable in real-life every bit a feature that slopes downwards on 3 sides, and slopes upward on one. On a map, it looks like this:

Contour lines on a map identifying spurs

- The contour lines will point away from the pinnacle of the mountain/hill, indicating a spur.
Re-Aspirant
- A re-entrant is an 'indentation' in the side of a mountain and can be identified on a map as profile lines pointing against the natural slope of a mountain. These tin also exist seen in the above example.
Saddle
- A saddle tin can be seen in existent-life equally a feature that slopes downwardly on ii sides, and slopes up on two sides.

A saddle slopes up on two sides and slopes down on two sides

Summit
- The summit of the mountain is the very top and tin be identified on a map past a 'ring contour, seem in the above example.

5. Thumbing

It's a useful idea to go on note of your last known location on the map. This is and so yous can re-trace your steps should you lose your bearings while walking. To do this, place your thumb on your current location on the map, driblet it to your side and forget about it.

Next fourth dimension yous look at your map, your thumb will nonetheless be on your last location and you can and then piece of work out where you are currently.

We hope that y'all institute this map reading guide helpful. When taking a self-guided trip with Hillwalk Tours, in addition to being provided with all necessary maps, we also provide detailed turn-by-turn route notes. The trails we apply are also waymarked and we provide a 24/7 on-call support service. If you're interested in taking a hiking tour, just get in bear upon with us for further information.