NNAS NIGHT OWL - NIGHT NAVIGATION COURSE YORKSHIRE DALES
With Mark Reid FRGS – author of ‘The Inn Way’ guidebooks & Mountain Leader
Have you ever been caught in the dark at the end of your walk?
Do you know how to navigate in poor visibility or if the mist comes down?
Or perhaps you’ve always wanted to try night walking but lacked the confidence?
The NNAS Night Owl Award is the perfect course for you!
This evening training course will give you the key skills needed to deal with nightfall and/or poor visibility when out on the hills.
The NNAS Night Owl Night Navigation Course is ideal for walkers with some previous experience of daytime navigation, such as NNAS Bronze award holders or those working towards their NNAS Silver/Gold awards or HML/ML assessment as well as hill-walkers who wish to gain skills and confidence in poor visibility and darkness. Or perhaps you would just like to go for a walk on the hills at night!
This 4 hour course will equip you with essential navigation skills to explore and enjoy the outdoors safely after dark. You’ll learn how to adjust your pacing and timing for nighttime conditions, use relocation techniques when visibility is low, and apply navigation strategies to stay on course.
LEARNING OUTCOMES…
- Learn micro navigation skills, including contour interpretation
- Accurate distance estimation – timing and pacing at night
- Get to grips with key map and compass skills for poor visibility
- Learn what features to use and what to look for on the map
- Take bearings and follow them in the dark
- Spatial awareness in poor visibility
- Navigation strategies – route simplification, attack points, tick features, aiming off, hand-railing & dead reckoning
- Relocation techniques
- Essential outdoor kit for night navigation
Upon successful completion, you’ll receive an NNAS Night Owl certificate.
Learning is supportive, relaxed and fun, with plenty of practical experience out in the Yorkshire Dales at night within a small group of up to 8 people. We usually cover around 5 and 7 miles during the evening, following paths and tracks across farmland, valleys, riversides, woodland as well as pathless terrain across open hills and moorland. NNAS Night Owl
OUTLINE OF THE EVENING
6pm: Meet in a Dales village. Pre-walk briefing, weather & gear check.
6:30pm – 10:30pm: Fully guided night navigation training walk, taking in paths, tracks, hills and open country.
10:30pm: Return back to the village (finish time is approximate)
We’re a Yorkshire Dales National Park Dark Skies Friendly Business. The Yorkshire Dales is an International Dark Sky Reserve, with large areas completely free from light pollution; it’s a fantastic place to go on a nocturnal adventure!
