Mapping is an important aspect of planning a mountain hike, in order to understand the mountain terrain and the risks associated with hiking. Unlike road maps, hiking maps represent smaller territories and are designed for more practical use in natural settings.
How to plan a mountain hike?
Planning a hike begins at home, where it is essential to consult the map to identify the paths to follow. In fact, knowing how to identify the development and type of path on the map helps to calculate travel times and plan stops and the final destination.
It is also important to evaluate the overall difficulty of the excursion to ensure adequate preparation.
What are the characteristics of hiking maps?
The hiking map is a scale representation of the territory, with a recommended scale of 1 to 25,000, where one centimeter on the map corresponds to 250 meters in the real world.
A practical example is provided to illustrate how a stretch of path measuring 4 cm on the map corresponds to one kilometre in the territory.
What are the key elements to take into consideration?
The main parts to consider on a map include the nature of the terrain, the elevation, the landforms and the type of trails. The nature of the terrain can vary from forests to rocks and glaciers, while the elevation and the landforms indicate the elevations and the slope of the slopes.
Finally, contour lines, or isohypses, join points at the same altitude and their density indicates the steepness of the terrain.
How do you read the symbols and legend on a map?
Streams, rivers and lakes are shown in blue, while hiking trails are indicated in red, with solid, dashed or dotted lines depending on their difficulty.
Structures such as mountain pastures, refuges, churches and ski lifts are useful reference points for orienting oneself on the terrain.
How to use modern technologies?
Using smartphone and GPS applications allows you to locate your position on the map, but has limitations such as small screen size and battery dependency. It is recommended to bring both a map and digital tools, provided you know how to interpret them correctly.
The GeoRescue application, free and developed by the Alpine Rescue, is recommended for monitoring the position and sending rescue requests in case of emergency.
Using a hiking map can make the difference between a pleasant hike and a bad experience.
Source: CAI
