What to bring on our navigation courses

Covid-19 has led to a few changes in how we run our navigation courses, and this affects what you need to bring as well. As far as possible, we’d like you to bring your own materials rather than use stuff we give out, but of course, we don’t want you to have to spend a lot of money on maps and compasses to come on one of our short family or children’s courses.

In general, you’ll need access to some sort of map and compass, a pen(cil) and paper, plus suitable outdoor clothing and footwear for the length of the course and food and drink. In the past, we have given out printed paper maps, but the current guidelines suggest we don’t do this. Instead, we’ll ask you to print out your own maps before the course. If you can’t do this, we will still be able to provide printed materials, but we suggest that you bring a plastic wallet/sleeve to keep it in so you only have to touch it once.

Children and family courses in Les Deux Alpes

You’ll need to bring the following items on the day:

• Maps (you can print these yourself – see below)
• Compass (any sort of compass will do, including a compass app on a phone)
• Pen or pencil
• Paper (or write on the back of the maps you have printed)
• Suitable outdoor clothes for the weather on the day
• Snacks and a drink

To avoid handing out materials on the day, we’d appreciate it if you can print out the maps we’ll need and bring them along. Please print out and bring these two maps using the GeoPortail site (both links will open in a new tab).

Les Deux Alpes south, larger scale
Les Deux Alpes, smaller scale

Ideally, change the scale to 1:25000 before printing the second one. To do this click the scale (the 17 055 in the bottom left) and type in 25000 instead.

If you don’t have a compass, you can download a compass app for most smartphones. As long as it tells you where north is it is good enough. If you don’t have a compass or a suitable phone, we will have a couple of spare compasses available to use at your own risk.

The majority of the course will be run outdoors with some small indoor elements. In the event of bad weather we will move inside, but if it is only mild bad weather, light rain etc. we will continue to work outside.

Two-day NNAS navigation courses

You’ll need to bring the following items on the day:

• IGN Top 25 map for the area – either 3336ET Les Deux Alpes, 3335ET Bourg d’Oisans or 3630OT Chamonix
• A4 paper maps (you can print these yourself – see below)
• Compass
• Pen or pencil
• Paper (or write on the back of the maps)
• Suitable clothes and footwear for a day hike
• Food and drink for a day hike

For the Bronze Navigator course, we would normally loan out compasses and IGN maps to candidates without these. However, to reduce contact we are happy for you to use maps printed on A4 paper and a compass smartphone app. If you are attending a Silver Navigator course, we would expect you to have your own compass and IGN map.

Maps for NNAS Courses

Printable Les Deux Alpes maps

Please print out the large scale map of Les Deux Alpes south from this link. If you want to print out 1:25 000 maps for the Bronze course, rather than buy your own, you will need the area shown to the right (click the image to enlarge it). You will need to cover an area including La Moliere in the top left, Les Perrons at the bottom and la Grande Aiguille at the top right. Depending on your devices, you will probably need at least two sheets of A4. Make sure you set the scale to 1:25 000. If you have any difficulties with this, please let us know.

We may visit the permanent orienteering courses at either Auris or the Col d’Ornon. In this case, you will need to print out the orienteering maps for these locations. We will let you know before the course if this is necessary.

Printable Chamonix Valley Maps

Please print out the large scale map of Argentiere/Grand Montets lift station from this link. If you don’t want to buy the IGN Top 25 map, you’ll need to print out the area shown to the right (click to enlarge) at 1:25 000 from Geoportail. You will need to cover an area which includes, as a minimum, the Flegere top lift station in the bottom left, Lac Blanc to the top left, Argentiere village top right, and Le Lavancher at the bottom.

Bourg d’Oisans

Although there is an IGN map (3335ET) titled Le Bourg d’Oisans l’Alpe d’Huez,we may well use IGN 3336ET Les Deux Alpes for courses in Bourg as the town is on the boundary between the two maps. We will let you know before the course which map to buy, but we will be most likely to use the Deux Alpes map for the Bronze course and the Bourg d’Oisans map for the Silver.

For the Bronze course only, please print large scale map one and large scale map two of the area south of Bourg d’Oisans. You will also need to print the Adult “Sportif” orienteering map which is the second of the three PDF links on this page. If you want to avoid buying the IGN map, you can print the two areas shown to the right at 1:25 000. You will need the area south of Bourg on day one and the Col d’Ornon on day 2.