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Pace Count!
You do the pace-count; I'll keep us on course!
Determining distance is extremely difficult and the most common source for error in cross-country land navigation.Establishing an accurate pace-count is very important. A pace is equal to one normal step. You must determine how many paces it takes you to walk 100 meters/yards. The average pace for an adult male is 30 inches in length. However, the following, sustained conditions will affect that pace and must be considered/accounted for:
- Pace lengthens on a down-slope and shortens on an up-grade;
- Head-winds shorten the pace – tail-wind will increase the pace;
- Sand, gravel, mud, snow, and similar conditions tend to shorten the pace;
- Falling snow, rain, or ice cause the pace to be reduced;
- Excess clothing and boots with poor traction will affect the pace length;
- Poor visibility such as fog, rain, or darkness will shorten your pace.
In the absence of electronic devices, establish the minimum of a 100 meter confirmation course and validate your pace-count. Terrain and environmental conditions should be duplicated as-much-as possible.
Extension for the Memory!
Keep It Simple!
If your game is serious land navigation, there will be times when all you have that is useful to navigate with is an azimuth, your compass, the straight-line distance in yards/meters to where you‘re going, and your two feet to get you there.
For me, the difficulty is not following the compass reading but rather keeping track of the distance traveled. When you get 10,000 meters into a 20,000 meter leg, things have a tendency to start running together – was that 9,500 or 9,600 meters. Your memory will play tricks on you if you don’t have a device, system, or way of keeping track of what you’ve done.
Ideally, you’ll have a trekking buddy that will do that for you, and all you’ll have to do is stay on course. A simple thing I’ve done, to keep track of the distance traveled, was to use a couple foot-long, 1/4 inch ropes/cords. Each time I walked 100 meters, I would tie a knot in one of the ropes. When I had ten knots in the rope, I would tie one knot in the other rope. You would continue this process until the desired distance has been traveled. What is critical about this is that you must know how many steps it takes for you to walk 100 meters.
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