HOW TO READ TOPOGRAPHIC MAPS // Basic Land Navigation Part 1

A map and compass are part of the 10 Essentials of hiking. Knowing how to read a topographic map (“topo map“) is an essential skill for all hikers. In this video, we go over the first two “5 D’s of Map Reading“ taken from the book “How to be Expert Map and Compass: The Complete Orienteering Handbook“ by Bjørn Kjellstrøm to give the viewer an introduction to topographic maps. We cover map Descriptions which reviews the information in the map margins such as date, declination, scale, and location. The video goes in to a deep dive on the map Details; map colors and contour lines. We cover topics like index contour lines, intermediate contour lines, and the contour interval of a map. We then look at several topographic features hikers will encounter on the trail such as hills, cliffs, valleys, spurs, saddles, and depressions. Be sure to check out other videos in the Land Navigation Series: