Top Tips For Route Finding on Grade One Scrambling Ground

Another video from our trip to Snowdonia featuring our guest presenter Rob Johnson MIC. He talks to us about route finding when scrambling at a grade one level. Either watch the video above or find the full transcript below. In this video, I'm going to give you some top tips for route finding on grade one scrambling ground. Top tip number one, buy yourself a guide book, choose your route and read the description and then take a copy of that description with you. Bear in mind though that the guide book description will be fairly brief, so it will only give you a rough guide. You still need to be able to route find along the way. So top tip number two, is to follow the path and get used to reading the ground. So scrambles often take lines of weakness. Be that gully line, be that a ridge line, get used to being able to read that ground and there'll often be polish on the rocks from where thousands of feet have passed that way before you, marks on the rocks from people who have done those routes in the winter, so from crampons or from ice axes. Or even scratches from walking poles, on some of the easiest scrambles. So get used to reading these signs of traffic and being able to identify a route on the ground. Top tip number three, is to only go on to ground that you and the people that you're with are happy with. So make sure it's a fun day out, that's what you've gone there for. Then top tip number four, related to tip number three really, is to only scramble up stuff, that you're going to be able to scramble back down, should you need to revise your route. So those are my top four tips for route finding on grade one scrambling ground.   Are you a keen scrambler? Or is it something you would like to start? Leave us a comment with any questions or tips you have...