Just out from Harvey Maps is one of the neatest and yet most
obvious ideas we've seen in a long time an outdoor atlas.
Yep, forget the colourful spectable of map sheets flapping wildly
in gale-force winds and fluttering gaily across the hills, the
outdoor atlas is pretty much as it sounds, a map book a bit like a
compact road atlas but with proper outdoor Harvey
maps.
The first in the series covers the entire Yorkshire Dales at
1:40,000 scale, is spiral bound and, as a bonus, is printed on Harvey's own waterproof
paper for weather resistance. At 240mm x 140mm, it's very slightly
larger than one of the folded OS 1:25,000 maps, so should fit in most
map pockets. Weight is 240 grammes, about twice the weight of a
single 1:25,000 map covering a lot less ground.
It's been nicely thought out too with lots of extra information
included in the intro and a road atlas-style overview to help you
find the right page quickly and easily. There's one grid square
overlap between pages, which helps to keep your orientated, but it's
arguably going to be slightly more difficult to use for planning
longer routes unless you already know your way around.
The Yorkshire Dales atlas is out now and costs £14.95 with
the next area due out the Lake District at the same price.
A very nice idea. For more information including online ordering
see the Harvey web
site.
MG
