What do I do if I get lost on a walk?

Being temporarily unsure of your position is a routine part of walking in poor visibility and is not an emergency. It becomes one when people respond by walking faster in an unknown direction, getting cold, and losing the light. The procedure below is what instructors teach, and it works because it starts with the one decision that costs nothing: stopping.

Safety

What you'll need

• A paper map and compass
• A head torch
• Warm layers and food
• A charged phone
• A whistle

Step by step

1. Stop, and put a layer on.The moment you doubt your position, stop moving. Get out of the wind, add a warm layer before you cool down, eat something and give everyone a drink. Decisions made cold and hungry are bad decisions.
2. Establish your last certain position.Not where you think you are, but the last point you know you were at — a stile, a junction, a summit, a wall corner. Put a finger on it. Everything else follows from that fix.
3. Work out time, speed and direction since then.How long since that point, at roughly what pace, and in what direction. On rough ground most people walk between three and four kilometres an hour on the flat, much less on ascent. Draw the resulting distance from your fix as an arc on the map — you are somewhere on it.
4. Orient the map to the ground.Set the compass on the map, turn the map until the grid lines run north with the needle allowing for magnetic variation, and hold it that way. Now everything on the map lies in the same direction as the real thing, which is what makes comparison possible.
5. Read the ground, not the map.Which way does the slope fall? Is there a stream, and which way does it run? Are there walls, fences, forestry edges, a track? Does the ground rise to your left? Then find a place on the map that matches all of it, inside the arc you drew.
6. Confirm with a second, independent feature.One matching feature is a coincidence. Two or three that all agree — a stream junction, a change of slope, a wall meeting a track — is a fix. If they do not all agree, you have not found it yet.
7. Take a back bearing on anything you can see.If visibility allows and you can identify a summit, a mast or a lake, take a compass bearing to it, convert it to a grid bearing and draw the line back on the map. Two such lines cross at your position.
8. If you cannot fix your position, go back.Retrace your route to the last place you were sure of. It feels like defeat and it is the most reliable move there is, because you know that ground and you know it goes somewhere.
9. If you cannot go back, descend deliberately.Choose a descent line that follows a spur rather than a stream — streams lead to gorges, waterfalls and crags, and a great many casualties come from following one down in mist. Aim for a valley, a road or a forestry track that you can identify, and aim off deliberately to one side so you know which way to turn when you reach it.
10. Set a deadline and call before you hit it.Decide, out loud, what time you will call for help if you are still unsure. Bring that time forward if anyone is cold, injured or slowing, or if the weather is closing in. Calling early is not embarrassing; calling at midnight from a hillside is a much bigger operation.
11. Make the call correctly.999, ask for the police, then ask for mountain rescue. Give your grid reference with the two letters, or a what3words location, the number in the group, and the condition of everyone. If there is no signal, try higher ground, try a text to 999 if pre-registered, and stay put once you have made contact.

Tips

• Aiming off is the technique that removes the guesswork: instead of navigating straight at a footbridge, aim deliberately upstream of it so that when you hit the river you know to turn downstream.
• Handrails — a wall, a fence, a stream, a forestry edge, a ridge line — are features you can follow without precise navigation. In poor visibility they are worth a long detour.
• Count paces if you need to measure distance in mist. Most adults take between 60 and 70 double paces per 100 metres on the flat; measure yours once on a known distance and remember it.
• Tell someone your route and your expected return time before you leave. If you do not come back, that information is what starts the search in the right place.

Common mistakes

• Walking on in the hope of recognising something — Every minute increases the search area and reduces the daylight. Stopping costs nothing and is the only move that improves the situation.
• Following a stream downhill in mist — Streams cut into gorges, run over crags and end in waterfalls, and they are steep, wet and loose. Descend a spur instead.
• Waiting until dark to call for help — A night rescue on steep ground is many times more dangerous and slower for everyone including the volunteers coming to get you. Call while there is light.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask