Talkback: Nav Man - The Most Important Tip Of All Since talking with a member of Wasdale MRT I designed a simple route card to leave behind, and since his advice have never left home without...
Since talking with a member of Wasdale MRT I designed a simple route card to leave behind, and since his advice have never left home without completing it. I have encouraged people to leave a route card and one is available via my website for free download:
http://alturl.com/gvbyx
Disagree. More important to be able to navigate and depend on your own abilities. Route cards and the like are a useful add-on but simply aren't possible in some situations, and misleading in others. There are also issues of risk compensation.
Thanks Peter, a good idea for short trips, registering to the SMS link to text 999 is worthwhile. Calling home at set times can cause problems. If you get into bother Search and Rescue are the people who are going to fix things, loved ones are unlikely to be able to help a deal.
For multi day/week trips where routes and times change for all sorts of reasons keeping in regular touch it is pretty much out of the question and can result in more home anxiety not less, especially when abroad.
For the family I write out my plans and estimated days and mileage, and if I can I try to text at a night time location. I find this is rarely possible due to lack of signal. On my recent trip from Kirkby Stephen to Skipton I had no signal at night at any time and resorted to landline the odd time to call in. I feel sure there would be signal along my route but do not carry my phone as a comforter regularly peering at it. Different providers may give a better service.
There was a discussion recently on the John Muir Trail site about the use of SPOT technology to keep the family in touch, worthwhile but can freak the family.Consensus seemed to be that if you daren't go out there without a SPOT don't go.
If there's someone to leave it with, I always try to leave details of where I'm headed and my intended route, estimated return time etc. I ask for their mobile number too and I carry a mobile phone on the hill (with the battery charged and sufficient credit). But sometimes, as Montgomery says, it's not possible to find a responsible person to leave the details with.
Also, for day walks (especially in the Lakes) I often don't have a fixed itinerary - if the day goes well, I may extend the walk and I very often change my route halfway through. That said, because I have no experience of night-walking I can always expect to be down in the valley again by dark.
I often go out for days at time in Scotland, so a route card would most likely only be useful for retrieving my corpse. I also tend to change my route as I go so may well wild camp miles short of the plan due to weather or just finding a nice spot, or miles further on just because I am going well or the camp spot was already taken.
Route cards have their place but assume that the person making it is capable of navigating. They are no use if it leads to the team searching the wrong side of the mountain, or in one case where I assisted a couple the wrong mountain!
