To tell where you're going or not?

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Chris Stevens
21/04/2004 at 19:06
Are you one of those who believes in telling someone where you are going before setting off into the hills even perhaps leaving a route card as well?
Or are you one of those who believes that to do so is too much of a restriction?
I am certainly in the latter camp. I often set off up a mountain with no idea where I might go after reaching the summit - it all depends on the weather, how knackered I'm feeling, if I bump into someone else whose going off on an interesting route and so on. Am I being an irrisponsible walker who might cause problems for the local mountain rescue or am I just enjoying the freedom of the outdoors away from the form filling and restrictions of the rest of daily life?
Alison Stockwell
21/04/2004 at 23:39
You are enjoying the freedom of life. There is far too much risk aversion these days....

...unless of course you are responsible for a group. Then you have got to do a full risk assessment and all the rest to cover your own behind.
Ben Hammond
22/04/2004 at 08:50
There is also the factor that as part of your wife allowing you time off to go onto the high fells without her she wants to know where you are going and roughly when to expect you back.
Richard Kermode
22/04/2004 at 08:50
Definately agree with the group comment. I am by nature a very cautious walker & climber, but I don't think it's restrictive or a bad thing to let people know roughly which mountains you'll be going to, even if you decide to do bigger or smaller routes.

In the even of something going wrong then at least somebody will have an idea where to start looking anyway.

Just a thought.
Chris Stevens
22/04/2004 at 10:28
Luckily (or not?) I don't have a wife to have to think about. The only time I walk in a group is if it is a group of equals with everyone responsible for the navigation and so on - in 30 years on the hills I've never led a group. I can see perhaps Richard's point about giving someone a rough idea where you might be going as in "I'm off to the Glyders" but is there a point in a route card if you are going to be prepared to drastically change what you are doing because of conditions being better than you might have thought or as recently when the whim just suddenly comes to you to summit Snowdon at the end of the walk just for the fun of it.
Osul
22/04/2004 at 10:55
I think route cards are a great idea. First they give you the piece of mind that if you don't come back someone will go looking for you - reassuring when playing in the Northern Corries on your own with a high avalanche risk! But secondly, they make you consider your route the day before. What do you want to achieve, can you work out accurate distances/times from the map, where are the escape routes, which paths would be a really bad idea to head down...
Then it goes without saying, should the big yellow taxi have to come and pick you up, do you want to cringingly try and explain to the gnarly MR types just why you didn't leave a simple route/time back/phone number.
Ben Hammond
22/04/2004 at 11:29
I think Guy may well have a point to offer on this topic.
Alison Stockwell
22/04/2004 at 11:39
My husband is inclined to put the rescue team on standby at the drop of a hat, so going out on the hill has to be a controlled event when he is waiting for me at the end of the day. This can be a pain as I have sometimes had to restrict my objectives in order to be sure of getting back at the agreed time. It also means I sometimes take more risks; like going flat-out because I am late. However, that is because he cares, so I can't really complain.
If he's at home, and I am not leading a group, then I have more freedom to do what I want. On those occasions I have a lot of sympathy with Chris's viewpoint. I don't want other people's concern. I want independence, adventure and self-sufficiency.
Richard Kermode
22/04/2004 at 12:25
Route cards have their place, but at the end of the day it is your choice. I am always adaptable on the mountains and often make additions to the day or curtail it in really evil conditions, but I guess if I'm honest, then I have already considered them in my plan.

But indeed it usually "I'm off to Moidart for the weekend guys, cacth ya later!!" or some such and that's about it.

Oh well....
Chris Stevens
22/04/2004 at 12:26
Surely one problem with planning out your route the day before is the variablility of mountain weather. I usually have some rough ideas of where I might want to go the next day but the route I choose will be highly dependent on the weather on the day (often very different to the previous night's forecast). For those of you who do fill out route cards what do you do in the situation that I've sometimes encountered when you meet an old friend on the hills and decide to go off and do something different to what you've planned? Do you just have to say sorry no I can't change my route? I might just add that in general I too think of myself as a cautious walker and usually go out with enough emergency kit for a Himalayan expedition (much to the amusement of some of my fellow walkers).
Cara-Lyn: Stealth Sloth
22/04/2004 at 12:32
If I'm on my own, or with a less experienced person, I tell someone what area I'm going to, and where I'm leaving the car (with grid refs). I don't go into precise route details though, and I just call when I get back to the car to say all is well.

I find that's a fair compromise between safety and independence. I can still change routes, and have no set return time, but if it got late and no-one heard from me, they would know vaguely where I was and where the car was.
Cara-Lyn: Stealth Sloth
22/04/2004 at 12:33
Oh, and to add, I'm the same as Chris - always carry full emergency kit whatever the weather - bivi bag, lightsticks, space blanket, matches, phone, extra food, first aid kit etc, etc, etc.
philip newing
22/04/2004 at 12:38
I hardly ever tell my wife where I am going, it is usually 'The Lakes or Wales' and nothing more specific than that. Even when I go for a trog across the moors locally I generally only tell her 'I'm off for a walk.'
But I'm not being secretive intentionally, its just that I'm never really sure where I will go until about 5 minutes before I lace up my boots. Indecisive I think.
Richard Watkiss
22/04/2004 at 12:56
Most of my walking is solo. I'll leave the name of the mountain and which side I'm trying it from. I know this before I set out cos I spent the night before with the maps out. It gives me the option of pottering around the loch or glen below it if it's crap conditions but if anything bad happens it narrows things down a hellova lot than searching the whole national park.

And I've the usual phone / shelter / space bag / strobe beacon / torch / spare fleece(s) or down jacket / food adding about 5 kg to my sack all the time as well.

Also thinking of getting a fold up kite for ad hoc fun ("it's just a toy, you can't afford it") but also marking my position ('it's an emrgency aid, I need it' - tenuous but what the hell)
Richard Kermode
22/04/2004 at 13:10
I always carry enough equipment to stay out (bivi) or some such, and the case is alwasy the same, you remove it and you'll need it!!

I think it largely depends on the situation really.
Marcus Crompton
22/04/2004 at 16:48
It would be interesting to hear whether anybody has actually been found by a MRT on the route described on their route card!

Telling someone roughly where you're headed and what you intend to do can only be sensible.

If you do go in for leaving a detailed route-card (I don't), then best stick to it!
rewrite
22/04/2004 at 19:18
i don't do the route card thing, just 'skiddaw, and i might hit needlesports on the way back...' for myself i think that should the shit hit the fan you are quite liable to be well off your chosen route anyway - weather, disorientation, injury and the like. and the timings will be bollocks...

a friend - with myself present - got injured (belted on the bonce by a chuffing great lump of ice some 50m below the summit of the ben, so calling the local mrt and giving a location was pretty easy.

go to the summit, look down at the sheepishly grinning idiot....
Wee Beastie
23/04/2004 at 11:47
There was a case two years ago where a solo walker on the multiday trip in the Cairngorms failed to call in with his wife. During his time out a storm blew in with 140mph winds recorded. He'd left two routes, good weather and bad weather. The rescue teams followed both routes in both directions. He was quickly found in good shape. He'd taken refuge in a shelter for two days as he could not stand in the wind. So yes, route cards do have a place but it is all a choice and I personaly choose not to use them, but I do always carry bivi bag and spare warm top just in case. Had a look and found this link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1788612.stm
Orange Alex Ford
23/04/2004 at 16:55
I'm in the same mind as Richard W - name the mountain and the basic direction. As for full route, no. I don't often stick to one i have planned anyway, so why bother wasting my and a rescue teams time...Anyway if I was planning a route it'd be up a fairly busy path anyway so I'd probably not need "rescuing".

That sounds really snobbish, but it's not meant to be - I know what I am trying t osay anyway.
Ninja Marmot
23/04/2004 at 17:02
Yeah but you'd be easy to spot, Alex - being in (ahem) hardly camo colours and all that!

Where's the victim? Ah, yes, I can see him now, glowing orange from 500 metres LOL
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