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I wish I could be so confident - I carry print outs of OS maps as backups when walking Munros in the Highlands and I frequently encounter people who don't have

I wish I could be so confident - I carry print outs of OS maps as backups when walking Munros in the Highlands and I frequently encounter people who don't have maps. I've even had people ask me on fairly non-obvious Munros which mountain they were on - I gave them my backup map. Mind you they were locals so probably hadn't been raised with dire warnings about going into the hills unprepared. Edit: I notice that "lost" is a significant entry in mountain rescue statistics: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-54158079 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-54158079

rfergie 6y ago
I am very surprised by this. I suppose somewhere like Ben Nevis maybe 90% of the people you meet won't have a map and it is possible that places like this will represent a large proportion of the total people you meet when doing a round. So maybe it does make sense that you frequently encounter people without a map doing Munros just because most of the people you encounter are on Munros like Ben Nevis But the restriction to "non-obvious" Munros doesn't match with my experience
- arethuza 6y ago
  Sorry - I meant that I personally have only ever spoken to people who didn't appear to know where they were a couple of times and they happened to be on what I would have thought were slightly odd hills for someone to just wander up. In both cases they asked me where they were and I gave them a map and showed them where they were - which I hoped helped. I have spoken to other people on popular hills who didn't have maps - but at least they knew where they were (if perhaps a bit vague about the way up/down....).
globular-toast 6y ago
Reminds me of when I encountered people on top of Kinder Scout the day after heavy rainfall trying to navigate across the middle using Google maps. Surprisingly, their map showed a path. There is no path, even though there is a right of way. OS shows the right of way, but I imagine OS map users would know that right of way doesn't mean "path". On OSM I have made efforts to tag the physical properties of a way separately to any enshrined rights but it's hard to get right. I've used GPS to navigate for many years now. I used to carry paper maps, but you need a compass (and the ability to use it) to make it useful if you get lost in the moors or something. I just carry a backup Garmin now instead of paper maps.
- arethuza 6y ago
  Entertainingly, at least in retrospect, I made the same mistake a couple of times when I switched to using GPS - I descended the wrong ridge from a top. No real harm done but I do think GPS made me pay less attention to where I was than I would have before when mainly using a paper map.
- karlicoss 6y ago
  Had a similar experience there just a month ago! No way I'd dare to walk through these moors without a gps
- Robin_Message 6y ago
  Kinder Scout is the worst. Miles of featureless bog, and if any of those rights of ways are paths, I never found them. If you haven't got a GPS, your best bet is just to take a bearing and walk in a straight line.

rfergie 6y ago

I am very surprised by this. I suppose somewhere like Ben Nevis maybe 90% of the people you meet won't have a map and it is possible that places like this will represent a large proportion of the total people you meet when doing a round. So maybe it does make sense that you frequently encounter people without a map doing Munros just because most of the people you encounter are on Munros like Ben Nevis But the restriction to "non-obvious" Munros doesn't match with my experience

arethuza 6y ago
Sorry - I meant that I personally have only ever spoken to people who didn't appear to know where they were a couple of times and they happened to be on what I would have thought were slightly odd hills for someone to just wander up. In both cases they asked me where they were and I gave them a map and showed them where they were - which I hoped helped. I have spoken to other people on popular hills who didn't have maps - but at least they knew where they were (if perhaps a bit vague about the way up/down....).

globular-toast 6y ago

Reminds me of when I encountered people on top of Kinder Scout the day after heavy rainfall trying to navigate across the middle using Google maps. Surprisingly, their map showed a path. There is no path, even though there is a right of way. OS shows the right of way, but I imagine OS map users would know that right of way doesn't mean "path". On OSM I have made efforts to tag the physical properties of a way separately to any enshrined rights but it's hard to get right. I've used GPS to navigate for many years now. I used to carry paper maps, but you need a compass (and the ability to use it) to make it useful if you get lost in the moors or something. I just carry a backup Garmin now instead of paper maps.

arethuza 6y ago
Entertainingly, at least in retrospect, I made the same mistake a couple of times when I switched to using GPS - I descended the wrong ridge from a top. No real harm done but I do think GPS made me pay less attention to where I was than I would have before when mainly using a paper map.
karlicoss 6y ago
Had a similar experience there just a month ago! No way I'd dare to walk through these moors without a gps
Robin_Message 6y ago
Kinder Scout is the worst. Miles of featureless bog, and if any of those rights of ways are paths, I never found them. If you haven't got a GPS, your best bet is just to take a bearing and walk in a straight line.