Several of the walks provided on this website include some exposed sections and various grades of rock-scrambling, so please take care and always check for weather updates prior to venturing out. Lake District conditions are very changeable, so always take the appropriate gear, plenty of food and water, and a vital one to remember is: “GPS devices are handy, but paper maps are essential”. We are happy to provide the detailed information that we do, but you are fully responsible for your own health and safety. If you have any questions regarding any of our walks, please don’t hesitate to contact us – we are happy to help.
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Be AdventureSmart
Ask yourself three questions before you set off:
Am I confident I have the Knowledge & Skills for the day?
Do I know what the Weather will be like?
Do I have the right Gear?
For more information and advice: Adventure Smart
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Essentials for a safe journey
- Download a GPS location app onto your phone
- Tell someone where you are going and the time you plan to return
- Make sure your mobile is fully charged
- Pack warm clothing, a spare power bank, torch and a basic first aid kit
- Have a whistle at hand, either attached to your rucksack or in your pocket
- Always take a paper map and compass with you
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What to do in an emergency
- Call 999 or 112 and ask for Police and Mountain Rescue
- Provide your position by using your GPS location app
- Search and Rescue Teams may send a text message using SARLOC or PhoneFind to help find your location
- If all other forms of communication fail, the internationally recognised emergency signals are six blasts on the whistle or six torch flashes repeated every minute
- Preserve battery life by closing other apps and keeping your phone in an interior jacket pocket
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Recommended GPS location apps
GPS Location apps like OS Maps and What3Words work by translating the geo-location data on your phone into another ‘language’. With OS Locate Me (previously OS Locate), which is now integrated into the OS Maps app, the data is translated into two letters followed by either six or eight digits (eg: NY21350785), and for What3Words it is translated into three words (eg: ///ambition.interacts.creatures). The OS Locate Me language relates to your location according to the National Grid (eight digits are more accurate than six), while the What3Words language relates to a 3m square ‘box’ on the surface of the earth.
Mountain Rescue Teams prefer an accurate six or eight digit grid reference, coupled with an accurate description of where you are. On the What3Words app you can change the settings to provide a grid reference as well as three words of your location.
During your phone call to the emergency services it is going to be really beneficial if you can accurately confirm your location. The more accurate, the better. But this is where some mistakes are occurring:
The two most common errors when using the apps are either that the phone still thinks it’s somewhere else (your phone lost signal in a dead spot at a previous location), or in transmitting the three words over the phone (they are either spoken or heard incorrectly somewhere along the process). For example, ///ambition.interacts.creatures locates you at the notorious junction of Piers Gill on the Corridor Route in the Lake District, while ///ambitions.interacts.creature locates you in the Republic of Congo! With this example it will seem obvious to the emergency services that the words have either been misread or misheard. However, although rare, there are other examples where only one incorrect letter could locate you just one kilometre away, but on a neighbouring mountain. This of course would be less obvious to the emergency services that there’s been a mispronunciation of the words, and could lead to the rescue teams going to the wrong location.
There are a few things you can do to provide an accurate location when using both apps:
- Let your phone settle when you open either app before you read out the location
- Zoom out on the What3Words app map; this increases the accuracy but also helps you realise if the app has you in the wrong place
- Read out the numbers or words clearly, and have prior knowledge on how to send your location to the emergency services as an SMS from within each app
OS Locate Me and What3Words are both free and both available on IOS and Android.
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How SARLOC and PhoneFind work
There are many apps for smartphones which show the phone’s location, but these rely on the lost person having the app installed before they get lost. The beauty of SARLOC is that it uses the web browser installed on the smartphone to interrogate the GPS and locate the person, normally to within a few metres.
The rescue team simply sends an SMS text message with a link to a webpage. Clicking on this link opens a page in the phone’s browser which queries the phone to identify its location. This data is then displayed to the user and automatically added over the internet to the MRMap database. So, whoever it is back at base with the kettle, handling the call-out, can see the casualty’s location on the digital OS map display. And, more importantly, he or she can now instruct team members exactly which direction to head in.
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Wish to donate to the Mountain Rescue Service?
If you wish to financially support the Mountain Rescue Service in the Lake District, the Association will be pleased to receive your donation. All donations and legacies received by LDSAMRA are used to support the work of the 12 teams in the region. All the teams rely almost totally on donations received from the public.
www.ldsamra.org.uk/donate
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Thanks, sources and further reading:
Cockermouth Mountain Rescue
Edale Mountain Rescue
The Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association
‘Using SARLOC for Rescue on your Smartphone’, by Judy Whiteside, UKClimbing.com