Being lost in the Mountains - Helping others to know where you are and locate you.

This week there has been a lot of media posts about ex Para Paul Conway 67 being lost in Scotland for 7 days before being found by Lochaber Mountain Rescue in good health and just a little worse for wear.

Surprisingly there are a number of people who go missing every year in the Mountains who are still missing months and even years later. These include.

David Brookfield who went missing on the Carneddau in January 24 2024,

bushcraft enthusiast Finn Creaney who went missing in Scotland March 2022,

Derek Hepburn went missing in the Scottish Highlands April 2022,

Glyn Smith went missing in Northern Highlands Scotland April 2022

Goffredo Bondanelli went missing in the Scottish Highlands May 2016

Using mobile devices there are a number of ways we can lower the risk of not being found if we find ourselves in the situation of having an accident while on the mountains or being lost on the Mountains that will help emergency services locate us. Below I will go through some of the things we can do.

1. Whatsapp Live location - You can share your live location via Whatsapp with any contacts on whatsapp, This does rely on mobile signal but it will show your last location where you had a signal. Having you last location would help Mountain Rescue in know where you started off and with the use of mapping would help them in having an educated guess in where and what direction you are heading by locating your car and then drawing a line to your live location and reading the area to try and figure out which summits or paths you are heading towards and walking on (Though the wife did ask me once "why have you been in a pub for an hour" oops :) ).

2. Sports watches (Garmin, Apple etc) - I have a Garmin Fenix watch and it is set up to send an email link to the wife for their LiveTrack service. LiveTrack will show the wife my last known location (gps signal not mobile) average pace, speed, Heart rate, elevation plus a lot more. This is valuable information for the Emergency services and would help considerably in trying to locate you. Apple / Samsung / other watches have some type of locate on their devices you can share with family members which will show your last location depending if it uses GPS or mobile signal.

3. Outdoor Active - Outdoor Active is a great mapping tool like OS Maps but it has the feature Buddy Beacon which can share your live location with your "buddies" or fellow users you know on Outdoor Active. This is a great feature and it is well worth turning on then letting a friend who is not out with you that you have turned it on.

   One other good feature of Buddy Beacon is if you do find yourself in a situation then you can add people to your Buddy Beacon list and all Mountain Rescue teams are listed, therefore you can add the MR team you have called and therefore they will see your live location.

There are other ways you can keep people informed as well,

give your hotel/friend/family your planned route

make a call / send a text every hour just to confirm you are ok

If you speak to other hikers ask them their route and let them know which way you are going (surprising how many will remember seeing you and what you said if you are reported missing)

Leave a note in your car of planned route and emergency contact.

Have a think about the above and hopefully this has been useful but remember you should rely on electronic devices, the points above are to lower the risk and help people if you are reported missing.

Thanks

Tony Lowe Mountaineering.