Why I got lost - a personal history of navigation errors
Another post about mountaineering, but this time I'm admitting some failures: times where I became what is sometimes referred to as "navigationally challenged". This is a phrase used by mapreading types to avoid saying that they're lost. 'Lost' is a word that's bleak in an outdoor context. Lost is the thing where you can't work out which side of the map you should be looking at. Lost is when you realise you haven't been paying attention for an hour. In a mountaineering context, lost is when people call Mountain Rescue to get them off the hill. And it's ok to call MR for help - that's what they're for. But in the UK at least, they're volunteers and I don't want to use them if I don't need to. An unexpected injury or medical emergency can happen to anyone - but having to navigate is not unexpected. If you're going out to the mountains, you will have to navigate. Do it enough, and you'll navigate wrong. The important t