The strategies people employ when lost

by Nigel Williams

I have just enjoyed 3 weeks of cross-country skiing in Norway and whilst there was able to meet up with Ole Edward Wattne an Assistant Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). His specialist area of work is Information and interaction design, he recently delivered an excellent webinar to the UKs Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN), Outdoor way-losing and navigation in Norway.

We had a lot in common not just an interest in human navigation, I had lived and worked in the field of outdoor and adventure leadership for a few years in southern Norway and my son spent a year at NTNU studying design technology.

Ole has a background in design and architecture, so, why you might ask, is he looking into outdoor navigation and "waylosing"? Well, becoming lost happens to us all and understanding the cognitive responses and strategies that we use to unravel the situation can be informative across a wide range of indoor and outdoor situations.

The design and layout of large complex buildings such as hospitals, schools, big event arenas etc., is a science in itself. There are a couple of rare and tragic instances of a patient dying in a hospital after failing to locate the right floor and department.

The simplified London Underground map, recognised across the world, was originally the brainchild of Underground electrical draughtsman, Harry Beck, who produced this simple design back in 1933 and it is successfully interpreted daily by millions of people.

However, once out of the station and on to the street it can be a real struggle to orientate yourself and locate where you are and which direction to go in. Often there is a map board near the entrance. The map is in a vertical plane when we are more used to navigating with a map in a horizontal plane and being able to move around it. What is the orientation of the map, is north at the top and does the writing relate to that? What direction are you looking in when you are facing it and which way should you go?

I really struggle with that yet there is a whole world of research by eminent academics into the subject of positioning and orientation of street maps and floor plans of complex buildings. The type face, colours and symbols all receive extensive research as well as the area to be covered, orientation, scale and accessibility for colour blindness and vision impairment. All elements are becoming increasingly informed through cognitive navigation research.

Following Ole's RIN talk, there was some discussion around how his current outdoor navigation research might be mirrored in the UK. However, making waylosing comparisons between the two nations is not simple, Norway is almost twice the size of UK, with a population of only 5 million people (similar to Scotland) compared to UK's 65 million. Norway has 48 National Parks compared to UK's 15. Other differences are urbanisation of the UK close to the hills, historical legal access rights, cultural connectivity to wild landscapes and the outdoor environment.

In the UK there is a presumption against signposting and marking routes in the hills. Paths in the Norwegian uplands are marked with a red T painted on attractive cairns which are usually visible from one to the next. There are also sign posts in the hills along the routes that link over 400 remote mountain huts. Snow tends to cover the cairns in winter so the routes are marked with birch sticks from early February. Follow the sticks and you should come to the next hut, hopefully not the one you left in the morning.

Norwegians have largely been brought up with strong connections to their natural environment and outdoor life, "friluftsliv "- or "open-air-life" - hiking, fishing, canoeing etc. Their access rights "allemannsretten" a "freedom to roam" was enshrined in their 1957 outdoor recreation act and has supported that way of life. The Scottish access legislation of 2005 was largely based on the Norwegian model. In Scotland we have a "right of responsible access" (not a right to roam as is often quoted in the press).

The UK maritime climate with much of our uplands being on the west coast means we have less stable weather than many parts of Norway so we could have a greater propensity for walking in poor weather increasing the chances of waylosing.

How long people are lost for, can depend on how long since they last looked at their map, the visibility at the time and the remoteness of the area they are in. When one hears of people being lost for days in the USA and Canada it is often on long distance hikes through vast swathes of forest, they leave the path perhaps looking for a nice camp spot and become completely disorientated. So, among the safety messaging on those routes is the need to carry bits of ribbon to hang in the trees to mark your route off the path in and out of the forest. But in the UK most people are getting lost in largely treeless upland areas.

However, there are general similarities in the actions people tend to take when lost in upland areas. These range from searching around for nearby navigational clues or if the terrain allows heading in a specific direction, often descending, to find a linear feature which can be followed to safety. It might involve using the compass needle or environmental cues such as the sun. Asking a passerby or calling a friend are also common approaches. A 2022 OS survey of 2000 walkers found that roughly 100 of the people admitting to being lost had resorted to calling mountain rescue. Other strategies include going to higher ground for improved viewing of the surroundings if visibility is good, and even letting your dog lead you back to the car.

You may also be interested in ...

- If you are in need of a compass then we stock a great range of items and other useful navigation equipment, suitable for all levels of navigation.

- For the perfect lanyard to go with your compass, the HARVEY Map - Measure - Go! scale bar laces double up to make measuring distance easy! Available in two scales, 1:25,000 scale markings (red) and 1:40,000 scale markings (yellow).




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