What are the keys to preventing a hiker from getting lost?

• Have a second person along to make sure that you are making sense with your decisions.
• Your brain needs two things to navigate or do anything else: water and glucose. Drink and eat to stay found.
• Your map and compass are not talismans that protect you from harm. Know how to use them. It's easy to learn, but you do need to invest a few hours to be confident. See Navigation Skills - Map and Compass.
• Realize that declinations are different in different parts of the country. Don't know what a declination is? See above.
• A GPS is a great tool, but it is not a substitute for map and compass skills. See Navigation Skills - GPS. Ditto cell phones.
• Keep track of "handrails and baselines" (from Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills*). These are features that are generally long and linear and provide an ultimate reference point. E.g., you're not exactly sure where you are, but you can still see Confusion Ridge to your north, so you know your general location.
• Don't just plod along looking at your feet. Keep looking around, and in particular behind you. Things look different from different angles, and you'll have a better view of what to expect on your return trip. You'll also catch mistakes earlier.
• Don't blindly follow a leader or a compass. Convince yourself that the group is on the right track by constantly evaluating all of the evidence.
• Knowing your rate of travel will help you estimate a position.
• Carry an altimeter if possible. With an altimeter, if you are on Stinky Creek, and you know your elevation, you can usually pinpoint your position on a map.
• Think thrice before trying that short cut, particularly on descents from climbs.
• A well-respected magazine recently suggested leaving map and compass behind to save weight in familiar country. Ignore that advice! Weird stuff happens all the time in familiar terrain, and that well-known country gets a lot less familiar at night and in bad weather.

* Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills, The Mountaineers is available at www.mountaineersbooks.org (Search for "Freedom" to find it quickly) and other fine book stores.

If you do get lost, what should you do?

• Well, the big one of course is to stay put. As a Search and Rescue guy, my biggest nightmare is a really fit, panicky person -- imagine the ground that that person can cover.
• If you build a signal of some sort (shapes made of wood, a fire, etc.) make it way bigger than you would think necessary. Things look smaller than you would believe from the air.
• If you hear a plane or helicopter, lie down -- you'll be more visible. Wave your arms and legs as well as anything bright that is available.
• Keep yourself warm and dry. Search and Rescue will worry about finding you; you worry about staying alive. If you're cold, do thousands of jumping jacks or run laps around a tree.
• Search and Rescue Teams do in fact find almost everyone, and find them alive at that, so don't get down. Your experience will make a great story one day!