Ah, nature. The crisp air, the towering peaks, the sense of existential dread as you realize your GPS just led you off a cliff.
2024 was the year we collectively forgot how to navigate the outside world without Google Maps and paid the price. Mountain rescue teams in the UK were called out every single day last year.
In Scotland alone, teams hit a record 1,000 callouts. England and Wales weren’t far behind. And who’s leading this lemming march into oblivion? Young people, of course.
The 18-24 crowd basically doubled their rescue rate since 2019, overtaking the 50-something boomers who used to dominate the getting lost space.
More Hikers Than Ever Are Getting Lost in the Mountains Thanks to Map Apps
If a few people are getting stranded a year, you blame the people. If you’re breaking all-time records for the number of people calling mountain rescue, blame an external factor that’s leading them all astray.
In this case, the culprit seems to be social media “honeypot” destinations and shoddy map app directions. Rescue reports show people following app routes with zero context about the terrain.
Speaking with The Guardian, Mike Park, the chief executive of Mountain Rescue England and Wales, said, “But we know from incident reports that more and more people are tempted into risky locations by Instagram posts and the navigation apps being used aren’t always suitable for an outdoor environment.”
He went on to say that popular routes shared online are often shared without context for the hazards those routes contain.
The youth aren’t alone. People in their 40s and even their 70s are also getting in on the fun. In fact, rescues of those 75-79 doubled. 93 octogenarians were also retrieved from the great outdoors.
Hearing that almost 100 octogenarians had to be rescued after getting lost in the wilderness due to bad directions almost makes me, a much younger person, want to wander into the wilderness and get lost, too. If an octogenarian can do it, I can do it too.
Meanwhile, the rescuers are stretched thin, dealing with multiple emergency calls at the same time. So if you’re planning a picturesque hike for the ’Gram, maybe take a verified route, and maybe bring along some basic survival skills and maybe a signal flare or two, just in case.
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