Most people’s plan for when a walk goes wrong is “I’ll just turn back”. It sounds sensible right up until the moment you need it, and then it turns out to be the worst option available.
A real escape route is a shorter, easier, downhill line off the hill that you identified before you left the house. Turning back is not an escape route. It’s the same distance over the same ground that has already beaten you, and at the halfway point it’s no shorter than carrying on.
Below is what makes a bail-out genuinely usable, how to find one on a map in about five minutes, and which route shapes give you options rather than trapping you.
Why “I’ll Just Turn Back” Isn’t an Escape Route
Worth doing the arithmetic on this, because it catches out people who really should know better.
At the halfway point, back is exactly as far as onwards. That’s the whole problem. The moment you’re most likely to want out is usually somewhere in the middle, and that is precisely where retracing your steps saves you nothing at all.
It’s the same ground that already wore you down. If you’re bailing because the ascent was harder than expected, going back over it is not a rescue.
It’s often into the weather. Plenty of days go wrong because the wind got up, and you walked out with it behind you.
And it feels like failure, which means people put the decision off, which means it gets made later and in worse conditions than it should have been.
Turning round is a perfectly good option in the first quarter of a walk. After that, you want something better, and something better has to be found in advance.
What Makes a Real Bail-Out
Six things. A line that fails any of them is not the escape route you think it is.
1. It goes down, and it goes down soon. Height is what costs you. A “shortcut” that traverses at the same altitude for two miles isn’t a bail-out, it’s a different walk.
2. It ends at something you cannot miss. A road, a big valley, a forest track, a river, a lake shore. Something so large that even sloppy navigation in bad visibility will hit it. Aim at a barn door, not a keyhole.
3. It’s safe in the conditions that made you bail. This is the one people get wrong. You are not choosing this line on a sunny day with fresh legs. You will be using it tired, in rain, possibly in cloud. A steep grassy gully that’s fine in June is a genuinely dangerous descent when it’s wet, and anything running along the top of a crag is a poor choice in poor visibility.
4. You can find the top of it when you can’t see. An escape route you can’t locate is decoration. The start needs to be something identifiable by feel or by feature: a col, a wall, a fence line, a path junction, a change in slope angle.
5. It’s genuinely shorter or easier than continuing. Check this rather than assuming it.
6. Everyone with you could actually do it. A descent that needs hands is not a bail-out if someone is limping.
Though it’s worth being clear about the injury case, because an escape route is not always the right answer to it. If someone genuinely can’t walk, getting them down is far harder than people imagine, and moving an injured person over rough ground can make things considerably worse. Mountain Rescue use a stretcher and a lot of hands for a reason. In that situation the safer plan is usually to stop, get everyone into a group shelter and insulated from the ground, and call for help. The escape route is for the day going wrong, not for a casualty.
How to Find Them Before You Go
Five minutes at the kitchen table. Genuinely.
Trace your route and look for the low points. Cols, saddles and path junctions are where the ground naturally lets you off. Mark them.
Follow each one downhill with your finger. Where does it actually end up? If the answer is “another two miles of open moor”, it’s not much use. If it’s “a valley track in a kilometre”, that’s your line.
Read the contours on the descent, not just the distance. Tight contours mean steep, and steep plus wet plus tired is where people get hurt. Reading contour lines is the skill doing the work here.
Check for crags. Black rock symbols and very tight contour bunching mean the ground may be impassable, and a line that looks fine as a pencil stroke can end at a drop.
And do not follow a stream down. This one is worth putting in bold, because it is the instinct almost everyone has and it is genuinely dangerous. Water takes the steepest line, which is exactly why it carves gorges and goes over waterfalls. In steep British terrain a stream will happily lead you into ground you cannot get out of, and often into ground you cannot climb back up either. Use a stream as a handrail to walk beside at a sensible distance if the map shows the ground is reasonable. Never use it as the descent itself.
Have a look at it in 3D. Flying the descent in Google Earth takes two minutes and tells you things a flat map won’t. We’ve written about previewing a route in Google Earth separately.
Aim for one bail-out per hour of walking. Not a rule, a sanity check. If a three-hour section has no way off it, that’s worth knowing before you’re in the middle of it rather than after.
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Write It Down, Properly
An escape route that exists only in your head stops existing the moment you’re cold and rattled.
Put it on the route card. For each bail-out point, that means the grid reference of where you leave the route, the bearing you’d walk, roughly how long it takes, and where it comes out.
Then leave a copy with someone at home. This is the bit people skip, and it’s the bit that matters most, because if you do bail and you’re overdue, the person who knows your escape routes has just made a search dramatically smaller.
If you’re walking with someone, get them to check your numbers independently before you commit to a descent. Bearings and grid references are easy things to transpose, and two people arriving at the same answer separately is worth a great deal more than one person being confident.
Deciding When to Use It
Having a bail-out and using it are different problems, and the second one is harder.
Set the trigger before you set off. “If we’re not at the col by two o’clock” is a decision you can obey. “If it gets bad” is not, because in the moment it never feels quite bad enough.
Count the small things. Days rarely go wrong because of one dramatic event. They go wrong when several small ones stack up: cloud lower than forecast, slower than expected, a bit colder than you dressed for, boots rubbing. Any one is fine. Three or four together is the hill telling you something.
Bail early rather than efficiently. The best moment to use an escape route always feels slightly too early. That’s what a good decision feels like from the inside.
Remember it’s not a failure. Getting a group down a valley in reasonable order is a better day than a heroic finish and a rescue. Nobody has ever regretted going down early.
If timing is what you’re unsure of, Naismith’s Rule turns a vague sense of running late into a number you can act on.
Route Shapes That Give You Options
Some walks are simply better provided with exits than others, and it’s worth knowing which is which before you pick one.
A ridge above a valley with a path in it is the best-provided shape there is. You can drop off at several points, and the valley catches you regardless.
A horseshoe usually gives you a way down into the middle, which is often shorter than either arm.
An out-and-back up a single valley has exactly one escape route, and it’s the way you came. That’s fine, as long as you know it.
A long plateau crossing is the awkward one. Committing, often featureless, and frequently with no sensible way off for a long stretch. Not a reason to avoid it, but it needs more margin and better weather.
A point-to-point using public transport adds a wrinkle, because your bail-out has to end somewhere you can get home from. A valley track is only an escape route if there’s a bus at the end of it, or if missing the last train is a problem you’ve thought about.
The Short Version
Turning back is not a plan. It’s the same ground, the same distance, and by halfway it saves you nothing.
Before you go, find the low points on your route, follow them downhill on the map, and check they end somewhere unmissable and safe to descend in bad weather. Write down the grid reference and the bearing. Set the trigger in advance.
Then, if you need it, go down early and don’t feel bad about it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an escape route in hill walking?
It’s a pre-planned shorter and easier way off the hill, chosen before you set out, that you can use if the weather turns, someone is struggling, or you’re running out of time. A good one descends quickly, ends at something unmissable like a road or a valley track, is safe to walk in poor conditions, and has a start point you can find even when you can’t see far.
Isn’t turning back the same as an escape route?
Not usually. At the halfway point of a circular walk, going back is exactly as far as going on, so it saves you nothing at the moment you most want it to. It also puts you back over ground that has already tired you, and often into the wind. Turning round is a good option early in a walk, and a poor one after that.
How do I find an escape route on a map?
Trace your route and mark the low points, cols, saddles and path junctions, because those are where the ground lets you off. Follow each one downhill and see where it ends up. Check the contours on the way down for steep ground and look for crag symbols. You want something that loses height quickly and finishes at a feature so big you could not miss it in cloud.
How many escape routes should a walk have?
There is no rule, but roughly one per hour of walking is a useful sanity check. If a long section of your route has no sensible way off it, that is not necessarily a reason to avoid the walk, but it is something you should know before you set out rather than discover in the middle of it.
When should I use my escape route?
Earlier than feels necessary. Set a specific trigger before you leave, such as a time you must reach a particular point by, because a decision made at the kitchen table is far easier to obey than one made when you are tired. Also watch for small problems stacking up: lower cloud than forecast, running late, feeling colder than you dressed for. Any one is fine, three or four together is a signal.
Should I tell someone my escape routes?
Yes, and it takes seconds. Give whoever knows your plans the route, your expected return time, and where your bail-out options come out. If you do use one and end up overdue, that information makes any search enormously smaller and faster.
Plan the Way Off Before You Plan the Way Up
Everything on this page happens at a table, before you put your boots on, and it’s the part of hill walking that gets the least attention for the most benefit.
The free Digital Safety Net course is sixteen lessons on getting your planning and your phone genuinely reliable, including fixing your position and sharing where you are, which is exactly what an escape route plan depends on. It costs nothing.
So, next walk you’ve got planned. Where would you get off it? Ask any questions in the comments below.
