Moving on foot safely

Almost everything else in this app assumes you are staying where you are, and that assumption is correct nearly all of the time. A house is shelter, stored water, stored food, warmth, and a known address that people can find you at, and giving all of that up to walk somewhere is a large trade.

This page is for the minority of cases where moving is right, and its first job is to help you work out whether you are in one.

The decision to move at all

The left column is short and the right column is long, and that is the shape of the real answer. The urge to do something is powerful and it is not information.

Moving costs you shelter, stored supplies, your address, and the ability to be found. It exposes you to weather, traffic, darkness and everything else on foot. It is the single most hazardous thing most households would do in an emergency.

Go early or not at all. If the decision is genuinely to leave, leaving at first light with a full day ahead is a different activity from leaving at four in the afternoon in November.

Deciding late is the real trap. Hours of deliberation eat the daylight and produce a departure at exactly the wrong time. If you cannot decide by early afternoon in winter, the decision for today is to stay, prepare properly and go at first light.

Before you step out of the door

1. Know where you are going, specifically, and preferably that somebody there is expecting you.
2. Leave a note at the house: who, the time, where to, expected arrival, and the route. See meeting points and a household plan.
3. Tell the out-of-area contact if you can get a text out. See getting a message out.
4. Work out the time honestly, using the slowest person and the real conditions. See judging distance and time.
5. Set a decision point: a place and a time at which, if you are not there, you turn back or stop for the night.
6. Turn off the water, gas and electricity if you are leaving the house for a while. See the mains shut-offs.
7. Lock up and take the keys. You are probably coming back.

What to carry, and what not to

Less than you want to. Weight has a disproportionate effect on speed, fatigue and injury over distance, and the pack that felt reasonable in the hall is punishing after two hours.

Everybody carries their own water and their own warm layer, including children old enough to.

A rucksack that fits and sits on the hips. A carrier bag or a shoulder bag over ten kilometres will ruin somebody.

If it is heavy and you are hesitating, leave it. You can come back for possessions. You cannot come back for the ankle.

Clothing

Layers, loose, with a windproof and waterproof outer. See make one warm room, which explains the same principle indoors.

Start slightly cold. You will warm up within ten minutes, and setting off comfortable means sweating within twenty, and sweat-damp clothing is what makes you cold later.

Stop and adjust rather than pushing on. Two minutes to take a layer off before you sweat, or put one on at a stop before you cool, is worth more than any single item of kit.

Keep one warm layer dry and unused, in a bag inside the pack, for stops and for emergencies. That layer is not for walking in.

Boots that are already broken in. New boots on a long walk are how somebody becomes unable to continue. See mend boots and shoes.

Pace and the group

The group moves at the pace of its slowest member. Not the average, not the plan.

• Put the slowest person at the front, setting the pace, not at the back struggling to keep up. This one change transforms group travel.
• Never split up. The single most common way a manageable situation becomes two emergencies.
• Count heads at every stop, out loud, by name.
• Nobody walks alone, and nobody goes ahead to scout unless there is a reason and an agreed meeting point.
• A steady pace that can be held all day beats bursts and rests. If you are out of breath, you are going too fast.
• Short frequent stops, five minutes every hour, rather than long ones. Long stops let people stiffen and cool.

Watch the quiet one. The person who has stopped complaining, gone silent and dropped to the back is the one in trouble. Cold, exhaustion and low blood sugar all present as withdrawal before they present as anything else. See hypothermia.

Feet

The most likely thing to end a journey, and almost entirely preventable.

Prevention: boots that fit and are broken in, clean dry socks, two thin pairs rather than one thick, tape on any known trouble spot before setting off, and stopping to shake out grit rather than pressing on.

Choosing the route

• Known routes over short routes. Familiar ground in bad conditions beats an unknown shortcut.
• Avoid main roads on foot. No footway, fast traffic, drivers who are not expecting pedestrians, and in poor weather or darkness this is genuinely dangerous. Use footpaths, minor lanes, canal towpaths and disused railways.
• If you must use a road, walk facing the oncoming traffic, single file, on the verge, with something reflective or a light. On a right-hand bend, cross to the other side so you can be seen.
• Avoid water. Do not cross moving water, do not walk flood-affected streets, and plan the route by bridges. See river and flood crossings.
• Avoid crowds and gatherings, whatever their nature. A crowd is a hazard independent of anybody's intentions.
• Prefer daylight, decisively. Night travel roughly doubles the difficulty and multiplies the risk.
• Know your bail-outs. Identify in advance the places along the route where you could stop, shelter or get help, and note where they are.

Stopping

Deciding to stop early is a success, not a failure, and it is the decision people leave too late.

• Stop while you still have daylight, energy and options. All three run out together, and the last hour is when the worst decisions get made.
• Stop if anybody is struggling. One person's condition is the group's condition.
• Shelter, dry, warm, fed, in that order. Get out of the wind, get off the ground, get dry clothing on, then eat.
• Somewhere findable. If you have told somebody your route, stopping on it is far better than stopping off it.
• Send a message if you can, saying where you have stopped.

Then reassess in the morning, with light, rest and food. The situation that looked impossible at dusk usually looks different at eight the next morning, and that is not optimism, it is what cold and tiredness do to judgement.