How do you navigate on a hike without phone signal?

The phone has made hiking navigation wonderfully easy, right up to the moment the signal bars disappear, the screen dims in the cold and you realise you have been following a blue dot without looking at anything else for two hours. Navigating without signal is mostly about doing a bit of thinking at home, and keeping a simple backup in your pocket.

Download before you go

A phone's GPS can still show your position without mobile signal, but the map behind the dot usually needs downloading in advance. Mountain Rescue England and Wales, writing about navigating with your phone, recommends downloading maps for offline use before you leave home. Its practical points:

• Download the whole area, not just the line of your route, if you might wander off it for a detour or a café.
• Download your route as well, so you can follow it without signal.
• Practise using the app at home: zooming, finding your position, following a route.

Protect your battery

The same Mountain Rescue article warns that GPS navigation can drain your battery quickly, especially where the signal is weak. Its suggestions are to start fully charged, carry a power bank on longer walks, and switch to flight mode, which saves power while still letting you use GPS with downloaded maps. In a separate piece, the organisation advises keeping some battery for emergency calls and carrying a head torch rather than relying on your phone for light.

The same article admits that phones sometimes simply give up when it is too cold or too hot, so keep yours in an inside pocket on chilly days.

Carry a paper map and compass

Mountain Rescue England and Wales recommends carrying a paper map as backup, because a map needs no battery or signal. A compass completes the kit. Ordnance Survey's beginner's guide notes that even with GPS on your phone, a compass helps you stay on track when signal drops or visibility is poor.

The basics, in our own words:

1. Orient the map. Turn the map so that features on it line up with what you see around you, or so that north on the map points the same way as the compass needle.
2. Take a bearing. Lay the compass on the map with its edge joining where you are to where you want to go, turn the dial so its lines match the map's north-south grid lines, then turn your whole body until the needle sits over the orienting arrow. The direction-of-travel arrow now points your way.
3. Walk to a landmark. Pick something distinct along that line, walk to it, and repeat.

Learning this takes an afternoon in a park, not a course. A local walking club, or an orienteering event, is a fun way to practise.

Make simple route notes

Before you go, write a few lines on paper or in a note on your phone:

• The main junctions and which way to turn at each.
• Landmarks you should pass: a bridge, a hut, a lake, a pylon line.
• Rough times between them.
• Your turnaround time, and escape routes if you need to cut the day short.

These notes are surprisingly reassuring. If you pass the bridge when you expected to, you know you are on track.

Keep checking as you go

Navigation goes wrong slowly. Check your position at every junction and every landmark, not only when you feel lost. If something does not match, stop early, look back the way you came, and work out where you last knew your position. Retracing your steps to a known point is often the quickest fix.

Tell someone, and know how to get help

Leave your route and expected return time with someone at home. Learn the emergency number for where you are hiking and how mountain rescue is called in that country. Check local guidance from park authorities or Alpine clubs, and if you are new to an area, choose waymarked routes. Our page on planning a solo hike safely covers this in more detail.