We’re catching up with Nick from Ordinance Survey who gives us some important tips on how to plan ahead if you’re heading up Pen-y-Fan or Yr Wyddfa anytime soon.
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00:00The key thing around this time is if you do get outside then just get outside as
00:06safely as you possibly can. So charge your phone, download the maps so that you
00:10don't need a mobile signal and be prepared, pack your bag well, take an
00:15extra layer, take some food, take some water, make sure you've got appropriate
00:19footwear, don't go climbing Snowdon in flip-flops, that's never a good thing to
00:23do and above all stay safe and enjoy yourselves.
00:27Wales is an absolute haven for day trips out in the great outdoors. We've got
00:31hills, valleys, mountains, cliffs, beaches, anything that makes for a good walk you
00:36can find it somewhere in Wales. As we're getting into the warmer months people are
00:39making the most of it heading up to the mountains to take in some of our
00:42beautiful scenery.
00:43Urruri, formerly Snowdonia in North Wales, is one of the most popular walking spots
00:48anywhere in Wales or the rest of the UK with thousands of people flocking to the
00:52mountain ranges whenever they get the chance. Same for Pennavan in the south
00:56North, there are plenty of real hot spots but Nick from Ordnance Survey says it's
01:00important to be properly prepared.
01:02I mean there's three things that you really want to be thinking about. One is
01:06have you got the right equipment, have you got an extra jumper. Every hundred
01:10metres you climb the temperature drops by one degree so if you're going out into
01:13the hills, you're going out to the mountains then actually the temperature at
01:16the top of the mountain can be significantly colder than at the bottom. Equally the
01:20weather changes all the time so the second thing is check the weather. Make sure that
01:24actually you know what the weather's going to be doing. If you are going up high, the
01:28Met Office have got a fantastic mountain forecast which will be able to give you
01:32all of the data for the top of a hill. And the final thing is actually just being
01:39comfortable with your level of confidence.
01:41It's important to be prepared and Nick says that there's an increasing number of
01:45people making the most of our landscape for their social media. He welcomes people
01:49young and old getting into mountain walking and loves the Instagram pics, but
01:52there's much more to think about on a hike.
01:55What we've seen is an increased level of call outs for mountain rescue amongst the
01:59Gen Z's, the 19 to 24 year olds of for the first time ever the highest level of
02:05people that have had to go out and rescue. And we think there's a couple of
02:08reasons for that. One is social media and we've all seen the Instagram posts with the
02:13fantastic backdrop and and the great shots that you can see and people want to recreate those
02:18for themselves, which basically means that sometimes they're going out without the right
02:22kit or either without the right footwear, clothing and certainly without the right maps.
02:27Ordnance survey have been making maps for as long as any of us can remember. And Nick says
02:31that maps are an incredibly important part of getting out in the mountains. But it's important
02:35to remember with most of us using our phones now, they are not guaranteed signal wherever you go.
02:40So you might not be able to rely on maps all the time.
02:43And we're all used to using mobile phones for
02:46navigation and mobile phones are great for navigation. But it's making sure you've got
02:50the right data. It's like having a hammer to fix everything. Sometimes you need a screwdriver
02:57and sometimes you need the right map with the path information.