Map-reading skills are essential on the Coast to Coast route, the Wainwright Society said

Aficionados of the late guidebook author Alfred Wainwright have warned walkers following his Coast to Coast Walk to equip themselves with a map and compass.

The call follows the news of a group of Coast to Coasters being rescued two days running after getting lost in the Lake District.

Derek Cockell, press and publicity officer for the Wainwright Society, said: “Wainwright’s guide is an excellent publication, but there is no substitute for taking a map and compass and knowing how to use them to guide one’s footsteps should bad weather make the going difficult.”

The 309km (192-mile) Coast to Coast Walk follows a route suggested by Wainwright linking St Bees Head in Cumbria with Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire. Thousands of walkers tackle the route each year.

Over the weekend a group of three had to be rescued two nights running by volunteer teams, one of whose member suffered a serious ankle injury in the operation.

Mr Cockell said: “The Wainwright Society was alarmed to read the recent report where a group of walkers had to be rescued on consecutive days whilst walking the Coast to Coast route through the Lake District.

“The society would like to reiterate that although the Coast to Coast route is, arguably, Britain’s premier long-distance walking route, on no account should it be undertaken lightly.

“Walkers need to prepare for the expedition properly and ensure they have adequate clothing and boots to cope with severe weather conditions that can strike at any time in the mountains.”

The spokesman pointed out the author, who also penned the celebrated Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells, considered map-reading an important skill for hillwalkers.

“Although Alfred Wainwright professed not to know how to use a compass, he regarded a map as essential,” Mr Cockell said. “In his first book, A Pennine Journey, he recalled his affection for maps. ‘I recall our adventures together in storm and sunshine. An occasion, perhaps when the mist was thick and instinct and the map urged different ways, and I followed the map and came to safe ground again’.”

Next year is the 40th anniversary of the publication of Wainwright’s guidebook to the Coast to Coast Walk and the society is planning to celebrate the anniversary during the year.

Mr Cockell added: “It is the society’s hope that even more people will walk this magnificent route, but that when they do, they travel safely and that adequate thought and preparation is made before setting off on the expedition.”