SIGNALS: the ones you need to know

The internationally recognised distress signal is six blasts on a whistle, repeated every minute. If you are injured, alone and without phone signal, this could be your only way of alerting other parties. This can also be used to signal your location to mountain rescuers who are on the way.

At night, the same pattern with flashes of light from a torch can also be used; try and direct the torch towards roads, paths, buildings or other places where it is most likely to be seen (in practice, a headtorch on a continuous flashing setting can also be used to alert others.)

To communicate with a helicopter in sight, raise both arms (forming the letter Y) to indicate ‘Yes’ or ‘I need help’.