Outdoor Recreation Editing and Proofreading Services

Two people set out on a Saturday morning and tell a friend they are "going up the hill and will be back later". At nine that evening the friend is worried, has no idea which hill, no registration number, no description of what they were wearing, and no idea whether to ring anybody. The search that eventually starts covers four valleys because nobody wrote six lines down.

We edit what outdoor recreation organisations, clubs and providers produce — trip plans and overdue procedures, participant information and kit lists, leader and instructor documentation, risk assessments for group activity, permit and access documentation, incident and near-miss reporting, training and award material, and the safety messaging that goes to the public. Our editors work on documents that matter only when something has gone wrong.

The trip plan and overdue procedure is the cheapest safety measure in the outdoors and the one most often skipped, and its failure is a note that records an intention rather than a search area. A friend who does not know what to do at nine o'clock is not a safety net. We work through these so the route is recorded with the start point, the intended line and the escape options, since a search that knows the plan is a search of one valley and a search that does not is four; so the vehicle and its location are given with the registration, because this is the single fastest confirmation that somebody is still out; so the party is described by number, names, clothing colours and any relevant condition, given that the description of a jacket is what a helicopter crew is actually looking for; so the return time is stated with the separate, later time at which the friend should act, as the two are not the same and the gap prevents both premature calls and dangerous delays; so the action at that time is written as a specific instruction with the number to ring and what to say, because "call for help" is not a procedure and a friend will hesitate rather than embarrass anybody; so the plan says what would make a party late but safe — a slower descent, a longer route — to calibrate the worry; so it names who is holding the plan and where it is; and so it takes two minutes to complete or it will not be. Plans written this way shorten searches.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including plans, incident reports and participant information. We are editors rather than mountain rescue, instructors or safety advisers, and we offer no view on routes, equipment, conditions or safety. What we can do is make the six lines worth writing.