The January 2004 edition of Trail magazine has got some 'splaining to do. Trail is a British publication that provides maps and suggests particularly beautiful or challenging hiking trials to the growing number of devoted hill-walkers throughout Great Britain.

Unfortunately if anyone had followed the seemingly precise, detailed directions given by the magazine to reach the summit of Britain's largest mountain, Ben Nevis, they would have hiked straight off a sheer cliff and ended up in a broken heap at the bottom of Gardyloo Gully. It seems Trail missed one all-important bearing mark in describing the route, an oversight that would have sent hikers straight to their death.

As you might imagine, the magazine quickly issued a correction. It virtuously touted the accuracy of the over two hun…