The importance of leaving trip intentions (for your safety and your Mum’s sanity)

(Thanks for sitting down to read my 100% human written blog)

I have to admit I was pretty anxious this morning. I knew a group of friends were due to summit a snowy peak in Victoria, but we hadn’t heard anything from them. We thought that if they had made it to the hut, they would have been able to reply to our message, but it had not yet seen by any of the party. My partner wouldn’t normally be worried about his capable mates on a hike, but the conditions this week were worth worrying about… 70kmph winds, 60ml rain, and a few novices in the group.

It made us wonder…. had the group left their official trip intentions with someone? Was that official duty unofficially handed to us because we were aware of their loose plans? And if it WAS us… then at what point were we supposed to raise the alarm?

I know my Mother has experienced this feeling one too many times whilst I’ve been offline and adventuring. Some trips Mum has had my full hiking itinerary sent to her, including campsites, expected times of arrival, and park ranger numbers to call if she hasn’t heard from me. Other times, the information she’s had to cling onto was scant.

I once paddled solo from Normanville to Henley Beach, with Mum and Dad able to track me live on strava as I recorded the trip. What I hadn’t thought about was that the live tracking would chew through my old phone’s battery (this was 2013 so the battery life wasn’t flash back then!). The phone died, the tracking cut out, and Mum & Dad were left in the dark until I called them from my boyfriend’s phone at Henley.

I used to also use a “Spot” device. The “Spot” had pre-written messages that I could press a button to send via satellite to pre-determined people. Each night when I rolled into a new isolated coastal campsite, my parents, my boyfriend and my brother all would get a “all safe here at our next camp” text with the GPS coordinates of my location. If we needed assistance, I could press the button that would text them to say where I was and that I needed some non-urgent help, or if shit was hitting the proverbial fan, I could hit the red SOS button for emergency services to get the call.

Paddling across Gulf St Vincent, 2013. I used a SPOT device to tell our loved ones when we had made it to shore.

Now that’s all well and good, and I still enjoy getting Dad’s Spot device messages when he lands his hangglider in obscure places around the country, but what my plan was missing was what Mum & Dad should do if that evening text never arrived.

I’ve worked with many school groups where the outdoor education teacher leading the camp will have a check-in procedure with their site leader. Sometimes this is a “Garmin in reach” device message, sometimes a satellite phonecall, and more recently thanks to telstra buddying up with Starlink. it can be a mobile SMS via satellite. However, I’ve also seen a few teachers (not naming names) get caught up with the business of their full day of logistics, behaviour management, teaching, guiding, gear, wellbeing etc etc (valid) and forget to send the check-in.

It makes me worry about the boy who cried wolf scenario playing out… but it’s the boy who didn’t cry anything and everyone slept soundly while the boy got gobbled up. OK that’s dramatic, but if the school is used to “no news is good news”, then who’s keeping tabs on the class out in the field?

A solution to ALL these scenarios (hang-gliding, kayaking, outdoor ed camps and wolf attacks) is leaving your trip intentions with a safe person at home.

Now this person isn’t always your emergency contact. Often my emergency contact is right there in the field next to me! Other times, your emergency contact just might not be reliable, as proven by the tiktok “emergency contact” trend of folks showing videos of their questionable choice of who to call in an SOS situation. So perhaps your trip intentions might be better left with a park ranger, a family member, and/ or a hotel reception where you’re staying?

WARNING: Safe to say my Mum wasn’t my emergency contact for this hike. I left the trip intentions with my boss.

As I’m getting more and more passionate about teaching women hiking skills, I realise that there are so many hiking fears holding women back that could potentially all be alleviated with a simple hike intentions form left with a solid friend.

Scared your phone will die? Leave trip intentions.

Worried you’ll get lost? Leave trip intentions.

Don’t know how you’ll get yourself out if you hurt yourself? Leave trip intentions.

If your loved ones or reliable ones have the details of your trip, your plans, where you’re headed, what your contingencies are, and what to do when they don’t hear from you, you’ll feel a heck of a lot more comfortable knowing that someone’s keeping an ear and eye out for you and your wellbeing out there.

We can’t control for everything on a hike (that’s kinds the fun and adventure of it!) but we CAN relieve many of the associated worries you might have, and maybe even prolong the lifespan of your worrying mother as you gift her this completed document and put her mind at ease.

Because we know you’re now asking “what do I write in mine?!”, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you and created a template that you can download, save, print, and use over and over for all of your future adventures.

Ready to download yours? Follow this link and be sure to complete it and leave it with a safe person the next time you go adventuring.

Oh and as for our group of friends hiking in the snow country! They messaged that they’re all safe and sound and they’ve left comprehensive hike intentions with an experienced hiking friend AND their parents! That’s double points.