Need2Know: Everyday planning for everyday people

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Everyday planning for everyday people

Created from the motivation to inspire quality trip planning before heading out to explore New Zealand’s hills, forests and mountains is the world-first trip planning app, Plan My Walk.

The new free app, developed by the NZ Mountain Safety Council (MSC), boasts convenience by bringing together the key information a day walker or multi-day tramper needs when planning a local trip outdoors, including track information, gear lists, alerts and weather forecasts. All of this can be shared with group members and an emergency contact. New Zealand’s tramping culture is unique to this part of the world, from chatting to strangers in a hut, exchanging notes on track conditions to sharing experiences online or in stories.

Our great outdoors is so much more than just a place to explore, it’s part of the fabric and culture of New Zealand. This culture sits at the heart of Plan My Walk and is the driver for many of its unique features. The concept of the app was triggered by the results of on-going in-depth incident analysis conducted by MSC over the last five years. It clearly indicated that a concerning number of trampers who either sustain an injury, require search and rescue assistance, or tragically never make it home, are mostly avoidable prevented or their seriousness reduced.

The solution was thorough trip planning and preparation, and sound decision-making while out in the hills, MSC Chief Executive Mike Daisley said.

“It’s really easy to underestimate the importance of quality planning and preparation, there are lots of

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little things that can be easily overlooked, or if you’re new to tramping how do you know where to start and how do you effectively make a trip plan.

“When combined these small gaps in planning can have a big impact on your safety, conversely, it’s often the little details that go a long way to improving your safety,” Daisley said.

The research found that being ‘unprepared for the weather conditions caused 12% of tramping related search and rescues (SAR), a ‘lack of warm layered clothing and/or a waterproof jacket’ caused 13%, and an ‘overambitious choice of route, lack of sufficient fitness and taking longer than expected to reach the destination’ caused 30% of tramping related SAR, over a seven-year period from 2012 to 2019.

Through these insights, combined with several other bespoke research projects which explored the subject of ‘trip planning and preparation’, MSC considered a range of prevention solutions that could effectively reduce safety incidents that were caused by ineffective planning which ignited the Plan My Walk spark. Now that Plan My Walk is live, Daisley and the MSC team are excited by its potential. With over 1000 tracks all with MetService weather warnings and watches, weather forecasts, track information, tramper reviews and suggested gear lists, it’s easy.

Combined with the ability to create a trip plan, including a daily schedule, add trip notes, documents and group members, you can easily save your plan and share with others, like your trusted emergency contact. “PMW is a world-first product that we believe has very real potential to improve the safety of thousands of people, which perfectly aligns with our vision and overall purpose,” Daisley said.

Download the app, Plan My Walk, from your preferred app store, or check it out online at www.planmywalk.nz. Select a track, enter your trip dates and find alerts, an interactive gear list, weather forecast and much more. Create a trip plan, assign an emergency contact, share it and you’re ready to go!

A new app version will be released mid-October, as at the time of publication MSC are deep into another round of development to add a range of new features and functions, all of which have come from user feedback. If you have questions or comments, feel free to get in touch with the team at MSC. Your input is hugely valued, and we encourage users to tell us about their experience using the app.

Plan My Walk has been built for trampers, by trampers, and we’re 100% committed to adding new features that make planning better!

Kiwi on the Camino

by Vivianne Flintoff

900kms along an ancient pilgrimage trail in Northern Spain

Available from independent book sellers or directly from author E-mail : vivianneflintoffbooks@gmail.com