The best safety tool on a remote hike is a well-informed person at home. The Emergency tab collects who to contact and what they need to know, then delivers it to them properly.
Emergency Contacts
Each member adds their own emergency contacts — name, relationship, phone and email, plus notes. Add contacts once in your profile and they're brought onto each hike you join automatically. Contacts added for a hike are used for that hike's safety brief and post-hike check-in.
You can also record emergency notes about yourself for the hike — allergies, medications, blood type, anything a rescuer or worried contact should know. These are visible to your packmates and included in the safety brief.
Pack Shadows can have contacts and notes too, added by whoever manages them — the brief should cover everyone walking, not just the app users.
PLBs And Satellite Beacons
Register the group's PLBs and satellite communicators: device name, hex ID, battery expiry and notes. There's a checkbox to record that the beacon's registration (e.g. AMSA in Australia) has been updated with this trip — an easy thing to forget and a crucial one.
The Safety Brief
When the plan is ready, send the safety brief: an email to every emergency contact with an email address (you get a copy too). It contains:
- the hike name and dates, and everyone walking with their phone numbers
- each hiker's emergency notes
- the day-by-day itinerary — camps, travel and daily route stats
- food drop locations, and the full contact and PLB lists
- the planned route files attached — your contact can open them in any mapping app and see precisely where you intend to be
That's the difference between "they're hiking somewhere in the Snowies" and handing search and rescue an exact planned line.
Note: Pack Hiker nudges you if it matters: members without any contacts get a reminder email 6 days before the start, and if the brief hasn't been sent 4 days out, you'll be reminded to send it.
After The Brief
Trip details changed? Send it again — contacts simply get the updated version. And for automated follow-through when the hike ends, arm the post-hike check-in.