Hiking Buddies - Become an Organiser!
- Julien
- March 12, 2019
Have you been joining hikes so far, without ever organising any? Organising hikes is not that hard, and it makes lots of people happy. Are you maybe scared that something could go wrong? Here are a few tips to help you give it a go! :-)
I) Preparation
One good thing about being the organiser is that you're free to choose where to go. You have two choices - either you choose an existing route, or you create one with our route planner. If you are in Germany, the Hiking Buddies website contains already tons of routes. If you are elsewhere, you may need to create a new one. But you never know, maybe someone already created the route you want to do, so better double check if it exists.
Do I want a technical route?
Many routes in the Alps are composed of technical parts such as via ferratas (Klettersteig) or just exposed sections which sometimes require a specific gear (harness, helmet). You can easily check if a route contains any technical part with the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) scale. We have an article dedicated to it, you should definitely know what this is about before organising a hike (read this blog).
Weather forecasts
Hiking is extremely weather dependant. On a rainy day, avoid technical terrain. A wet, slippery T3 trail is already very dangerous. In the morning, before the hike, you may want to double check that no thunderstorm show up in the forecasts. If you were unlucky enough to be outside in the mountains during a thunderstorms, you will need to know a few tips to reduce the risks. Here is a blog dedicated to it.
A general tip is to not stick to one single weather forecast, but rather look at several ones (different websites / apps). Here are a few: Here are some weather forecasts for Bavaria and Tyrol:
Deutsche Alpenverein (Germany)
Deutsche Wetterdienst (Bavaria)
Avalanche risks
In winter you always need to keep an eye on the avalanche risk, rated from 0 to 5 (5 being the higher risk). It's not recommended to go hiking with a risk higher than 2. To know how high the risk is, take a look at the avalanche reports (Lawinenlagebericht):
Protected areas (winter only)
The Alps have many protected area that you can't cross during winter. They are wildlife refuges. Sometimes, there might be no sign to mention it. It is your responsibility to check beforehand whether your route is crossing such areas, in which case you would need to find an alternative route.
You can see where the protected areas are with the Outdooractive route planner, and by choosing the winter layer. A protected area will appear in orange (see below). In this example, you see that the peak Heimgarten can not be reached from the South in winter.
No GPS device? Your smartphone is enough!
You successfully chose a route? Now is time to save the track into your smartphone. A GPS track is most of the time a *.gpx file, which contains a list of coordinate points. First, you will have to download that .gpx file by clicking on the button "Download GPX file" which is on every route / event page on the Hiking Buddies website.
As for the GPS app, there are plenty of them. I once asked on HBM Facebook group which app people are using. It appears that Outdooractive is the most popular one. I have personally been using Backcountry Navigator for years (8€ for a life time license).
After uploading the .gpx file into a GPS app, you need to download the maps so that you can see them even offline. It is very likely that you won't have any internet connexion in the mountains. Also, I would advice you to bring a portable power bank.
Transportation mode
Most of the organisers use the public transports. Bavaria has a very efficient transportation network with interesting group offers (see blog Group Tickets in Bavaria). Switzerland doesn't have group ticket, but it is very common for people to take single train tickets even though they're in groups.
Additionally, our website has also a carpool feature, which is an interesting solution for places not reachable by train. You can very easily add / join a car for a hiking event. Read more about it in our blog Hiking Event with Carpool.
Publishing the event
Having a detailed description in your event is important. This way, people will know what to expect, where to meet, at what time, etc. Here are a few things you should mention:
- Exact meeting point and time
- Possible technical sections
- Is it for beginners / experienced hikers?
- What do people have to bring?
- What will be the pace you want to keep up?
- How much does the train (/ bus) ticket costs?
- In case of border crossing, tell people to bring their passport / ID card
Feel free to use a description of a previous event, like this one.
Keep an eye on who is joining
This applies especially for technical hikes, or for fast paced hikes. Each person has a profile with reviews from other participants / organisers. If you intend to keep a fast pace, and if that person is considered as relatively slow by previous Buddies, you should tell him / her to join a easier / slower hike. Same goes for a technical route - if a person is afraid of heights, it is really not safe for him / her to join a T4 hike.
II) Leading the group
Time to meet!
This is the day, and you've set up the meeting point, such as "Central train station, Platform 27". The meeting point has to be precise so that you don't get many questions about it. If you have a big group (>10 people), you should set the meeting time at least 20 minutes before the train departure so that you have enough time to buy the tickets.
When you buy the tickets (valid for Germany):
- Buy them at the machines, otherwise you will pay an extra fee if you buy them from a salesperson
- Red machines are for DB tickets (Werdenfels & Bayern Ticket). For those ones, you can cumulate points with a Bahnbonus card. You can get the card online for free, and points give you fancy rewards.
- Blue machines are for Meridian tickets and BOB tickets
Consult the group before taking a decision
During your hike, you might come up with an alternative route, because you saw on your map for example a nice waterfall, or a place where they cook Kaiserschmarrn. It's gonna be tempting, but before changing the initial route, you should ask everyone if they're fine with it, especially if the new route is longer / with more elevation gain. Some people might not agree and in that case my advice would be to stick to the initial route.
Try to keep the group together
Ideally, a group hike means that the whole group sticks together during the whole day. If some people are slow, you should do breaks on a regular basis. If people are too fast, you can choose to let them go and meet later, or ask them to wait for the group. Having people far at the front can be annoying, especially if they didn't see that they had to turn at some point...
III) Post-hike
Publish your photos
It has now become a tradition. It's always nice to see what happened during the weekend on other hikes, so feel free to create an album on the Facebook group where all participants will add their photos. Also, it's very important for you to publish a group photo on the Hiking Buddies website (on the event page), otherwise no one will get points (to avoid fake hikes).
Review the participants
After the hike, you'll be able to see a button "Write reviews" on your event page. Every participant will be able to review any other participant. This is actually helpful to know about someone's level. As mentioned before, if someone had problem with a steep part, that person shouldn't go on a T4 hike. Mentioning it on their profile can prevent accidents from happening on future hikes.
Something went wrong? Keep it in mind for next time :)
Try to get better at organising hikes. It's hard to organise a "perfect" hike, and you can't really plan everything. Try to do your best. It doesn't really matter if something wrong happens. And if you get lost, just tell everyone you know what you're doing, it works all the time... ;)
I hope those tips will encourage some of you to go for it! If Hiking Buddies has become such an active community, it is mainly thanks to the organisers. Organising a hike is the best way to contribute to the group!