NZ trip intentions system / notifying a trusted person

[flatfoot]

There is a discussion on tramper.co.nz about changes to the NZ system for trip intentions through the NZ DOC.

The changes seem to be centered around the introduction of the adventuresmart.co.nz website, which seems to have been running for about 12 months. That site seems to guide trampers and other outdoor adventurers through a number of methods for notifying a trusted person about intentions for an activity.

The site seems to be a sensible initiative if it helps to educate individuals or groups about taking the right precautions in terms of notifying someone responsible of their intentions. This is through this page: http://www.adventuresmart.org.nz/outdoors-intentions/.

There are three options:

- use e-mail ( http://www.adventuresmart.org.nz/outdoors-intentions/email.asp ). This form seems to guide someone through entering the information that they should record when they notify someone - I guess it just generates and e-mail and sends it to the nominated recipient (but does it store it in an adventuresmart backend database?)
- print out a paper form ( http://www.adventuresmart.org.nz/outdoors-intentions/download-printable-pdfs.asp )
- use a third-party website / provider (currently only http://www.roughplan.com/ )

The system in Australia has been much less formal (although must clubs have a paper-based system ... which I wish was electronic). When I walk solo, I currently notify my sister of my intentions and also populate some details in my spot messenger account.

http://www.roughplan.com/ looks quite interesting to me.

There are quite a few avenues for discussion from the above:
- what do you think of adventuresmart.org.au and DOC plans to stop accepting paper intentions forms
- what systems are in place in the different states of Australia? What is good and bad about them?
- who do you notify when you are going on a trip? what do you tell them?
- what do you think of http://www.roughplan.com/?
- have you used a paper-based system or some other intentions system in a club?
- have you had any situation where you didn't tell someone of your intentions and something went wrong?
- etc

[wildwalks]

Hey Flatfoot

I like it, Gee NZ has there stuff together.

I have a plan to implement a trip notification form for walks on wildwalks. The idea is that the form will be filled in with walk details etc, and you just fill in the personal stuff and hit print or e-mail.
Would love to see more of this done well.
ASMA have some kind of trip intention system with the PLB's. I have never used it just heard rummer about it.
NSW NPWS and the NSW police do have trip intention forms that you can fill out and drop off with them. This is not used to initiate a rescue, but to have the info on hand if a search is initiated, or if there is fire etc.

Matt

[flatfoot]

I've seen some screenshots of the site used for the PLBs. It was possibly in a post on these forums. I remember thinking at the time that it's better than the info in the spot messenger system.

[FatCanyoner]

It's amazing what can work. Yesterday a couple blokes were rescued in the Blue Mountains after being a day late from a canyon. All they did was leave a paper note on the windshield of their car (which was noticed and reported to the cops by Dave Noble).
I'm pretty informal too, but I usually CC my wife into the last lot of email exchanges about planned routes etc, so that while she may not understand the specifics she can pass on exact info to the authorities if needed. The one thing I do stress is when she should make the call. For day trips I usually say 2pm the following day (gives me time to walk out and let her know we are okay if we are simply benighted or slowed down due to injury / weather etc). For multi-day stuff I can give myself up to 48hrs buffer time in case we simply decide to take a longer route.
Trying to insist everyone follows one system isn't a good idea in my mind, but having an easy to use site which can act as a reminder of the kind of info you should pass on is going to help a lot of people. Like with my email system, having written rather than verbal instructions is a must, especially if your "trusted person" isn't an experienced walker with extensive bush knowledge.

[Bluegum Mic]

After driving back out of the mountains around lunchtime Sunday (and how quickly the storms hit) I can completely understand how people became trapped by water down in a canyon. It was shocking weather. Hope they were ok.

[wayno]

have a look at softrock.co.nz

there are various scenarios where hte system could come up short.
a lot of people make their mind up at the last minute where they are going, and head off outside of doc office hours, so won't know or have a way of finding out how to fill in intentions
overseas visitors will be ill informed about the system, and will be using an overseas contact,
this overseas contact will take longer to get in touch with local authorities in nz to alert them to a search.
doc recommend using locator beacons, two thirds of people heading into doc land are from overseas and most are on a tight budget, personal locator beacons will be too much for their budget, even renting them may be too much for them...
doc are removing intentions books at road ends, there won't be a replacement system for that, those books contain a lot of crucial informaiton on peoples movements that often arent recorded elsewhere.

[peregrinator]

Regarding the comments about PLB usage, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority states that :

If emergency contacts are aware of trip details or trip details have been submitted online, search operations can be commenced much sooner.

http://beacons.amsa.gov.au/activation.html