Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
New SafetyMountain app helps you find way home
WITH more than 39 people rescued from Table Mountain since January, the free SafetyMountain Tracking app can help hikers, runners and cyclists if they are stranded or injured at the tourist attraction.
@SafetyMountain Tracking is an initiative of the Hikers Network and the brainchild of its president, Anwaaz Bent. He is a former member of the Wilderness Search and Rescue and has 37 years experience.
It all began in 2010 when Bent would ask his members to regularly check up on him while he headed out to the mountains. Bent then realised the need for a network which would make sure members were safe or could get help if needed.
Twelve years ago, when BlackBerry cellphones were popular, the members used BBM to communicate. These days, they have @SafetyMountain Tracking, a WhatsApp-based service used for tracking and tracing a climber, runner, cyclist or hiker’s footsteps.
“Now we can speak to Metro (rescue services) via WhatsApp as well and we hand over the call to them if it is a rescue; we tell the other person on tracking to call Metro immediately, Bent said.
“We keep monitoring and tracking what is happening during the communication and rescue operation… We have helped many on the mountain, where they were either lost or found themselves in difficult situations.
Bent said the app also provided vital information for hikers or cyclists to avoid high-mugging locations.
“The app is also there to tell people where the mugging incidents happen and for them to check-in and be more vigilant and we often warn them not to go into an area.”
Bent said they were involved with eight rescues by reporting it to searchand-rescue teams.
“We have over 25 000 members on the tracking system and we have 15 volunteers who are monitoring when someone checks in” he said.
“If a time of departure is given and they do not report back, we will check in on that person… to see if they are safe. We do have a database where there is a secondary number if we cannot reach the member who is in the mountain and has lost signal or they have already reached home.”
Rod Prodgers, of the Hikers Network @SafetyMountain Tracking, said the team comprised experienced hikers. “Our tracking team… know the peninsula mountains well, and many have hiked the surrounding areas such as Boland and Stellenbosch mountains. So, we are able to assist with local knowledge and we pick up missing, sometimes vital, information from check-in messages.
“For example, hikers checking in say ‘Devil’s Peak up and down’ and don’t give their start and end point; the trackers will ask for that detail because we know there are several different routes up Devil’s Peak and if there should be an emergency, we at least know in which general area assistance is needed.
“Often hikers don’t provide an ETA (estimated time of arrival) so we will ask them to give us an idea of when they expect to finish. If they don’t know, we ask them to update us along the way.”