Once your enrolment is confirmed, you will be added to our private WhatsApp Community which is only for verified members.

You will be able to join different focused groups within the community:

1. 💬 DIY Community Chat

This is the most active group where you can ask your questions about anything related to DIY trekking, share your experience and give feedback!

2. 🔍 Find Trek Buddies

This is where you can invite other community members to join your hike plans or request other members to join their plans

3. ⭐ Member Wins

This is where you can share your recent trek experience, pictures, trail info, GPX files, etc.

4. Announcements

This is default group in WhatsApp when a community is create, but we rarely use it. You can archive it.

5. Additional groups

You may also find other temporary groups for each Community Hike or Field Course batch. Please join them if you are joining those hikes or batches.

As a member, you can join community hikes!

Community hikes happen almost throughout the year & details of each hike is shared in the WhatsApp group

Check the calendar to find the list of upcoming community hikes & their tentative dates

How to join/RSVP

• Send a message to Manav to confirm that you will be joining the hike
• Join the specific WhatsApp group for that hike (coordination and details are discussed within this temporary group to avoid disturbing other members on WhatsApp who are not joining)

Note : A community hike is simply a group of members going on a hike together as co-trekkers. Each co-trekker pays for their own expenses & are responsible for their own safety. Community Hikes are NOT commercial guided trips or paid events.

Use the Find Trek Buddies WhatsApp group to find co-trekkers.

How to post

• Try to be as clear and as detailed as possible in your post.
• Mention dates, trek name or region where you want to hike, number of co-trekkers you are looking for, etc

Some examples:

• Anyone wants to hike Harishchandragad this weekend?
• Planning to do Hampta pass next month. Looking for 2 co-trekkers.
• I am in Manali. Here for 2 weeks. Who else is here? Let’s explore the trails around this region.

As a member, you can get 1-1 help from Manav in planning your DIY treks.

The purpose of this call would be to help you find answers to your execution-related concerns

Before you schedule a call

• Decide the trek / region & do your research
• Prepare the list of questions you need help with
• Send the list of questions to Manav via WhatsApp.

How to schedule a call

• Manav will coordinate a time & schedule the call
• Manav will always try to respond as soon as possible, but there could be some delay when he is on a hike himself or teaching a course or has poor network. Check the calendar to see when such delays could happen.

Field courses are short, in-person courses to learn all the essential skills & knowledge you need to explore the outdoors independently with confidence in DIY-style.

You can join one if you want to jumpstart your outdoor journey & prefer a structured learning format with lots of outdoor practice included!

To join a batch - reach out to Manav directly expressing your interest (no need to fill the course application form)

Previously called the DIY Trekking Handbook

As a member, you have early access the book.

It has all the theory that every DIY trekker needs to know before stepping out into the wild — written in bite-sized chapters in simple language.

It will save you hours of research & can be used as ready-reference anytime

You can find the list of community-curated gear recommendations in a google sheet.

A note on buying affordable ultra-light gear: Ultralight hiking gear is scarce in India. Most of the items are either not available and if they are, they are usually extremely expensive.

Affordable alternatives are mostly manufactured in South East Asia (SEA) and China, but the recent ban on platforms like Alibaba and AliExpress has further reduced accessibility

Few ways to get UL (Ultralight) gear:

1. (redacted)
2. (redacted)
3. (redacted)

Tell the Alerts app where you are going and when you are expected to return back to civilisation. The app checks in with you at that time. If you don’t respond, then an emergency alert is triggered to your emergency contacts alerting them that you maybe in a potential emergency situation.

Note:

• You need a gmail account to sign up + you and your emergency contacts must be on WhatsApp number to receive check-in messages and alert messages.
• Runs in any browser, you don’t need to download or install anything.
• Please give us your feedback or report any issues/bugs so that we can improve it.

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