By creating an account you agree to these terms. They are written to be read rather than skipped, and the first section is the one that matters.
We do not contact emergency services. Nobody is monitoring your hike. When you raise an alarm, or your phone goes quiet, or you are overdue, we send an email to the contacts you nominated. That is all that happens.
If you or someone else is in danger, call your local emergency number or mountain rescue yourself. Do not wait for us, and do not assume anyone has been sent.
HikeTracker depends on things outside our control, and any of them can stop it working exactly when you need it:
Treat it as one layer of preparation, never the only one. Tell somebody where you are going and when you will be back, by whatever means you would have used before this app existed. Carry what you would have carried anyway.
Points of interest and hazards are submitted by other people using the app. They are not verified by us. A hazard may have been cleared, a spring may have dried up, a path marked good may have washed away since. Use your own judgement, and report what you find so the next person is better informed.
Do not submit anything false, abusive, or intended to mislead or endanger another walker. Reports voted down by others, or flagged, are hidden.
Recording hikes, alarms, hazard warnings, and being watched for going quiet or being overdue are free and will stay free.
A subscription costs R250 per year, billed through PayFast, and adds the live tracking link, full hike history and GPX export. It renews annually until you cancel, which you can do at any time in the app; access continues to the end of the period you have paid for. We do not offer refunds for a period already started.
If a subscription lapses while you are out on a hike, any tracking link you have already sent keeps working. Cutting watchers off from somebody still on a trail is not something we will do over billing.
Your hikes belong to you. You can delete any of them, or your whole account, at any time — see the Privacy Policy.
Hazards you report are contributed to the shared map and stay there, anonymously, after your hike is gone. By reporting one you give us permission to show it to other hikers.
HikeTracker is provided as is, without warranty of any kind. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for injury, loss or damage arising from using it or from relying on it — including a failure to record, a notification that did not arrive or arrived late, an inaccurate position, or a hazard report that was wrong or missing.
Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.
You can stop using HikeTracker and delete your account whenever you like. We may suspend an account that abuses the service or endangers others, and we will say why.
These terms are governed by the law of South Africa.