Safety & Emergency

Last updated 18 September 2026 · Draft pending legal review

Hykr does not dispatch rescue. We are not an emergency service and we cannot send a helicopter, a team or a vehicle. In an emergency in India, call 112. What our app does is show you exactly where you are, and send that to people you chose.

What the SOS button does

Hold it for three seconds, then a five-second countdown you can cancel. When it fires:

It shows you your position — coordinates, altitude, accuracy, how old the fix is, and the nearest settlements from the offline map. This works with no signal, and it is often the most useful thing on the screen.
It offers one-tap messages to your saved emergency contacts over WhatsApp or SMS, prefilled with your coordinates and a map link, and a call to 112. SMS often gets through where data does not.
It records the alert on your phone and uploads it when signal returns.

The app tells you who was notified and what is still waiting to send. It never says help is on the way, because it cannot know that.

Set this up before you walk

Add at least one emergency contact in the app, with an international number (+91…).
Download the region pack for where you are going, and pan the map over your route while you still have signal.
Carry a power bank. GPS with the screen on drains a phone in hours.
Tell someone not on the hike where you are going and when you expect to be back.

Satellite devices: know the law in India

Satellite messengers such as Garmin inReach, SPOT, Thuraya and Iridium require government authorisation to possess or use in India, and travellers carrying them have been detained. Do not bring one on the assumption that it is a safety device you are entitled to use. Authorised satellite services exist and can be applied for through the Department of Telecommunications. A GPS receiver that only receives — like your phone's — is fine.

Group hikes: how monitoring works

The coordinator sets a meeting point. Everyone checks in there once, which is how the group knows who is actually present.
Only the coordinator's position is recorded during the hike, and only between 30 minutes before the start and two hours after the end. Travellers are not tracked after check-in.
Positions upload only when there is signal. Our team sees a last-known position and its age, and silence is normal on most Himalayan routes. It is not live tracking, and we do not present it as such.
If a group goes quiet for longer than expected, our team's job is to notice and start making phone calls — to the coordinator, then to local contacts.

What we require of guides

Before anyone can lead a hike on Hykr, we verify and record the expiry of:

state registration for adventure activities or travel trade, in the state they operate in;
a recognised mountaineering qualification, or a documented and authenticated logbook;
current first aid and CPR certification — we favour Wilderness First Responder training and we run courses to help guides get it;
insurance meeting the state minimum for participants, guides and rescue, including helicopter evacuation where the state requires it;
identity, and the permits the route needs.

Listings stop selling automatically when any of these lapse. Obtaining and keeping them is the guide's responsibility; checking them is ours.

Our own standard, above what the law asks

Indian rules do not yet require an acclimatisation plan or a guide-to-traveller ratio. We ask for both:

an altitude profile on every listing, and rest days on anything above 4,000 m;
a health declaration from travellers, and an oximeter in the group kit;
Wilderness First Responder certification for multi-day treks and anything above 4,000 m;
a group-size limit the guide sets and sticks to.

Altitude sickness, briefly

Above roughly 2,500 m, headache, nausea, breathlessness at rest or unsteadiness are warning signs. The treatment that always works is going down. Do not continue up, do not let anyone with those symptoms sleep higher, and treat confusion or a wet cough as an emergency descent.

Reporting a problem

If a hike was run unsafely, tell us at safety@hykr.me. We investigate every report, we can stop a contributor's listings while we do, and we would rather hear about a near miss than an accident.

This page describes what is built today. Our rescue coordination will grow in stages — first notification, then a staffed coordination desk with published hours, then partnerships for evacuation. We will not advertise a capability before it exists.