LogsKeptSimple
The desk resource — everything before the trailhead
Planning a safe, compliant, and memorable adventurous journey takes more than enthusiasm — it takes the right systems. This handbook walks you through all eleven planning elements: route planning, risk assessment, weather thresholds, water, transport, budget, consent, trip intention, and mentor approval. Everything you need before the group leaves.
Written from real experience in the Blue Mountains and beyond, it gives leaders the framework to plan journeys that are genuinely safe — not just compliant on paper.
Topographic map reading, timing calculations, waypoints, and route plans that meet compliance requirements.
Identify hazards, assess likelihood and consequence, document controls — with worked examples ready to adapt.
Nutritious, lightweight meals for multi-day trips — dietary requirements, portion sizes, water sourcing.
Trailhead logistics, vehicle requirements, driver arrangements, car shuttles, and contingency plans.
Build a clear journey budget, track costs, and communicate expenses transparently to families.
Trip intention forms, medical registers, approvals, and emergency contacts — nothing slips through.
Supervision ratios, leader roles, daily programme structure, and adapting plans when conditions change.
Communication protocols, evacuation triggers, PLB use, and how to work with emergency services.
The trail resource — everything after the trailhead
The handbook ends at departure. This guide begins there. Once the group steps onto the track, the plan shifts from a prediction to a reference. Conditions change, groups slow down, water sources run dry, and weather turns. Every one of those moments is a decision point.
This guide covers those decisions: navigation in the field, timing gates and turnaround calls, managing fatigue and group dynamics, weather response, medical situations, and emergency procedures. Designed to fit in a pack pocket and be read before you need it.
Two companion print sets are included: Laminate Cards for your pack lid — full-page reference sheets covering every major decision framework from the guide. And Pocket Cards — eight wallet-sized cards with the decisions you can't afford to slow down on: turnaround triggers, weather thresholds, the STOP framework, medical assessment sequence, PLB activation, and emergency contact format. Print on A4, fold once, drop in a shirt pocket. In your hand before a situation develops, not retrieved from the bottom of a pack.
Position confirmation at waypoints, what to do when terrain doesn't match the map, and navigation recovery.
Using pre-set timing gates, calculating the turnaround trigger, and making the call when the moment arrives.
Reading the sky, applying go/no-go thresholds in real time, and responding when the forecast was wrong.
Fatigue signs, pace management, youth behaviour under challenge, and morale when things get hard.
The assessment sequence, the three field decisions, and how to communicate with emergency services.
The STOP framework, activating the plan you already have, PLB protocols, and what SAR needs from you.
Site selection, overnight weather monitoring, the morning launch sequence, and the evening group check.
Return protocols, notifying emergency contacts, and capturing field observations for the post-trip review.
Download both guides and the print sets. Keep the handbook at your desk. Keep the Field Guide in your pack. Keep the pocket cards on your person.