Do You Make These 10 Mistakes Before Heading Above Treeline?
NH averages ~190 search and rescue missions a year — 62% involve hikers. Most could have been prevented by checking 10 simple things before leaving the trailhead. 280+ hikers already use this checklist. It's free.
Trusted by 280+ NH hikers
Are You Making Any of These?
Here are 4 of the 10 mistakes inside the checklist. Most hikers are making at least 3 of them — and don't realize it until they're above treeline.
The weather check most hikers skip
It said 55° and sunny when they left the trailhead. On the summit, it was 18° with wind chill. The checklist shows you where to look instead.
The #1 above-treeline mistake that triggers rescues
It happens every weekend in the Whites. This one check takes 30 seconds and could save your life on an exposed ridge.
The gear error that sends hikers to the ER
It's not what you think. Most hypothermia cases aren't missing a jacket — they're wearing the wrong one. Page 2 of the checklist explains why.
What to do before you lose cell signal
90% of hikers skip this 2-minute step. It's the difference between a rescue team finding you in hours — or days.
Plus 6 more — including the navigation mistake that gets hikers lost even with a GPS, and the nutrition error that causes summit bonking on 4,000-footers.
I kept reading the same stories — rescues on Franconia Ridge, hypothermia on Washington, hikers airlifted off the Bonds. News reports, rescue logs, books by local authors. The details changed, but the mistakes were always the same.
That pattern is what made me build HikerNerd. I'm Nick — I hiked 800 miles of the AT with my dog Gus and finished the NH 48. But what stuck with me wasn't the summits. It was how preventable most of these emergencies were.
So I made this checklist. Ten checks, pulled straight from real stories and hard lessons. It's the same one I run before every summit.
— Nick Dube, Founder of HikerNerd
Every Weekend, Someone Gets Rescued in the Whites
Don't be the hiker who checks the weather at the trailhead parking lot and calls it “prepared.” These 10 checks take 2 minutes. They could save your life. Free PDF — print it and keep it in your pack.