What’s up with those Hut Books? |

Source:

DOC’s Intentions Books (also known as. hut books) are a vital tool for search and rescue. In this blog post, Land Search and Rescue and DOC team up to explain about what they are and how to use them.

What are intentions books?

These green books sit in every DOC hut. They have columns where visitors can record information about their trip plans (their intentions). This includes the number of people in your group and their names, date of arrival and departure, planned route from the hut, weather conditions and any comments.

You can also list your Backcountry Hut Pass number, if you have one – however, you don’t need a Backcountry Hut Pass to use the intentions book. It’s still important that you fill out the book even if you don’t have a hut pass.

Intentions books have useful safety information in the front of them, so it’s worth having a read.

Who can use one?

Everyone! We encourage anyone who passes a hut to fill in the intentions book, even if you aren’t staying the night or if you booked the hut online.

As well as writing in an intentions book, it’s also good to read one when you pass it. There may be important messages left in there.

Spot the Intentions Book 🔍

How do intentions books get used in a search and rescue?

Search and Rescue is often an intelligence-led activity. The more information searchers can collect, the better chance they have of understanding what happened and finding the missing person.

Intention books are an important part of gathering that information.

If a missing person has written their intentions into a book, it provides a last known point and helps narrow the search area.

Earlier this year, intentions book entries helped a search team find an overdue walker on the West Coast. The search team checked hut book entries and found that the walker had left details of his planned route in two hut books. This led the team to where to search and they found the missing walker alive and well.

Intentions book entries from people who aren’t missing can still help search and rescue teams. These are potential witnesses who could confirm to searchers whether the missing person has been seen at the hut, elsewhere, or not at all. It also helps searchers work out whether tracks/traces that they find belong to the missing person, or if they could have been left by other people in the same area.

Intentions books can also be used in searches to pass messages. If search and rescue teams visit a hut, they can leave a message for the subject of their search, telling them what to do if they reach that hut.

What should I write in an intentions book?

The more information you can put in there, the more it will help in a search and rescue.

We recommend that you describe your planned route from the hut in detail, so it would be clear to potential searchers exactly what route you were taking.

There is a comments section in the intentions book too, which is a useful place to share information about track conditions or other things that other track/hut users might need to know. For example, if you saw a wasp nest near one of the tracks leading to the hut, you could write in the comments section to look out for wasps on that track.

For telling us about accidents, safety issues or damage, phone 0800 DOC HOT, or if it’s not urgent, you could also use our web forms to report damage or accidents or safety issues, or talk to a local DOC Visitor Centre.