RoamWire is a small operation covering a very large mountain range. There are more trails, festivals and unanswered questions out here than we will ever reach on our own — so this is where you decide what gets documented next, and where your name goes on it when it does.
Not a forum. Not yet.
A community with four conversations in it doesn't look new, it looks abandoned — and we'd rather not do that to you. So the talking happens in one chat group for now, where a small number of people is a feature rather than an embarrassment. When that group passes 250 people who actually post, we build the real thing here — channels, profiles, the lot. That's a commitment with a number on it, not a maybe.
Counted as people who've posted in the last 90 days, not total joins. We'd rather the number were smaller and true.
A public list of trails, festivals and questions that have no decent answer anywhere online — including here. Anyone can add to it. When one gets researched and published, the person who suggested it is credited on the article.
This list is seeded with our own open questions, credited to us, so it isn't an empty page pretending to be a community. Everything below is genuinely unanswered as far as we can tell — if you know better, that's a correction and we'd like it.
Add something we've missed
You don't need to have walked it. A question counts. So does a trail you saw on a map and couldn't find a single useful page about.
Three ways to send us something, ranging from a two-minute message to a full account of a walk. They differ in effort and in how quickly you'll hear back. They don't differ in whether you get credited — you always do, unless you ask us not to.
Trip report
A full account of a walk you've done — what the trail was like, what it cost, what surprised you. Becomes an article on this site under your name.
Correction
Something on one of our pages is wrong, out of date, or has stopped being true. This is the most valuable message we can receive, and the fastest to act on.
Route intel
A fragment. A permit fee went up, a bridge is out, a teahouse has shut for the season. Too small to be an article, too useful to lose.
Our side of it
You're handing your work to a website you don't know. Here is exactly what happens to it, so you don't have to guess.
We edit for clarity, never tone
We'll cut repetition and fix structure. We won't make you sound like us. If a piece needs more than that, we'll ask rather than rewrite.
You see it before it publishes
Always. If you don't like the edit, we change it back or we don't run it. Nothing goes up on a deadline you didn't agree to.
You keep the copyright
Your words and photographs stay yours. We ask permission to publish them here and keep them online while the page is live. Nothing more.
We don't pay yet
There's no revenue to share. We'd rather say that plainly than imply otherwise. If that changes, contributors hear before anyone else.
A bridge going out doesn't wait for us to update a page. Conditions, closures and permit changes get posted to the group the day we hear them, then work their way onto the site once we've checked them.
What gets posted
A rhythm, not a firehose. If nothing has changed, we don't post to prove we're alive.
Weekend conditions
What people actually found on the trails over the weekend — snow line, mud, water crossings, how busy it was.
Closures and hazards
Landslides, road closures, permit office changes, forest department notices. Posted unverified and labelled as such, then confirmed or corrected.
What's publishing
The month ahead, what we're walking, and which pages we've re-checked since the last one.
Questions we're stuck on
Usually straight from The Unwalked. Somebody in the group has often been there, and that's the whole point of having one.
House rules
Four of them. They exist so the group stays worth reading rather than worth muting.
Join the group
Free, and you can leave without telling anyone. Four to six messages in a typical week — fewer in the deep monsoon, more in October. Mute it and check when you're planning something; that's how most people use it.
No account needed beyond the app you already have.
The conversation lives off this site on purpose — a forum with four threads in it looks abandoned, and we'd rather not do that to you. Read why, and what changes at 250 people.
Some routes are better shared, some permits are easier in a pair, and some people simply don't want to be alone up there. This is a noticeboard for finding company — nothing more organised than that.
Read this before you read the listings
We do not vet anybody. A listing appearing here means we read it and it made sense. It is not a background check, a reference, or an endorsement. You are arranging to go into remote terrain with a stranger, and the judgement about whether that's a good idea stays entirely with you.
Meet in a town first
Siliguri, Gangtok, Darjeeling — somewhere with people and phone signal. Not at a trailhead, and not on the day you start walking.
Tell someone who isn't going
Your route, your dates, when you're due back, and who you're walking with. Agree what they should do if they don't hear from you.
Match the grade honestly
A mismatched pair is a safety problem, not an inconvenience. Overstating your fitness puts both of you on a mountain you can't finish together.
You can walk away
Before you start, at the trailhead, or on day three. Nobody is owed your company on a mountain, and no arrangement made here obliges you to continue.
How it works
You send a listing
Route, dates, grade, pace, and what you're looking for in someone to walk with.
We check and publish
We edit for clarity and strip anything identifying beyond a first name and a rough location. Listings expire once the dates pass.
Replies come through us
Your contact details are never published. We pass messages on, and you decide if and when to share anything further.
Open listings
We can't pay anybody yet. Credit is what we have, so we do it properly and in four specific places rather than as a thank-you at the bottom of a page.
A byline on the article
Your name at the top, not buried at the end. A photo if you want one, a two-line bio, and one link pointed wherever you like — your own site, your Instagram, nothing at all.
A page of your own
Every contributor gets a permanent page listing everything they've sent us — reports, corrections, intel. It's yours to link to, and it stays up whether or not you write again.
Named on what you verified
Route pages carry a last-verified date and the name of whoever checked them. If that was you, your name is on the page itself, not just on an article about it.
In the change log
Send a correction and the foot of that page records what changed, when, and who told us. Small credit, permanent, and the one we think matters most.
The founding ten
0 of 10 claimed
The first ten people to have something published here get a permanent place on this page. Once a slot is claimed it stays claimed — we won't reuse them, and we won't quietly extend to twenty when the wall starts looking good. It's a small thing. It's also the only thing we can offer that gets rarer rather than commoner.
Prefer not to be named? Say so and we'll publish it anonymously — the credit is offered, never imposed. Using a pen name is fine too, as long as it's consistent.
One person moderates all of this, and everything below is shaped by that. It means decisions are consistent, and it means they aren't fast. Both of those are worth knowing before you post something.
What gets removed
Short list, applied the same way everywhere — the chat, the board, and submissions.
How decisions get made
Moderation is easy to do badly and quietly. These four exist to stop that.
What moderation does not mean
These appear elsewhere on this page too, deliberately. They're the three things people most often assume about a moderated space, and all three are wrong here.
We still don't vet anybody
A buddy listing passing moderation means it read sensibly. It is not a background check and never becomes one. The judgement about meeting a stranger stays yours.
The chat is not an emergency line
Nobody watches it overnight or in the field. If something is going wrong on a mountain, contact local authorities — not a group that might be read tomorrow.
Member information isn't verified
Conditions posted by members are useful and unchecked. It only becomes something we stand behind once it appears on a page with a date and a name against it.
If this grows past what one person can read, we'll say so and ask for help rather than quietly letting standards slip. Moderators, when there are any, will be named on this page like everyone else.