Terms of Use

Trailmates is operated by Trailmates (“Trailmates,” “we,” or “us”). These terms are a binding agreement between you and us. By creating an account or using the Trailmates app or this website, you accept them. If you do not, do not use Trailmates.

Who may use Trailmates

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract. One account per person, registered with accurate information. Everything here rests on people being able to judge who they are about to meet, and a profile that misrepresents you breaks that for everybody else. You are responsible for activity under your account and for keeping your password to yourself.

What Trailmates is, and what it is not

Trailmates is a bulletin board and a group chat. It lets people post hikes, ask to join them, decide who comes, and talk beforehand. That is the whole of it.

Hiking is dangerous, and that risk is yours

Hiking, backpacking, and mountaineering carry inherent and serious risks that no app can remove: falls, rockfall, stream and river crossings, avalanche, exposure, sudden weather, wildlife, injury, becoming lost, and death. Backcountry terrain is often far from help and outside cell coverage, and rescue can take hours or days.

You knowingly and voluntarily assume all of those risks. You are solely responsible for deciding whether a hike is within your ability, for your own equipment, navigation, fitness, food, water, clothing, and communications, for checking weather and conditions yourself rather than relying on a listing, for telling someone not on the hike where you are going and when you expect to return, and for turning around when conditions or your own judgment say so.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you release Trailmates from any claim arising out of a hike arranged through Trailmates or the conduct of anyone you meet here. Some states limit or prohibit the release of certain claims in advance, and where that is so, this release applies only as far as that state allows.

Nothing in the app is safety, route, or medical advice, or a representation that any hike is achievable or safe for you. A difficulty rating is one person’s opinion, not an assessment.

Meeting people from the app

You are meeting strangers. The safety mechanics in the app (host approval, review histories, reporting, blocking, and never publishing a precise meeting point) exist to improve your odds of a good decision. They are not a guarantee about anybody, and they are not a background check. We do not conduct criminal background checks on users and do not represent that any user is safe, qualified, or who they claim to be.

Use your judgment: read reviews before approving or joining, keep the conversation in the app until you are comfortable, meet in a public place where you can, tell someone your plans, and leave if something feels wrong. If someone behaves badly, report them. It is the only way we learn about it.

Hosting a hike

If you post a hike, you decide who joins, and you should describe it honestly: the route, the distance, the difficulty, and what people need to bring. Do not post a hike you are not going on. You must not hold yourself out as a professional guide or as qualified to lead if you are not, and you must not use Trailmates to run a commercial guiding operation.

What you may not do

• Impersonate anyone, or use a profile photo that is not of you.
• Harass, threaten, abuse, stalk, or discriminate against anyone, in a chat or in person.
• Post sexual content, hate speech, violent content, or any content involving minors.
• Use Trailmates to sell anything, advertise, recruit, run commercial tours, or spam.
• Post hikes that are not real, or that trespass on private land.
• Share another person’s private information, or content from a chat, outside the app.
• Scrape, reverse-engineer, or attempt to access data you have not been given access to.
• Circumvent a block, or create a new account after being removed.

Content you post

What you post stays yours. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, and display it inside Trailmates so the app can work: showing your hike to people who might join, your photo on your profile, your message in a chat. That license ends when you delete the content or your account, except where it survives in a safety report as described in the Privacy Policy.

Only post content you have the right to post. Hikes are automatically screened before they become visible, and screening is imperfect in both directions. We may remove content at our discretion, and we are not obligated to store or return it.

Copyright and DMCA

If you believe content on Trailmates infringes your copyright, send a notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to info@trailmatesapp.co including: your signature, identification of the work, identification of the material and where it is, your contact details, a statement of good-faith belief that the use is unauthorized, and a statement under penalty of perjury that your notice is accurate and that you are authorized to act. We remove infringing material and terminate repeat infringers. If your content was removed in error you may submit a counter-notice.

Reviews

Reviews must be honest and based on a hike you actually shared. Do not use them to retaliate, to threaten, or to bargain. We may remove a review that breaches these terms, but we do not remove one simply because its subject dislikes it. The review system is worth nothing if it can be argued away.

Suspension and removal

We may remove content, restrict features, or suspend or terminate an account that breaches these terms or that we reasonably believe puts someone at risk, with or without notice. Where it is safe and practical, we will tell you why. You may stop using Trailmates and delete your account at any time.

Disclaimer of warranties

TRAILMATES IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, THAT ANY LISTING IS ACCURATE, OR THAT ANY USER IS WHO THEY CLAIM TO BE OR WILL BEHAVE AS THEY SHOULD.

The app is under active development, which means parts of it will change or break. Some states do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, TRAILMATES WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY PERSONAL INJURY, DEATH, LOSS, OR PROPERTY DAMAGE ARISING OUT OF A HIKE ARRANGED THROUGH TRAILMATES, THE CONDUCT OF ANY USER, OR YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS WILL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED US DOLLARS (US$100).

The app is free, and there is no revenue from which a larger liability could meaningfully be met; that cap is a condition of offering it at all. Some states do not allow the limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Trailmates from any claim, damage, loss, or reasonable attorneys’ fees arising out of content you posted, these terms broken by you, or harm you caused another user.

Disputes and arbitration

Please read this section carefully; it affects how disputes are resolved. First, contact us. Most problems are settled by email, and we ask that you give us 30 days to try.

If that does not work, you and Trailmates agree that any dispute arising out of these terms or your use of Trailmates will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court, and that you and we each waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class, collective, or representative action. Arbitration will take place in your home county or by remote hearing, whichever you prefer.

Two exceptions. Either of us may bring an individual claim in small-claims court, and either of us may seek injunctive relief in court for infringement or misuse of intellectual property.

You can opt out. If you do not want to be bound by this arbitration agreement, email info@trailmatesapp.co within 30 days of first accepting these terms, saying so and giving the email address on your account. Opting out costs you nothing and changes nothing else about your account.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware and the Federal Arbitration Act, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Where a claim is not subject to arbitration, it will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you consent to that jurisdiction, except where the law of your own state gives you the right to bring it closer to home, which this clause does not take away.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change materially affects you, the date at the top changes and we will tell you in the app before it takes effect. Continuing to use Trailmates after that means you accept the change.

General

These terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us about Trailmates. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply, and the unenforceable part is narrowed only as far as necessary. Our not enforcing a provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign this agreement; we may assign it to a successor.