SPNI offers new service: Trail info updates by cellphone

New system is continually updated by SPNI's call center to provide weather forecasts, safety warnings and other relevant information.

By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
Cellphone 224.88 (photo credit: Bloomberg [file])
Cellphone 224.88
(photo credit: Bloomberg [file])
The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel has started a new SMS service to provide guides and hikers with updated information regarding Israel's trails, the group announced Thursday. The new system, inaugurated for the holidays, is continually updated by SPNI's call center to provide weather forecasts, safety warnings and other relevant information to hikers via their cellphones. How does it work? In between filling your water bottles, lacing up your boots and chucking an apple into your bag, send an SMS to 4282 with the name of the specific trail you want to take (in Hebrew). Within seconds, SPNI will return up-to-date information regarding that specific trail. Weather reports and security warnings will be updated in the morning and afternoon, while information gleaned from groups on the trail will be continuously updated, SPNI said. The system covers more than 10,000 hiking trails in Israel. Each SMS cost NIS 1. "In the past few years, we are witness to a rising number of accidents on hiking trips, which to our sorrow, frequently end with the need for rescue teams and helicopters, and which sometimes result in serious injury or death. Specific information can save lives," said Oded Levanoni, the manager of SPNI's call center, in a statement. "We hope that this new service, which you can use both before and during your expedition, will enable safe hiking in Israel, especially with the holiday hiking season upon us," he said.