Hiking Association seeks safety recognition

Sascha Wil­son

Amid re­newed con­cerns about hik­er safe­ty, the Hik­ing As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (HATT) is call­ing for long-stand­ing hik­ing guide­lines to be for­mal­ly recog­nised and en­forced.

The ap­peal fol­lows the death of hik­er Jes­si­ca Jor­don, who be­came trapped and drowned dur­ing a hike on Jan­u­ary 10.

In a press state­ment, HATT said the as­so­ci­a­tion was first formed in 2008 af­ter a sim­i­lar in­ci­dent in the Gua­napo Riv­er Basin, where two hik­ers died. It was of­fi­cial­ly launched in 2017, when sev­er­al recog­nised hik­ing clubs col­lab­o­rat­ed to draft Hik­ing Guide­lines and Codes of Prac­tice for hik­ing as an out­door ad­ven­ture ac­tiv­i­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

HATT said it sub­se­quent­ly held sev­er­al meet­ings with the Min­istry of Tourism and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Bu­reau of Stan­dards (TTBS), seek­ing for­mal recog­ni­tion. How­ev­er, the as­so­ci­a­tion said this was nev­er grant­ed.

Ac­cord­ing to HATT, it was ad­vised to seek recog­ni­tion un­der the Tour Guid­ing As­so­ci­a­tion, a move it re­ject­ed.

“This we ob­ject­ed to be­cause we are con­vinced that hik­ing and tour guid­ing are quite dif­fer­ent ac­tiv­i­ties and should be treat­ed as sep­a­rate ac­tiv­i­ties.”

De­spite this, HATT draft­ed five core guide­lines cov­er­ing the plan­ning and con­duct of hikes, the role and skills of hike lead­ers, re­quired equip­ment and sup­plies, re­spon­si­bil­i­ties of hik­ers, and risk as­sess­ment pro­ce­dures, along with safe­ty tips.

The as­so­ci­a­tion said it al­so out­lined the dif­fer­ences be­tween tour guid­ing and hik­ing in an ef­fort to have hik­ing recog­nised as a dis­tinct out­door ac­tiv­i­ty. How­ev­er, it added, “They con­tin­ue to fall on deaf ears.”

HATT said the lack of recog­ni­tion by the Min­istry of Tourism has ren­dered the as­so­ci­a­tion large­ly non-func­tion­al.

“This re­jec­tion by the Min­istry re­sult­ed in a wan­ing of in­ter­est by some of the for­ma­tive clubs. In 2025, we were forced to re­draft the con­sti­tu­tion of HATT, and we are now in a re­build­ing phase. Nonethe­less, with the help of John Hadad of Had­co, we were able to build a web­site and post the guide­lines for pub­lic ac­cess and ad­her­ence.”

The as­so­ci­a­tion said it looks for­ward to the day when hik­ing is recog­nised un­der the Min­istry of Tourism and when ad­her­ence to the guide­lines be­comes stan­dard prac­tice.

HATT said on­ly then would hik­ing be a safe and en­joy­able ac­tiv­i­ty. The as­so­ci­a­tion al­so ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to Jor­don’s fam­i­ly and friends.