I recently completed a trek to Tungnath. It is beautiful. The temple and the views at the top is worth every step.
What I need to mention is the complete unavailability of cellular network once you’re on the trail. Not a weak signal — gone. And if you’re trekking in a group, that turns into a real hassle fast.
Some move ahead, a few lag behind. Someone stops for photos, someone else wants to beat the crowd to the top. By the time you’re standing in the temple queue — which gets long on weekend mornings — half your group is somewhere you can’t see, and there’s no way to check. You just wait and hope everyone shows up eventually.
The idea popped up later. Bitchat could actually solve this.
Bitchat is Jack Dorsey’s Bluetooth-mesh messaging app — no SIM, no wifi, no accounts. Phones relay encrypted messages to each other directly, hopping from device to device to extend range beyond a single Bluetooth connection. If enough trekkers turn it on, the group effectively becomes its own communication network. My original thought: if even 50% of everyone on the trail had it running, that’d be more than enough.
Bluetooth alone reaches maybe 10-30 metres. Phone to phone, relaying the message along, that stretches to about 200-300 metres. After that, the chain just runs out. A trekking group naturally spreads out. 500 metres to over a kilometre between your fastest and slowest member isn’t unusual over a 2-4 hour climb. That’s well beyond what a chain of just your own group’s phones can bridge on its own.
A message from the front often never reaches the stragglers. What actually fixes it isn’t your group alone. It’s everyone else on the trail. Tungnath gets a steady stream of trekkers and pilgrims. If even 15-20% of them are running Bitchat, their phones fill your gaps for you — a stranger relays your message just by having the app open nearby. You don’t need anywhere close to 50%.
A few honest caveats before anyone gets too excited. You need to install the app before you lose signal — there’s no downloading it on the trail itself. A phone sitting in a pocket with the screen off relays less reliably than one open in someone’s hand. And continuous Bluetooth use drains battery, so carry a power bank regardless.
If you’re headed to Tungnath — or a trek like it: install Bitchat before you leave network coverage, get your whole group on it, and actually test this out.
Nobody’s published real field data on this yet. If you try it, I’d genuinely like to know what you find.
⛰️✌️