SAFETY // THE FELL PLEDGE
The mountain decides.
PeakShot is a game played on real fells, in real weather. No photograph, badge or leaderboard place is worth an accident — so the game is built to never argue with the mountain, and every member signs the same pledge before their first walk.
PeakShot is an 18+ product. Our beta success is measured against a hard line: zero safety incidents attributable to product design. Everything on this page exists to keep it that way.
SIGNED AT JOINING
The Fell Pledge
Every member agrees to the pledge when they join — once at signup, kept on every walk. It is not small print. It is the terms the fells set, and we simply write them down.
I walk as a guest on the fell. Before the game, before the shot, before the score:
- 01
I will check the mountain forecast
Before I set out I will read a proper mountain forecast — MWIS or the Met Office — and plan for the day it describes, not the day I hoped for.
- 02
I will carry map, compass and kit
I will carry a map and compass I know how to use, and the clothing, food, water and light the fell demands in the season I am walking it.
- 03
I will turn back when conditions say so
Wind, ice, clag or failing light outrank any Photo Zone. The summit will still be there another day — and so will the competition.
- 04
I will tell someone the plan
Someone off the hill will know my route, my start time and when to expect me back — every walk, however easy it looks.
- 05
I will Leave No Trace
Nothing left, nothing taken. I will keep to paths where asked, give wildlife and livestock room, and leave the fell as I found it.
BY DESIGN
A game that never rushes you
A timed photo competition on a mountain sounds like a recipe for bad decisions — so we designed the timer out of every place it could do harm. The only clock in PeakShot starts on your say-so, standing still, in a spot chosen for safe footing.
No time limit on the walk
Walk mode has no clock. Take five hours or ten — the game does not care how long the hill takes you, and nothing in the app counts you down between zones.
Zones arm and wait
When you reach a Photo Zone it arms — and then it waits. The shot window begins only when you deliberately tap Start shoot. Catch your breath, put your back to something solid, and start when you are ready. Nothing starts automatically.
Speed wins nothing
No leaderboard ever rewards how fast you walked or how quickly you shot. Entries are judged on composition, light, technical quality, fit to the zone brief and distinctiveness — nothing else.
Zones are sited for safe standing
Photo Zones are placed at photogenic viewpoints away from edges and hazards, and every zone brief describes where to stand. On scrambling ground the brief says it outright: shoot only from the safe standing areas.
The shot clock is never a reason to hurry on dangerous ground. We review every line of copy in the app against that principle. If starting a shoot does not feel safe, do not start it — an armed zone waits, and a missed zone costs you nothing but a reason to come back.
ON EVERY ROUTE PAGE
Know before you go
Every supported route carries its own safety information, written for that specific fell — because the hazards on a surfaced path above Keswick are not the hazards of England's highest ground.
Difficulty, graded honestly
Every route is graded 1–5 and the grade is shown wherever the route appears. The beta spans the whole scale:
Safety notes per fell
Plain-English notes on what actually catches people out: polished rock steps on Catbells when wet, Loughrigg’s maze of paths in mist, Scafell Pike’s featureless boulder dome, the exposure on Striding Edge. Route pages also show summit weather and golden-hour times, so you plan around real conditions.
Winter closures
Serious routes carry a seasonal closure flag. When conditions demand it, the route is simply not live in the app — no walks start, no zones arm, no entries are accepted. Helvellyn via Striding Edge is the standing example: in winter conditions it is closed in-app until the fell says otherwise.
HONEST DANGER // FLAGSHIP EXAMPLE
How we talk about Striding Edge
Helvellyn via Striding Edge is our hardest beta route, and the test of whether we mean any of this. We do not soften it, gamify it, or bury the warning below the fold.
Striding Edge kills people in wind and ice.
That sentence leads the route page, because it is true. The Edge is a Grade 1 scramble with real exposure on both sides, and in bad conditions it is no place for a camera — or for you. This is how the route is presented, everywhere it appears:
Difficulty
5/5
Grade 1 scramble
Round trip
~12 km
Glenridding circuit
Ascent
~850 m
6–8 hours
Winter
Closed
in-app, when conditions demand
- 01The danger is stated first, in plain words — before the photography, before the stats, before the join button.
- 02Every zone brief on this route instructs you to shoot only from the safe standing areas — never mid-move on the crest. The zones themselves are sited off the difficulties.
- 03When winter arrives, the route closes in-app. The Edge under ice is a mountaineering objective, not a photo walk, and no competition of ours will suggest otherwise.
CHECK THE PROPER FORECAST
Before every walk
Valley weather is not mountain weather. These are the sources the Fell Pledge asks you to check — they are free, written by people who know the hills, and they are better at this than any app widget, including ours.
MWIS
The Mountain Weather Information Service — detailed area forecasts written for walkers and climbers, including the Lake District.
Met Office mountain forecasts
Dedicated mountain-area forecasts from the Met Office — conditions at height, not the village car park.
AdventureSmart UK
Three questions before you go: do I have the gear, do I know what the weather will be like, am I confident I have the knowledge and skills for the day?
When in doubt, turn back.
The fell will be there next weekend. The zones will arm again. The season is eight weeks long and the leaderboard has never once asked anyone to be brave. The mountain decides — we just keep the score.