For Garmin inReach users

Text your inReach.
Get answers in 160 characters.

Weather, avalanche, fire, river levels, and route intel — anywhere on Earth. No app. No cell signal. Just satellite messaging.

Get started free See a real reply
Real exchange — Garmin inReach Mini 2
You → agent@msg.backcountryassistant.com
weather and avy for tomorrow
BackcountryAssistant → your device
Tmrw: High 28°F, wind SW 18mph. Snow 4-7in overnight. AVY: Considerable (3) above 8k—wind slab NE aspect. Travel early, avoid leeward ridges.
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How it works

Sign up once. Text from the field forever.

1

Get your agent address

Sign up in 30 seconds. You get a unique email address — save it as a contact on your Garmin inReach. That's the setup.

2

Text any question

From the field, text your agent like you'd text a friend. "Weather tmrw?" "AQI at camp?" "River too high?" Works from any inReach, anywhere.

3

Get a smart reply

Pulled from NWS, USGS, avalanche.org, NIFC, and Open-Meteo. Synthesized by Claude. Compressed to ≤160 characters so your device shows the whole thing.

What it knows about

All sourced from authoritative government APIs. No ads. No lock-in.

🌧

Weather

NWS + Open-Meteo global fallback. High/low, precip, wind, overnight snow.

Avalanche

Live advisories for all 92 US forecast zones via avalanche.org.

🔥

Wildfire

NIFC active fire perimeters. Proximity alerts ≤40km when you're on trip.

🌊

River levels

USGS stream gauges with flood-stage labeling and percent-of-median flow.

👁

Air quality

Open-Meteo AQI with PM2.5 detail. Escalation alerts when AQI goes unhealthy.

🌙

Moon + night sky

Phase, illumination, moonrise/moonset — for navigation and camp planning.

📍

Route awareness

Sync your planned route — the agent knows where you are and what's next.

👥

Support contact view

Share a live map link with family. They see your position, conditions, and can relay questions.

Proactive alerts

Opt-in morning briefings and escalation alerts — sent to your device before you ask.

Optional: plan your trip on the web

Draw your route on our map, add waypoints and gear, and sync it to your agent. When you text from the field, it already knows where you are and what's ahead on trail.

Totally optional — the agent works fine without a planned route. It just uses your live GPS position from the inReach.

Try the planner →

Simple pricing

No credit card required to start. Upgrade when you're ready for the field.

Explorer
$0
free forever
  • 20 satellite messages / month
  • 5 trip planner chats / month
  • Weather, avy, fire, rivers, AQI
  • Route + gear context
  • Pre-trip conditions briefing
  • 1 saved trip draft
  • Morning briefings
  • SMS relay
Get started free
Full access
Pro
$15
per month
  • Everything in Season Pass
  • Unlimited planner chats
  • Unlimited trip drafts
  • Priority support
  • SMS relay (coming soon)
Get Pro