I've walked alone wherever my heart has taken me.
The story behind MEKET.
Part I — The origin
It came to me to make going to the mountain safer.
I've walked alone in the mountains. I've done ski touring alone. I've cycled the Camino de Santiago alone. I've ridden roads alone on a bike. Camino de Santiago, Montserrat, the Sierras Béticas, the Pyrenees — short and long hikes, three-thousanders and unmanned refuges.
A few years ago, on a multi-day traverse through unmanned refuges in the Pyrenees, I slipped. The backpack was so heavy it flipped me over. Nothing happened. By luck.
But what if it had?
In 2025 a friend went out alone in the mountains, like so many other times. He had an incident, one of those nature decides. Nothing he could have avoided. But there he stayed, alone, until someone found him. And I have more friends who also go out alone, because they love sport and nature.
If something has happened to you, let those waiting for you at home wait the least possible time.
The idea for MEKET took root years ago. I had some experience making websites, so one day I used one of mine. I generated a QR and a subdomain, and entered my basic data: who I am, who to call, my blood type. I repeated the exercise for my closest family and friends. Each with their own QR, each with their own page.
I went to the mountain calmer. Not because I was going to avoid an accident — we already know that, if it happens, it happens — but because I knew that if they found me, they'd know who I am. And who to call.
Over time, what was a homemade solution for me and my people became MEKET. I built it the way I wanted, with what I wanted for me and the ones I love. I decide what data I share and with whom. Sometimes more, sometimes less. But always mine, always what matters, always up to date.
It's not for normal days. It's for the day something happens.
Part II — The name
The name and the symbol are no coincidence.
Three symbols from ancient Egypt, one single idea: that in the critical moment, the holder is identified and protected.
The Akhet
The Akhet is one of the oldest hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. It represents the horizon: two mountains between which the sun rises every morning. It was a symbol of transition — between day and night, between the known and the unknown, between life and what comes after — and, above all, a symbol of protection for the holder on their journey.
We stylise it in the M of MEKET: the two side pillars are the mountains, and the circle in the centre is the sun that joins them.
Lapis lazuli
Deep blue stone, considered in ancient Egypt a fragment of sky fallen to earth. Reserved for pharaohs and gods, it wasn't ornament: it was used to protect the holder on their journey to the afterlife. It was ground into pigment, set into amulets, placed in sarcophagi.
It's the blue you see in MEKET. The one that protects.
The golden sun
The sun as guide. The light that allows you to be seen. The concentric rings of the logo evoke the sun rising between the two mountains of the Akhet — the exact moment when light appears and lets someone know who you are.
Part III — The person behind
Carme Pineda
Founder of MEKET
I go to the mountain alone. My MEKET comes with me.