"Why All Be Cold?" - Inj. Climber Abandoned

[G-spotter]

Cold

[Bug]

Gotta love the Kangaroo Court. We focus on two or three sentences from a newspaper article published by those blood sucking journalists, we have no response or statement from the subjects of our "investigation," and we're all calling for them to be publicly humiliated because that will solve whatever the problem was.

 

I gotta say the article does not sound good, but do we know what happened, or what they thought they were trying to do, or what the injured climber actually said about it, or .... ?

 

I know I would never do that, though. Nope. I'm waaaaay better than those loosers.

Well you sure know how to suck the fun out of an afternoon.

But can't we at least say, "Golly! That sounds like a comfy hut!"?

[sobo]

Well you sure know how to suck the fun out of an afternoon.

But can't we at least say, "Golly! That sounds like a comfy hut!"?

Yeah, matt, quit being such a buzzkill.

 

Gotta agree with what fender4 said: "Their injured partner was on a glacier. They were in a hut sleeping. What more is there to know?"

[mkporwit]

I hadn't read any reports about authorities not wanting to respond. The argument that the technology is flawed (quote from linked article) doesn't make much sense to me... PLBs have been used successfully for emergencies with aircraft and boats for years now. Why should authorities view PLB use in the backcountry any differently then they would PLB use for aircraft and boats?

 

In addition to the differences between a PLB and a SPOT that Rob enumerated, the circumstances in which an ELT/EPIRB would be activated on a plane/boat are different. On a boat an EPIRB is usually rigged to auto-deploy and activate when it is immersed in water, and when it is immersed in water you already know that the boat and crew are in deep shit. Not much else needs to be said.

 

The same typically goes for an ELT -- it is activated in case of a crash, where the G forces and impact of the crash itself activate the transmitter. Again, you know that something very serious has gone wrong.

 

The old ELT system did not transmit GPS coordinates, and had to be triangulated, which led to false alarms when these were sometimes triggered when the aircraft landed a little too hard and shook the device out of its slumber. Often these were resolved by calling the owner of the aircraft and checking if the plane was flying or not. The new ones transmit GPS coordinates and so can be automatically ruled out if the signal is coming from the airport...

 

The PLB and SPOT do not have fixed criteria for activation -- they are triggered at the decision of their user. As such, they are depended on the intelligence of said user, which, as we all know from reading spray, is highly variable.

[wfinley]

Thanks for the clarification. I've had mine since early spring and have tested it in remote areas of AK as well as in the lower 48. The OK and Help messages worked fine... I just assumed the 911 feature would work as well. I guess I've always looked at them as a tool like anything else. I'm not going to blow $700 on a PLB that I'll probably lose or break in 2 years and for the most part I intend to use it as a "I'm OK but spending the night out" tool so my emergency contact doesn't wonder what's up in the event I opt to spend an unplanned night out. The 911 feature is nice - but it seems a no-brainer that, like any other technology (cell or sat phone), you should have a back up option as well.

[Hugh Conway]

A Terrafix 406 PLB is $400 ~ the same as a SPOT with 2 year contract (or, well, using the SPOT for 13 months since its annual)

[mattp]

Buzzkill? Sorry guys. Speculation and comment are one thing. Calling for a public shaming seems to be a little premature at this stage.

 

As I said: from that article it doesn't sound good. You guys are probably right that these irresponsible criminals should hang from the nearest tree, but it looks to me as if there is some (small) chance that more information will put things in a different light.

[Choada_Boy]

Didn't Jon Krakauer set this precedent of acceptable behavior when he went to bed and left Beck Weathers et al to die on Everest

[sobo]

Naaahh, he berated Boukreev for going out w/o oxygen to drag back three of four wannabe stiffs. Then he went to bed...

[Hugh Conway]

I thought he went down to slip Sandy Pittman the salami?

[sobo]

Naah, she was too busy "reporting" and wouldn't get off the damn phone.

[NoahT]

Like Trog said, the SPOT is what it is--a personal messenger, not emergency personal locater beacon. If you want bombproof emergency back-up for a catastrophe, invest in a "real" PLB. If you want a limited version of that, but also the ability to send the other two types of messages the SPOT is set-up for (and don't want a sat phone) the SPOT is a decent option. Depends on what your motive is...

[fishstick]

Sat phones may have problems as well. There was a case in the West Kootenays (BC) last winter where a Sat phone was used to request assistance following a serious injury in an avalanche. From what I gather, provincial authorities refused to take the call because their call display indicated an 011 (overseas) area code. Local RCMP thought the call was a hoax for similar reasons. Eventually the Sat user called their employer, who then called the RCMP and had to convince them that the previous call was real. A helicopter picked the victim up just before dark; it was questionable if they would have survived the night.

 

GB

[pc313]

My parten broke his ankle coming down the hogs back on Mt.Hood,

two of us got him back to high camp at Illumination Saddle,rest,

eat,and carried his gear down to the car with him leanning on us

all the way,could not get his boot off!! It was his left ankle,

and he drove home to Kent WA. hell if he broke his leg we have still draged his ass down!!! Norm

Edited August 13, 2008 by pc313