As was noted above, someone is going to come to find you, that's just the way it works. Anything that helps pinpoint the location of someone in trouble is a major help to a SAR and reduces the risk to the people responding.
And anything that unnecessarily sends SAR teams in
increases the risk to the people responding. Here is something that is currently making the rounds of the mountain rescue community:
"Yuppie 911" The link was sent to us by Matt Scharper, Deputy Chief State SAR coordinator, Office of Emergency Services, Sacramento.
He is quoted in the article with "There's controversy over these devices in the first place because it removes the self-sufficiency that's required in the backcountry. With the Yuppie 911, you send a message to a satellite and the government pulls your butt out of something you shouldn't have been in in the first place."
In his email, he added "There have been various reports of sporting goods stores in California marketing PLB's and SPOT's in place of avalanche transceivers."
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"If you build it, they will misuse it." (Apologies to
Ray Kinsella.)
