True confessions: No doubt, if I ever need help, I will press the 911 button on my Spot Messenger, no hesitation.
I'd be careful relying on that bad boy - my kind family bought me this:
ResQlink Hoooollld up... something Adam and I agree on? WTH is the world coming to???
I take my SPOT intermittently, more so if I'm out galavanting by myself, but I have taken to only hitting the OK at intervals throughout the day/in camp. The reliability of getting an accurate signal out, especially in some of the deeper canyons/drainages of the eastern Sierra, is a lot lower than what people think. What it boils down to, essentially, is that more and more people are simply buying the toys and not really learning how to use them appropriately (and this goes for SPOT, GPS, avy gear, you name it). So it comes back around to taking responsibility for your actions, and knowing how to handle yourself if an emergency arises.
......but they weren't born that way. They had to work up to it, with the hand-holding of signs, etc, along the way.
I'm fine with the rest of the population having the same learning advantages.
Great point - we're all at different "levels" in this game, and none of us were born with an ice axe in hand.
From the archive (my first neff Milo at 6 mos)...
I was recently accused of being an "education snob" when it came to studying as many books and manuals and taking classes as spending actual time in the back/side/slack/front country. To me, that's just part of what it means to be self-sufficient back there, especially since I do go off on a regular basis by myself. Trips all have objectives, but plans shift and change with such fluidity that the only way to respond, in my mind, is to be able to roll with the flux.
But, all book learning aside, what is mostly needed out there is common sense, which, unfortunately, seems to be getting less and less common...
Thanks, Ken, for the kind words, and for being one of the people who did some hand-holding when I started all this insanity...
-L
