Right. There's very few places in most of the Sierra where you can get a strong enough signal for voice, and especially in Sequoia Kings. But the text approach does have a little more success. The guys stuck in the Whitney hut a month+ ago texted and were able to get a message out when voice didn't work.

SPOT now has a combined gizmo that will do one way (outbound) text. And, as I think I mentioned last spring, the GeoPro Messenger is a satellite device (Iridium) that will do two-way texting; emergency beacon; sending tracklog or individual points etc. Finally, a satellite phone was just released that will do cell or sat (depending on what's available) and the satellite is geosynchronous, so if you get a connection, you keep it.

http://www.terrestar.com/genus.php

http://www.geoprosolutions.com/geopro-messenger/

George

None of the views expressed here in any way represent those of the unidentified agency that I work for or, often, reality. It's just me, fired up by coffee and powerful prose.