Williamson rescue

phylp phylp wrote:

Interesting idea that these devices might increase someone’s chances of doing “riskier” things because they are carrying one. That would never have occurred to me.  ...

Dean touches on this in his book  - a number of us followed along on Supertopo during his extensive search over several summers for a solo hiker who disappeared out of Mammoth Lake.  Hundreds of others were involved in the initial search. I’m not sure his body was ever found. Sure would have been so much simpler if he had been carrying a turned on device that a family member could track.

These days, many people aspire to be an influencer. Edit to add: Dean mentioned the trend of more *young* people getting out there with the intention of posting (rad things) on social media. The devices in this case would be GoPros and phones. 

Matthew Greene...Part 2 of the interview talked extensively about it. I won't spoil it.

The host asked him whether carrying a device leads to abuse of rescue resources, Dean actually reined it in saying that we are all humans and we make mistakes, so I don't get the sense that he is anti-device. I'm surprised that while Dean emphasized multiple times the importance of leaving detailed itenerary and sticking to it, I don't think he mentioned once how having a tracking device (e.g. InReach) would make locating the person much easier. Not sure why. My only explanation is he retired from SAR before these devices, especially living tracking, became commonly used. 

I’ve been on record in these forums over the years for having a rather skeptical view of most calls for rescue, and my personal attitude is “I don’t call 911, 911 calls me”. Haha
but this one seems to check my “OK to call” box… that is:  one or more key leg bones jutting from the skin and 10 mile or greater crawl out, and no sniveling. 

Call approved.    

Garmin appears to have three blog posts (this is the latest: https://www.garmin.com/en-CA/blog/outdoor/2024-inreach-sos-year-in-review/) with some interesting numbers (that it would be really interesting to dig further into) on SOS calls made with an InReach. Since it (and similar devices/services) are two-way to a dispatch center (and not like an aircraft's ELT for example) there are quite a lot of less-than-all-out responses.

I would guess that there are other technological factors that influence the number of people (and distribution on their skill) going into the outdoors far more than satellite communication devices. (That said, if anyone knows which button to press on my new InReach to get it to tell me what food to bring, I'd be greatly appreciative... I'm guessing it's the "Savory Or Sweet" button, but I'm not sure.)

Mei pronounced as May wrote:

These days, many people aspire to be an influencer. Edit to add: Dean mentioned the trend of more *young* people getting out there with the intention of posting (rad things) on social media. The devices in this case would be GoPros and phones. 

Matthew Greene...Part 2 of the interview talked extensively about it. I won't spoil it.

The host asked him whether carrying a device leads to abuse of rescue resources, Dean actually reined it in saying that we are all humans and we make mistakes, so I don't get the sense that he is anti-device. I'm surprised that while Dean emphasized multiple times the importance of leaving detailed itenerary and sticking to it, I don't think he mentioned once how having a tracking device (e.g. InReach) would make locating the person much easier. Not sure why. My only explanation is he retired from SAR before these devices became commonly used. 

Oh sorry my comment was a bit of a non-sequiter. Didn’t mean to imply that Dean had made that statement about Matthew. That was just my interpretation. 

phylp phylp wrote:

Oh sorry my comment was a bit of a non-sequiter. Didn’t mean to imply that Dean had made that statement about Matthew. That was just my interpretation. 

Oh, the danger of internet conversation! I didn’t interpret you that way. It was just my two part (unrelated) response to your post. 

Mei pronounced as May wrote:

Oh, the danger of internet conversation! I didn’t interpret you that way. It was just my two part (unrelated) response to your post. 

Hahaha!

Any report yet on the details of how this accident, as opposed to the rescue, occurred?

Good points, Phyl.  And that hike/climber was Matthew Green, and he has never been found.  Really sad.  I have to say, though, that part of me is appreciative of the possibility that we can well and truly disappear.  So much is locked, loaded, and controlled these days.