windjammer wrote:whats wrong with just sending a text if you need help,i wonder how we managed before they invented a spot tracker
Some parts of the world don't have GSM coverage. These areas are often remote, and if you have a serious accident you are very vulnerable to death before anybody will be able to help. That's why yachts have carried distress beacons for decades. There is no doubt some people have died through 'misadventure' who could have been saved if they had been able to send an SOS (where SAR capability exists). It's just about mitigating the risk to a level you are content with.
A friend of mine used to guide MTB routes in remote areas for a well known UK company. He quit the company as they did not conduct coherent Risk Assessments, choosing to allocate their limited supply of satellite phones to climbing or high altitude trekking expeds but not MTB expeds, just because that was just tradition, despite MTB being as vulnerable to a serious injury in complex terrain (from a rescue perspective).
RAs provide a pseudo-objective framework for analysing (and mitigating) hazardous activities, but ultimately each individual will have their own, probably subjective/emotive, calculus on what they are content with. Having survived a MTB incident that resulted in serious injury and required Mountain Rescue to evacuate me, I feel much more comfortable going into 'wild country' on my own with a distress beacon.
