Just read this in the San Francisco Chonicle today, the tragic story of Christopher Andrews, an experienced hiker who fell while hiking out ahead of a storm in the Sierra on Friday. 

According to the article, Andrews fell on his hike out and was injured.  He activated his SPOT Messenger to send out a distress signal which should have brought help right away.

But not this time.  The storm apparently came in too quickly with snow and high winds, grounding search parties until Saturday morning.  According to the article, the SPOT beacon stopped transmitting on Sunday, and the hiker’s body was found on Monday. 

I’ve mentioned the PLBs (Personal Locator Beacon) such as the SPOT before.  I think they’re one of the best new tools on the market, especially for the backcountry sportsman.  It can send out a distress signal when nothing else works, and the idea is that they bring help right away.  I have a lot of confidence in these tools, but like anything, they’re not perfect.

Besides the tragedy in this story, it highlights a very important point.

This thing sent out a set of latitude/longitude coordinates just like it’s supposed to do, and broadcast them for a day and a half… yet it took almost three days to locate him.  This raises a lot of questions, but the point to take away here is that rescue was NOT able to pinpoint him and arrive in time to save him. 

No technological gadget in the field is failsafe.  You can still get lost with a GPS.  The batteries can die in your flashlight.  The reticles in your riflescope can break.  The cams on your compound can get knocked out of kilter.  And so on…

The best plan is never go alone.  Folks (like me) who go afield solo need to plan for every eventuality, but do so knowing that sometimes, when it’s just one person, you can’t cover all the bases.    It’s a risk we take, knowingly.  But the sad story of Christopher Matthews should remind us that we can’t buy a tool that guarantees our safety.  Sometimes, nothing can do that.

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