SPOT to the rescue

• Posted on October 6, 2008 at 1:02 PM
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Last winter Personal Locator Beacons and satellite messengers were approved for sale in Canada (see March 2008 issue of Explore). I've been waiting to hear about their use and now I have. A hiker in Banff National Park hit help on his SPOT Satellite Messenger in September after he fell and ripped some tendons in his leg. Forty five minutes later help arrived. That's a solid, made in Canada, endorsement. Read the full article from the Crag and Canyon, Banff's newspapear, below or by clicking here

Hitting help on these types of safety devices sends out a GPS signal that pinpoints the location and sends it to the company. They make sure activation wasn't an accident by calling emergency contacts and then they pass it on to the nearest rescue agency.

SPOT is endorsed by Survivorman Les Stroud and ACR's PLBs are supported by Aaron Ralston, the solo climber from Colorado who lost his arm in a slot canyon a few years ago.

Here's the Crag and Canyon article By Larissa Barlow

Larissa@thecrag.ca

Last month Calgary resident Michael Ervin set off for a four day hike with his wife and another couple to Mt. Assiniboine when disaster struck.

Ten km down the trail from the Sunshine Village trailhead through the Citadel Pass, Ervin slipped and under the weight of his 45-lb pack, hard enough to rupture the quadriceps tendon in his knee.

“I instantly knew this was more than just a ‘dust off your rear end and carry on’ kind of thing. I knew I was in big trouble,” the Calgary oil analyst said.

Unable to support his weight on the leg, he knew the only way he was getting out of there was by helicopter. But like many backcountry locations, there was no cell phone service to use to call for help.

Ervin pulled out his SPOT Satellite Messenger and sent out the call for help. The device is a GPS unit that can send simple messages to people or be used in emergency situations. It has a 911 emergency button option that once you press it, sends a signal to a dispatch location that calls for help on your behalf, pinpointing your location through a satellite link within a four mile radius.

A helicopter arrived less than 45 minutes after Ervin signaled for help. Had he not had the device, someone in his party would have had to hike back to Sunshine and from there try to get a signal to call for help.

“I wouldn’t say it saved my life, but it certainly got me out of a situation where you know you’re hurt and you need hospital attention,” he said.

Ervin was taken to Mineral Springs Hospital and had surgery on the tendon. He credits the SPOT messenger with getting him out of the backcountry in a hurry and recommends it to any backcountry travelers.

The $170 device has a $99 annual subscription cost and works virtually anywhere in the world. A coverage map is available on the website www.findmespot.com.

The satellite messenger has been endorsed by several gadget websites and even Survivorman himself Les Stroud.

A Parks Canada official did not return calls for comment as of press time on whether they endorse the use of such a device.

But Ervin certainly endorses its use. As a pilot, he learned about the device though aviation literature and has been taking it on his backcountry hikes.

The irony is, before setting off on the hike from Sunshine, Ervin pulled out the SPOT messenger and gave everyone a quick lesson on how to use it because no one was familiar with it.

“It’s great insurance, for all the things I do that quite regularly take me out of cell phone range,” he said. “Whenever people go out into the backcountry, I’m sure many people always ask the question, ‘what if?’ The options are kind of spooky but with this, it sure provides peace of mind.”