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SPOT personal beacon saves an injured hiker

@AMAZON
SPOT personal beacon

Following up on my October 6 discussion of the SPOT personal beacon, I received this interesting email from a reader.

As luck would have it, one of our photography group was deep in a wilderness yesterday here in Arkansas and fell and broke a leg and collarbone. Sent a 911 message via Find Me Spot that he just purchased. A SAR team reached him six hours later and have spent the entire night trying to get him out - still not out this morning. It is a tough location and no heli access since it is heavily wooded. They've literally had to cut their way through the dense forest. No doubt the Spot saved his life.
— Tim E, Arkansas

What a great story! Young and foolish I was for many years, but SPOT makes sense to me as I hike solo a lot. SPOT is just starting to ship a new model, but the old one is less expensive @AMAZON. You do have to sign up for their service— that’s the game.

Update Oct 17, 2009

An update from Mr. Ernst in Arkansas.

See the last paragraph on finding the injured party— I almost always carry my Lupine Wilma (or Betty), because my excursions frequently return near dusk or after dark; as a bonus it is capable of emitting an alpine distress signal or SOS for a week or longer, depending on the battery used. Lupine lights are also used by search and rescue teams. You get get Lupine products at Gretna Bikes.

Regarding the 1/4 mile off, all GPS units I’ve used have trouble in densely-wooded areas, and my guess is that the SPOT used its last good signal for starters.

A couple more facts that have become known about the photographer and FindMeSpot that might interest you. The first pings from the unit were inaccurate - about 1/4 mile off (I assume from the unit just being turned on - it took a while for the signal to take hold). The rest of the pings coming from the unit were good, and remained stable. Even with the GPS coordinates though, the rescue team had trouble finding him at first - it was dark by the time they reached the immediate area where he was, which was extremely rugged to begin with. The only way they located the injured photographer was by SEEING the blinking light on the FindMeSpot!

We also now know that the photographer fell off the top of a waterfall and landed in the shallow pool below and broke his pelvis and other bones. He was unable to pull himself completely out of the water, and so he remained in the water for more than six hours before being found. Luckily he had his FindMeSpot on his person instead of in his camera bag. So a note to other photographers - be sure to carry your FindMeSpot in your vest or pocket and not in your camera bag!

It took them 12 hours to EVAC this guy (nearly all in darkness), a total of 18 hours after he first fell before he made it out to the helicopter.

One last bit of info - another photographer came within 100 yards of the injured man four hours after the fall and never saw him.


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