inReach SOS: What REALLY Happens (And What Might Not)

you guys seen this video by John Conte he's on YouTube I don't know him personally but a bunch of you have forwarded me the video uh I'll put a link to the video under this video if you want to watch it I do recommend watching it because it's interesting essentially what happened was he hit the SOS button on his inreach and what happened wasn't what he expected to happen and not in a good way and I think when we buy it in reach or we one of those satellite communicators and we have this SOS service that we pay for we expect it to work something like a 9-1-1 service right where you ask for help and somebody sort of dispatched to rescue or help you with some urgency and that's definitely not what happened with John and I don't want to pick apart Jon's story you can watch it make your own decisions there but what I do want to do is address what happens to him because some of the things made sense some of the things just kind of didn't make any sense so I interviewed people in the search and rescue industry including the National Association for search and rescue to kind of get some clarity on these variables that can happen when when you hit SOS on there and you know when you watch the Garmin inreach video they have a nice little video that says what happens when you hit SOS and it really only tells you part of the story and in this video I'm going to tell you the other part of the story before I dive in here I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who supports the channel your support means I can interview people and search and rescue and get some answers so that we can all have a safer experience in the outdoors so thank you okay let's talk about the Garmin video right you hit SOS your basically text messenger SOS call goes to the iercc now that is a emergency dispatcher that's owned by Garmin they've worked I think in over 200 countries they essentially have the Rolodex of everyone to call based on where you are and what your situation is and they will put you in touch with whoever they think should be in charge or responsible for your rescue and then from there that's where it kind of gets variable and some of those variables fit into an obvious bucket and some of those variables are just kind of mind-blowing so there's the obvious factors that will come into this that all sort of jibe with common sense where are you right are you in a rainforest are you in the open where helicopter can land are you by a trail or you buy a road or on the side of a cliff all those things will be factors in your rescue as will are there resources available does does a local search and rescue have aircraft that can come are there specialized teams that can pull you off a cliff or out of the water or whatever it might be and also you know how how bad is your situation are you having a heart attack do you have a rolled ankle all of those things will determine uh whether you're getting rescued more quickly or less quickly in weather too right weather is the weather bad is the weather good give you example or kind of tell two cities here I've been in the Grand Canyon there was a guy who somehow fell and hurt his knee or something but he hit SOS and a helicopter was there and 30 minutes to get him out down off of the north Kaibab Trail so that's about as quick as you're going to get about as good you're going to get I've also know somebody who was trapped in a mountain hut but San Jacinto they were there for three days because the weather was so bad nobody could get up and rescue them so there are some kind of Common Sense variables that will determine how your rescue goes down and how long it'll take and then there's the bucket of the not so obvious things and this is where it gets interesting right first of all there is no standard for Backcountry search and rescue in the United States it varies from state to state it can vary from County to County there can be standards or there can be absolutely nothing on the books outlining what a search and rescue looks like now some states like the western states California Oregon Washington Colorado some states in the Northeast they have laws on the books that mandates who is responsible for a back country search and rescue and generally those departments you know have standards they have training standards and they have certification standards and standard procedures on how a back country search and rescue will go down there are also places that don't have anything in law or regulation or anything on the way a back country search and rescue should happen who's responsible what the standards could be or anything like that and in those places you're probably going to get you know a sign just somebody who's there or somebody who they think they can help but they might not have any training whatsoever any Back Country Wilderness training anything like that so it can vary depending on where you are now who rescues you is across the board as well I think you know some people have an idea that there is a team standing by like firemen waiting for the call and they get suited up and they go out and do a Backcountry rescue that's usually not the case usually it's people doing other jobs and that get called into a back country search and rescue in the places where it is legislated or there is some regulation on the books about who's responsible It's usually the Park Service Sheriff's Department State Police can be fish and game wardens uh or there could be nothing on the books and it can be just whoever is there so who actually rescues you totally across the board also worth mentioning some places do have dedicated teams I know in Yosemite there is I think a swift water rescue team so there's a chance that you might have it but don't count on that you might also be surprised to know that most Backcountry rescues are done by volunteers usually in conjunction with some kind of official source and the level of training and the training standards of that volunteer force is also you know totally variable in some places like here here in Southern California I know the volunteers have to do a certain amount of training each year they have to take Wilderness medicine on different types of courses in order to you know even work on back country search and rescue and there might be other places Texas other places that don't have an established Back Country search and rescue procedure where it's just Good Samaritans right just people with flashlights out looking for the missing hiker so that's across the board same thing with resources there might be resources available part of the budget part of the workflow you know allocated already for Back Country search and rescue and there might be absolutely nothing whether it's a helicopter or software planning radios whatever it might be totally across the board let's look at Texas because that's a good example of how it can be very variable here's an actual thing that happened Big Bend National Park Backpackers out goes missing this is in the south of Texas by the border they go missing they hit SOS the iercc calls the National Park Service Big Bend National Park they have an established routine they mobilize Park Rangers Back Country law enforcement whatever it might be to go out and find the person they also know that there's a U.S border Patrol helicopter in the in the region and they call them and the helicopter is able to come and rescue The Backpacker and bring them back that's that's a great scenario if that were my rescue I'd be pretty happy about how that went down and the resources that were available let's go a couple hundred miles away to one of those uh you know counties in Texas where the cattle outnumber the people a thousand to one right it's all Ranch Land and some Wilderness let's say you're out there hunting or something and you get hurt and you need to call uh you know SOS and the iercc in that case there might not be any Backcountry search and rescue they'll probably just call the sheriff's department there might be like you know a handful of sheriffs to cover hundreds of miles of territory they're going to try to get to your GPS location but if you're way out in the back country you know it might just mean them driving to a Trailhead putting a backpack on and Hiking out to get you they might not have any Wilderness training any Backcountry Rescue Training any medical training they probably do if they're a sheriff but you know you you understand what I'm saying is like they're not experienced Back Country Wilderness rescue people their intentions are good and they're going to help you and they might even call in volunteers who are Good Samaritans are going to help in the search but but you know it's not the same experience as you'd get in Big Bend yet it's very close and that's because there's no standard and it can totally vary all right how can you avoid having what happened to John Conte happen to you the easiest thing is to be prepared bring the essentials and be prepared to stay out overnight and wait for a rescue that's number one number two look at a map and see if there's any points where you could potentially bail out of your hike or outdoor adventure maybe get to a road and self-evacuate just knowing that will give you a little more power and you know open up the decisions that you have if you really want to know what a rescue looks like where you're going to be going hiking call the land manager that manages the lens where you're going like a park service or BLM field office and ask them if you hit the SOS button on it and reach who's going to rescue me what is going to happen has it happened before how did that go down and just talk to them about that that's probably the best way to do it and if I had like a medical condition or something that's something I would definitely do so one of the things that everyone I spoke to who worked in search and rescue wanted me to share with you is that what happened to John uh basically afterwards he got sort of shamed online they posted his information and the story and kind of gave him an online scolding or shaming that's not a typical experience generally when people are working in search and rescue they're there to rescue you unconditionally there's no judgment if you ask for help they're not evaluating whether you're worthy or help or not they just want to help you out and that's the typical experience what happened to John is not typical if I look at the situation a little more closely I don't think the team that was handling John's situation was a experienced Back Country search and rescue team you know I I see the dispatcher telling him just walk a half a mile to the road when you know if you look at a topographic map he's down a steep slope that's covered in snow and he can't see a trail I think a Backcountry team that knew that terrain would understand his situation a little bit better than somebody may be looking it like a flat map John also mentions that the people the state troopers who came didn't have any Backcountry training so that's not typical but again it can vary based on where you are but most people who are coming to rescue you are doing it with good intentions and are doing it in a non-judgmental way now if you want some clarity on when to hit the SOS button and how much it might cost you watch the video I put up on the screen now I did it with input from search and rescue teams and also from the National Association for search and rescue and if you watch that and if you watch this I think you'll feel confident and knowing when to hit the button or not and knowing what to expect and hopefully you can go out there hike safely and if you need help you can get it

Channel: HikingGuy.com

Views: 87,254

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Id: ouF0ypDdygM

Length: 10min 39sec (639 seconds)

Published: Mon May 15 2023