Pushing the SOS button on the Garmin inReach Mini in Jasper National Park

Thanks – I’m glad it’s a happy ending and the details of your extraction are really helpful.  I never thought much about it, but if you’re four days from the trailhead and have an emergency, does your partner ride with you or are they stuck hiking out?  You answered that (at least in this instance).  Does anyone know if there’s a standard for this?  What if you had been a group of three?

Also, in this section:

The SOS request must be closed after the incident is resolved. GEOS had to remind us that it is done by holding the SOS for 3-5 seconds and then confirming the cancellation.

What is meant by “incident is resolved”?  Is that after the helicopter has landed and turned you over to medical professionals or simply when you GEOS confirms that help is on the way?

Lastly, and I’ll understand if this is too personal, was there a cost to you for this extraction?

This is very reassuring. Sounds like GEOS has their act together.

I was a witness to an extraction initiated via an InReach Mini in 2020 on the Northville Placid Trail in the Adirondacks. A woman had injured her knee in what is perhaps one of the most remote locations east of the Mississippi River (Ouluska Pass lean-to on the Cold River in the ADKs). At the time I had an Ocean Signal (now ACR) rescueMe PLB. I was hiking with my brother and we arrived at the lean-to in the early evening and met the woman and her husband and found out about the injury. The woman was going to see how it felt in the morning – and I would trigger the PLB if needed, but shortly after we arrived two more hikers arrived – one with an inReach Mini. The next morning the the woman could not put any weight on her leg so the hiker with the inReach Mini pushed his SOS button. Over the next hour or so he was able to communicate with the GEOS and the NY State DEC and ultimately the DEC did a helicopter rescue using a State Police helicopter. The helicopter was not able to land – they had to lower a ranger and lift her up to the helicopter. In this case the husband had to hike out with the ranger and did not accompany his wife in the helicopter.

This incident convinced me to buy an inReach Mini because if I had triggered my PLB – there would have been a response, but my wife would have been notified of the emergency and many hours would have gone by before she found out that I was not the reason for the emergency. Also, the two-way communications allowed the immediate dispatch of a helicopter vs having DEC personnel spending many hours hiking into the location first (this location is not easily accessible by ATVs).

In Canada, even though the rescue is free, you may be charged for your medical costs, including any transport by ambulance once you return to civilization. The biggie would be if you needed to be transported home after treatment. Worth having some sort of travel policy to cover this.

We sunk a boat 10 miles past the last native village, but did manage to get it to a small, isolated beach.  I intentionally didn’t hit the panic button on my EPIRB since we were able to toss a tent and sleeping bags (and guns and a bear) ashore so we were in no immediate danger and I didn’t want rescuers putting themselves in harms way until the storm had ceased.

But I had a handheld VHF on my PFD (I ALWAYS do) and hailed passing ships with a MayDay.  Very nice people in a very nice boat retrieved us (we had to swim past the surf line) and they called it in to the Coast Guard who asked them to retrieve any of the floating gas cans that were safe to snag.

The USCG then called the number phone for the boat registration and started the conversation with my buddy’s wife with, “Are you Tony Garcia’s next of kin?”  His homecoming would have been calmer had they used different phrasing.

Hmm…Garmin is much cheaper. 29.95 per year for 50K per incident and 100K max per year I think. Need to switch to this perhaps.

Hi, Pat—very glad to hear everything turned out all right. I hope you don’t mind a (mostly) unrelated question: What are those bags/sacks you’re carrying on your shoulder straps? They look very useful.

Hi John — The vagal stimulation (if that’s really what it was in this case) causes a decrease in heart pumping and heart rate, and a dilation of blood vessels, all leading to decreased brain blood flow. And so before you actually pass out it wouldn’t surprise me that you experience shortness of breath as a reflex to try to get more oxygen to the brain. But like you, I was guessing pulmonary embolus.

I’m glad you both came out well. It also might be good to wear a cardiac monitor in case it was an abrupt onset of a lethal arrhythmia or cardiac vessel spasm. Usually, vagal episodes occur when straining to have a bowel movement. And, please, what type of backpacks are those? With those huge from pockets, one can access lunch, raingear, etc while on the march!