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Two-way radios provide necessary avenues for communication in the backcountry.
Radios, Satellite phones, inReach and more
Last winter, after a long day of ski touring in Colorado’s Elk Mountains that was followed by some shoveling at WildSnow Field HQ, M and I skinned uphill to the truck to head back home. What had earlier been a bustling trailhead parking lot was now reduced to just two vehicles. Seemingly on queue, a lone skier emerged on the road just as we crested the snowplow berm into the lot. We had passed by him and his partner a couple times on the skin track and exchanged snow stoke and pleasantries, so it was hard not to notice that he was alone. We offered to wait with him until his partners returned. After ten minutes, it was clear that we had to put our boots back on and go looking.
I am as guilty as anyone of paring down my ski pack for light and fast backcountry day missions, but luckily M and I were using our BCA Link Radios that day. With the help of the radios, M could wait in the car while I went up to look for the missing skier (neither of the other skiers had radios). I started a brisk yet long and lonely climb back up the skin track after a very long day of skiing, and had a lot of time to think.
The scenarios running through my head were numerous and foreboding. What if the solo skier had wrapped himself around a tree? If he was unconscious our immobile, would I have the strength to make it back down and pull our emergency toboggan back up the hill to assist? What would I instruct M on the other end of the radio to do when I eventually found the skier? Now a solo skier myself, what if I discovered new avalanche debris and had to begin a search? But most of all, how could I locate a missing solo skier in the midst of the vast terrain in the Elk Mountains?
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If anyone else has been in this situation, you know how anxiety and uncertainty have a way of elongating the minutes. Just as I was getting lost in hypotheticals, M’s voice crackled over the radio. All skiers had returned to the parking lot and now I was the solo skier with one last powder run on tired legs to get everyone safely back to the bottom.
It turns out, the two skiers had leap-frogged each other. The missing skier was actually the first one back to the car. When his partner didn’t return shortly after he got there, he skinned back up to look, again, without a radio. That’s when we came upon the second skier, who had taken a different line down than his partner. If we hadn’t had radios with us, would this cycle have repeated itself until darkness or our strength gave out?
There are increasing options to address communication in the backcountry and as technology improves so does it’s accessibility. Listed below, a few gear items that at the very least might save you one exhausted bonus lap, and at the most, a ski partner’s life.
Radios
BC Link is the standard for backcountry snowsports, with its waterproof hand-mic you can clip to your shoulder strap. But any of the cheap “talkabouts” you can buy at the discount store will also work (albeit with more concerns about moisture), and are compatible with the BCA. There’ve been some FCC changes to these types of radios of late, which you can read all about on WildSnow and BCA. The changes don’t affect you much, if any, if you’re just using such radios for intra-group comm. See our enormous quantity of 2-way-radio exposition.
Satellite Phones
The two most common choices in “satphones” are Iridum and Spot/Globalstar. Iridium is expensive, but works anywhere in the world with a view of the sky (albeit being problematic with closed horizons, such as a narrow valley.) Spot/Globalstar costs less, but has limited coverage regions due to the satellite needing a ground station within reach. By way of examples, Spot/Globalstar is not reliable in northern Canada or Alaska, nor in the northern half of Norway. In either case, texting is always better than voice communications as you can be precise and clear. Iridium does two-way texting, while Globalstar phones ONLY receive text; they gloss over this in their documentation.
Another caveat with satphones is you can’t dial 911, and due to issues with caller I.D., dispatch centers may block your call if you use their non-911 contact number. We’ve experimented with that and found it frustrating. We recommend programming the numbers of responsible friends who will receive emergency calls and act as go-betweens for communication with authorities.
inReach and other S.O.S. messengers
These two are the gold standard for backcountry “emergency beacons,” and generally what we recommend. With one caveat: Be sure you purchase a device with two-way communication. The inReach is our favorite. They’ve got a nice inReach Mini model if you really want to keep it minimal. SPOT formerly only offered S.O.S. services but they now have two-way communications of sorts with the SPOT X (but be warned, SPOT’s sales documentation about this is confusing and perhaps even disingenuous, so be diligent in your vetting if you go with SPOT over inReach). In any case, using a device that only pings emergency responders (e.g., the original SPOT) is difficult for them, and could be deadly for your or yours.
(We’ll get scolded if we don’t mention the “PLB” type emergency locator. While these used to be somewhat desirable, and perhaps still are in nautical and aviation applications, we see the two-way inReach as being far superior.)
Satellite “hot spots”
There are a variety of devices that hook up to Irridium, Globalstar and other satellite systems, and provide internet connectivity. These can be useful, but they’re expensive. Nonetheless, you could use such devices for emergent comms, and some have a button that’ll directly contact a dispatch center. If you go with this option, consider water resistance and durability. As with all other options, test and practice.
And… Two-way radios for calling in a rescue?
Two-way radios are important, sometimes mandatory, but they’re not an emergency locator unless you learn how to work the amateur radio systems in many parts of the world. Even then, there may be no one monitoring the frequency you call out on. As WildSnow is a big advocate of two-way radio use among parties on the trail, we have an enormous amount of radio content. Try this search query.
19 comments
Good stuff, as always. I’ve worked extensively, in various capacities, with different types of wilderness communication technologies and protocols. And have some further advice to offer. First, and obviously, no technology is perfect. A good terrestrial plan always trumps tech communication. Following up on that, it seems that folks often have or observe a poor experience with some particular brand or type of technology and switch to a close competitor seeking better performance. Common complaints are signal coverage and unintended transmissions, whether from radios or satellite devices. Across all products available there are more similarities in the above criteria than there are differences. Switching radio brands won’t prevent “hot mic’ing” and switching satellite networks won’t make the device work better in a forest or canyon. In short, understand the fundamental limitations of the technology and understand how to optimize performance before you select a product.
Great article and all the best.
I bought a PLB many years ago, and every so often look at the “two-way” devices and think about buying one, until I look at the cost of maintaining the monthly subscription. I guess I’m surprised by your comment that they used to be somewhat desirable (I’m trying not to scold you! 🙂 ). I’m interested in a device that will send help in a dire emergency, and really nothing else. A PLB meets this need very well. I see a few slight advantages of the two-way devices, but those are not enough to warrant the significant extra cost.
Is there some capability of these that I’m missing? Otherwise I’ll keep looking occasionally, and probably stick with my PLB.
ERICB,
I too, carried a PLB for many years, skeptical of the advantages of two-way communication… I purchased the PLB after a friend was rescued by helicopter (uninjured but unable to progress up or down) on a Cascades peak. It was a bit of a wake up call…
Since then I have purchased an inReach mini… After being part of a backcountry HAPE treatement and rescue… Having two way communication was very very helpful in orchestrating help, talking with emergency contacts, and keeping in touch with those who could help us most… We ended up self-evacuating, but had we not had two-way we would have been much more stressed out and probably just hit the button for a heli…
Another instance, we came upon the scene where a child had fallen a considerable way down some class 3 and 4 terrain… Once again, two way communication was invaluable in explaining the situation to the authorities…
Overall, I’m glad I have made the switch, as informing emergency contacts, emergency responders, and anyone else, has proven to be very helpful over the past year… Although, I will admit, it is a slippery slope when your buddy’s family wants to hear from him every night and clog up the device and freak out. It’s a balance between a good tool for use during emergency situations yet another technological burden that pulls you away from the present moment and enjoying your skiing and time in the mountains..
Cheers!
Guys, regarding two-way comms, please look at it from the rescuer side of the equation. It’s incredibly dangerous and unfair to volunteer (or paid, for that matter) rescue personal to expect them to respond effectively to nothing more than an “I need help” message from deep in the backcountry, often in places with inherent, existential dangers. Now that two-way devices are available, in my opinion it is unethical to not use them. Just a simple 5-minute two way convo can make the difference between rescue folks doing a dangerous late-day mission for a sprained ankle, and sending in two people the next day for a pleasant ski tour with a roll of athletic tape. Yeah, I know the 2-way devices have a subscription fee. So does life. Lou
Hi Lou, I replied to your comment down below, sorry it didn’t go in the right spot.
One day…in the future…there has got to be a single device that will have: GPS/Map/Navigation, Avalanche Beacon, 2 way radio and 2 way satellite emergency communication, cell phone and even a heart rate monitor…and a hefty subscription fee…engineers are you listening?
You forgot one thing, Scott: the dream device must include an airbag. And, speaking of airbags, why aren’t they filled with, say, H instead of heavy old N or even heavier Ar. With your multi-purpose phone/sat-communicator/beacon/GPS/shovel/Hydrogen-Airbag, when trouble comes looking for you, just float away under your beautiful balloon!
Jim,
I like your thinking!
Andrew Maclean has argued the merits of dualband radio. Is this likely to catch on? http://straightchuter.com/a-few-of-my-favorite-things/
Thanks Lou and Kyle.
Those are very good points, ones I’ve not seen articulated elsewhere. I’m not averse to paying subscription fees if they provide some value, and I think you’ve convinced me that the two-way devices are indeed better emergency beacons and worth the extra cost.
Thanks!
if you’ve ever used any kind of gps tracking (whether a watch, phone/strava, spot, inreach) to record your route over a day, you’ve seen occasional points that are obvious errors, sometimes wayyy off. It’s easy enough to see and discount these errors in context when looking at your overall track for the day – but good luck if one of those way off errors occurs when it’s your one-shot message to call for rescue.
posted too soon. another argument for 2 way communication. It can clarify your location. Back in the day I sent many “checking in” messages with a spot while backpacking and got home to see that the locations were off enough that it would have caused confusion and difficulty in the event of an emergency
Buck, generally those kinds of errors are reduced greatly by averaging over a period of time. I’m not sure how the internals of every PLB works, but I imagine the engineers would be silly not to implement some form of averaging. Also as far as I understand it, it’s not a one shot signal, once activated, it continues to send until the battery runs out, thus the GPS position should continue to improve as the calculated positions are averaged. Even if the unit itself is incapable of averaging, the receivers/base station should be capable of this. A better comparison would be creating a waypoint on your GPS unit using the averaging feature. Another reason why keeping your PLB in a single location once activated is important.
I think a PLB may also transmit on a frequency (wikipedia mentions 121.5MHz) which can be received and tracked for homing when an aircraft/helicopter is in the area, the GPS position, however erroneous should be capable I imagine of getting an aircraft close enough to do a search pattern and pick up this signal for homing.
If you value communication with a significant other, then a subscription for enhanced coms out on the wild snow is moved from
the (more) GEAR spreadsheet of expenses over to the HOUSE & HOME category!
So now I no longer fret over that Inreach monthly billing…
I am convinced of the benefits of 2 – way communication in an emergency, both as a recreationalist and as a volunteer and proffesional rescuer. I am not convinced by the reliability of the current devices on the market.
My experience includes completely missed messages from inReach. I have read reviews of SPOT devices which paint them in a questionable light re: reliability and there was a recent article about the activation of 2 SPOTS recently where neither one was picked up. THe rescue was calleds out once the party went over their check in time.
I do own and carry a PLB, and I also have an inReach provided by my SAR team for communication purposes. I continue to carry my PLB even when I have the inReach.
Lou, while I agree with your initial statement somewhat, I’m not sure that the provided example supports the message very well. If a PLB was triggered for an event that could be solved using a roll of athletic tape and a couple of people, then it is probable that there were number of other more important problems with how the situation was handled.
Should people spend several hundred extra dollars every year on an InReach subscription, or should they do a wilderness first aid course, a navigation course, and carry a PLB? I think ideally both, but what should be the message to beginners? Regardless, I think that taking an InReach (over or in addition to a PLB) should be a higher priority for those without formal first-aid/rescue training, as the two way communication should help prevent situations that may occur when an inexperienced person unnecessarily activates a PLB, and when these people fail to put in place effective plans with others for a search/rescue scenario before they leave home.
A personal anecdote just for more conversation (probably not super accurate as this is from memory), two friends who are part of a local search and rescue group, decided to go into a canyon without letting any of their friends or family know what their plans were for the day. They didn’t take a map, probably didn’t take a compass, and they didn’t take a backup phone/gps map. I think at some point during the canyon, their main navigation source was put out of action, and they got lost on the exit walk out in the dark. They spent a night/day on a ledge system trying to find their way back up before deciding to activate their PLB. Almost immediately after activating it, they realized that they did have a map on the second phone with the track, they were very close to where the track was, but it was too late to stop the rescue so they decided to stay put. They were eventually airlifted out.
Would having an InReach have helped this situation? yes, greatly. Ironically, having an InReach probably could have prevented them needing to send a message in the first place if they had track waypoints programmed into it. But I felt like the real take-away from that situation was that they did not prepare correctly. They needed to inform others about their plan, friends were nearby and could have come to look for them in the evening when they didn’t return, and probably could have found them. They also needed to take appropriate navigation equipment and backups, and have a good understanding of the geography. In their situation, if they had been at the bottom of the canyon, when a serious accident was most likely to occur, an InReach may have been next to useless.
A factor to consider is whether a having a PLB is technically legal in your country or the country you will be travelling to, there also may not be effective systems set up there to respond to an activated PLB device. The InReach has some restrictions on it’s use, and may not work at all in various countries/regions.
I’ve been using BCA Links for a couple years and bought some Rockie Talkies for climbing, as they are optimized for battery life, light, and clip very well to my harness. Thought they were mostly for summer, but left my BCA’s back home and had the Rockie Talkies still…. so used them touring, and they work great in the cold. They are 1/2 the cost of the BCA’s, lighter, and work better with my pack than the BCA clip mics.
Highly recommmended!
https://rockytalkie.com/