Late Nov. rain conditions in Wangapeka/Karamea?

what could possibly go wrong.....

This is a chat I've had many many times before, and it is almost always guaranteed to bring out the edge in even the nicest people. Thinking about life-threatening mishaps means thinking about death, which means getting frightened at some level, which means getting a little sharp in your communications, it seems. Maybe I have been very very lucky, but after logging a few thousand solo foot miles in the California sierras, and a similar number of solo wilderness river kayaking miles in Alaska, and three trips to the Andes including 20K+ summits, and various yak and boot rambles in Nicaragua and Mexico and indeed four nice tramps in New Zealand including the Pike River walk, I'm deeply convinced that being aware of your surroundings and your limitations, and thinking and planning proactively about what you'd do if the worst happens, is all worth a million PLBs. We all have our various levels of tolerance for risk, and different levels of trust or faith in devices. A PLB is far from being an "extra life talisman" or some magic thing. Many dangerous situations involve unconsciousness, or other conditions that could make its activation impossible; and similarly, many dangerous injuries and situations arising within a mile or so of a well-travelled trail could be resolved with a firm application of resolve and discipline and the kind of extreme efforts people make when they know they're in serious danger. You're right though, I'll probably carry the damn thing, even though IMO every ounce on an old man's back counts. :)

eguillermo, some people don't want to be rescued. Fine on them. To each their own. But if you expect volunteers to rescue you, you have an obligation to make it easy for them to find you. That's where the PLB comes in.

i've never been struck by lightning either...

Do you carry a lightning rod around with you @waynoski? Berend, do you think the authorities should make it mandatory to carry a PLB? They certainly could, the way they make drivers wear seat belts where I live. I like that analogy, because cars are much, much safer than they were 50 years ago, and there are fewer fatalities -- with far more accidents. There's a thing behaviorists call "risk adjustment," and along with "diffusion of responsibility," where you assume someone other than yourself is responsible for your safety, I seriously wonder if all our technology really makes us safer. Serious question (and I do apologize for blabbing on this issue/question): do you think you more readily do risky things, like scramble slick boulders, when you are carrying a PLB?

@eguillermo, I would say if you need rescue and you don't have a PLB, and rescuers spend time searching where you are, you get charged the price of a PLB. Very simple to administer. I don't know what other people would do, but I definitely would not do more risky things. I don't want to be rescued for doing dumb things. That's would feel as a personal failure. The PLB is there for the cases things happen that could happen to anybody: i.e. falling, or in order to help other people.

"Serious question (and I do apologize for blabbing on this issue/question): do you think you more readily do risky things, like scramble slick boulders, when you are carrying a PLB?" No. i spent most of my life tramping without a beacon... if anything i did riskier things before i started using one, mainly because i was younger. the only time i needed rescuing was when i was a teenager when our team didnt have a beacon. and we were lucky it didnt happen when we were a lot further from help than we were. i don't treat it as a get out of jail free card.. i want to avoid having to get rescued as much as possible. I dont want to be rescued because i was reckless and took it for granted because i had a beacon. I consider that as a failing to act responsibly. i don't want rescue services to spend the time and effort rescuing me unless its an unavoidable emergency. you cant predict he future, just because you've never had a problem in the past doesnt preclude you from having one in the future, no matter how experienced you are. plenty of experienced NZ trampers still get into trouble... one moments inattention can result in needing rescue. you could have a health event that disables you. can you say you'll never havea heart attack or a stroke? think of it as a social service, you may need it to help someone else in need of help. also think of it as peace of mind for your loved ones knowing you have a beacon and no news is probably good news... still its personal choice, thats what tramping is about. you've weighed things up and made a considered opinion. if you fish in a river can you be absolutely sure you won't get hit by a flash flood?

I don't think carrying a PLB has any impact on my behaviour or risk assessment. I must admit that I have never carried one in my home country, despite 1000s of hours solo in the bush both hiking and biking.. However, I always carry one in NZ if I am heading off the beaten track, as a courtesy to the NZ rescue service. I don't expect I will ever activate one, but as a guest in another country, I try to at least respect their basic wishes, especially since it is not really a burden to do so. My 2 cents Moh.

Everything's a compromise, but I find your reason for not wishing to carry a PLB both odd, and disproportionately inconvenient for others compared with yourself. If NZ were more of a capitalist country then I might care less, but we aren't. We're a socialist leaning country with that reflected in the rescue response. We have a system where if you're outdoors and require help then trained volunteers in society feel a moral obligation to help, sometimes at great expense and inconvenience to themselves and their employers. We have a system whereby Police are required, by law, to search for and help you if there's even a reasonable suggestion from someone else that you might be missing or in trouble, after which you will not be charged a cent. Even if you have travel insurance that supposedly covers rescue costs, it won't be charged because that insurance would only ever pay amounts charged to yourself, and the aren't any. I'm fine with this, but with it I see a moral responsibility for people who do stuff here to take reasonable steps to maximize the efficiency in response for everyone else if something goes wrong, even if they've convinced themselves they're so cautious that it couldn't possibly go wrong. What steps are you taking towards this? If you don't trust yourself to act responsibly when carrying one, then surely a better resolution would be to deal with that issue and train yourself not to do stupid things when carrying one.

Just go for it! Take a chance on the weather but take a beacon & a raincoat.Just read Gerald Hindmarshes' book 'Kahurangi Stories' which has some interesting snippets in your area of interest.