beaconing anyone?

We've had a debate in our club over the last couple of years about whether the club should buy some EPIRBs. It did eventually to make them available, but with a provision that trip organisers aren't required to take them as policy. So they're not being lifted to the same status as things like a first aid kit and emergency shelter and depositing a trip plan, etc. There are a sizable group of people who don't object to people carrying EPIRBs personally, but also don't think they're necessary enough to be standard for a tramping club. It's mostly people who've been on the scene for some time, and as pmcke pointed out, people have been tramping safely for decades without beacons. There's a strong argument that on most (not all) occasions, EPIRBs are more a convenience than an absolute necessity, at least if you've planned things well. If you *know* you need help and can't safely get yourself out of a situation, an EPIRB can bring help more quickly as an alternative to sitting tight and waiting ages for someone to notice and send in a rescue team according to the accurately described trip plan you deposited before leaving. I've never needed to use one and hopefully never will, but I'm guessing the times when they can make a genuine difference for safely tramping *in a group* (not including insufficient planning) are probably when immediate help is actually necessary. eg. If someone's fallen and hit their head hard (possible concussion), if someone's accidentally inhaled lots of water (possible secondary drowning for some time afterwards), if someone's picked up an infection that's spreading, or maybe a pre-existing medical condition kicking in unexpectedly that needs urgent attention. Perhaps any case when a person's stopped breathing, if there's a chance of getting a defibrillator in rapidly on a helicopter, a life or two could be saved.. at least if another person has been going hard with CPR during that delay (though I'm not sure about the medical aspect of this). Those are the kinds of occasions where it'd be very helpful to not have to wait any longer than absolutely necessary. I'm still waiting for a couple of things before I buy one, but when I do I think the main reason beyond those above will be for those occasions when I thought I'd planned well, but realise too late that I hadn't. It happens from time to time, and I think it's just the nature of how stuff works.

I think beacons will rapidly be seen as necessary as a first aid kit. Actually a first aid kit is a good comparison. You could probably leave your first aid kit at home on most trips and not have a problem. Now that the things are so small and light and easily available, I have no objection to that really. The problem I have is where a beacon is seen as a substitute for other safety measures. ie. It is OK to go superlight because I have a beacon, it is OK to try a route that is probably beyond my ability because I have a beacon. You could say the same thing about solo tramping too. Is it OK to solo tramp just because I have a beacon? This would seem to be a more socially acceptable thing to do than some of the above. Interesting but I think we will all be using beacons as a mater of course very soon. By the way I bet the party that had the fatality on Mt Sisyphus at the weekend wished they had a beacon. Imagine doing CPR on someone up there while someone has to run to the road end. It's be awful having to decide when to stop.

I suspect the actual use of the PLB will be a generational thing. I bought one because they have finally reached a size that it can be stowed and forgotten until really needed and to be fair it would take complete incapacity to have me deploy it on my own behalf. Some of the younger trampers I have met have a very different view to me. Im not saying their view is wrong just quite different. I would rather suffer the pain of a sprained ankle and walk out slowly than get flown out as I have witnessed in the past.

i probably am not going to buy one for my next longer tramps, but I will hire one, for sure. I think it is all a different story when you tramp solo. There could be a bigger need for one. YOu cant run to the end of the road to get help... Taking a beacon will never ever change my view on the routes or the weather, say the risk I would take. I never would take any anyway, especialy when I am solo... btw I would hope that a tramping club I would join would have some beacons for member to rent for cheap. kai

The weekend's incident occurred to me when I was writing about helicopters, CPR and defibrillators just before. From what I've read, the chances probably weren't great as it sounds as if there were unfortunately some bad head injuries regardless, but I'm sure there must be cases where it could make a difference. I've been laughed at when suggesting that having an EPIRB could potentially get a defibrillator to someone quickly enough to be useful, but I reckon a helicopter in 30-40 minutes might be beneficial. My understanding has been that a major point of constant CPR (besides hoping for a 1% miracle) is to keep the system warm and churning around until such time as an ambulance or helicopter can show up with the electric shock therapy. I'm not exactly sure about how correct this is, however, and I expect the chances still plummet quite rapidly over time even when CPR's being applied. Can anyone comment with more authority than my dodgy memory? I've been fortunate enough to have been trained in using the portable defibrillator we have at my workplace, which is part of a project to get them in strategic places in populated areas. The point of the programme is that nearly everyone who stops breathing can be have their breathing re-started if they're given defibrillator treatment quickly enough. The bigger problem is often that the professional treatment can often take too long to arrive and so someone's chances drop more than what's really necessary. The portable ones going into buildings around here are very smart devices that you more or less tape onto someone's skin, then they measure pulses and vital signs (or lack of them), and do the shocking as appropriate. The one I've played with is still quite heavy -- it hangs on the wall in the first aid room with a grunty battery, but also packs many more charges than what it'd typically need to revive a single patient. It costs about $2000, needs routine checking and maintenance, and I don't know how practical it is to make them smaller. But it's probably not *that* different some other crazy things people take sometimes. I've wondered if it might not be too long before defibrillators are small and portable and affordable and intelligent enough that some larger tramping groups might even consider carrying them in case of emergency.

You're exactly right izogi. CPR is not expected to return the patient's heart to a normal rhythm and give them a pulse back. It is to minimise the damage to the body (especially heart and brain) while waiting for defibrillation. The chance of success starts somewhere around 85-90% (defib within a minute or two or cardiac arrest) and falls by 5-10% EVERY MINUTE. So defib after 30 or 40 minutes of CPR is unlikely to help. But they may well have had their injury / become unwell / had their heart attack etc some time before going into cardiac arrest - so with an EPIRB, help may already be on the way or close at hand. Interesting thought about carrying an AED (the automatic defibs that do it all for you). I've seen them not more than about 3kg (estimate) so it wouldn't be out of the question to carry one amongst a group. However if the cardiac arrest is secondary to something else, eg head or chest injury or blood loss, even returning the heart to a normal rhythm isn't going to save them. The best chance would be if it was due to something like a heart attack. I'm not sure if First Aid still teaches the precordial thump: in a witnessed collapse with no pulse, before CPR is started, a strong thump with the little finger side of a closed fist, in the centre of the breastbone, from about 20cm, can return about 2% of VF arrests(the commonest type) to a normal rhythm. In another type of arrest it is even more successful - 20 to 25%. As doctors working in hospital settings we still do this immediately (before the defib arrives) if a patients arrests in front of us. I have seen it work.

If any one has this months wilderness mag turn to page 57 and have a look at the spot gps, I read about one a wee while ago but I wasnt to sure weather it was as reliable a locator beacon mainly because it is only about a 3rd of the price. I read that it sends messages every so often (unsure if automatic or manual button) and that its gets coverage were cell phones dont. If any one could shed any light on this for me it would be greatly appreciated, Cheers Jono.

Hi Flint. I feel similar about the uneasiness of tramping solo without an EPIRB, but I like to think I'd never set it off unless I was in serious trouble that I couldn't solve on my own. I have a tremendous fear of being promoted in the media as a stupid dumb idiot tramper who needed rescuing. (Not to suggest all those stories are always accurate.) Someone else could comment better, but I think the theory behind solo tramping without a beacon, is that if you have an accident and things turn really bad, you should hopefully at least be able to get to a safe place, set up shelter, then sit tight for as long as is necessary for someone to find you... which should happen if adequate details were left with a reliable contact before leaving. It'll take longer than pressing a button, but it's not necessarily much less safe given the types of problems that (cautious) trampers typically have, and it's the way people have been solo tramping for a long time until now. If you *have* a beacon it could save a lot of time and trouble for everyone... but I bet some people would also discover after a day or two of waiting that their situation wasn't actually as hopeless and unsolvable by themselves as they'd first assumed. One of the arguments in our club against supplying EPIRBs, which I thought was strange for a while, was that some people will probably set them off when they shouldn't, through inexperience or otherwise. It was more a concern that the club would have to be responsible more than anything else. I don't personally agree with that reasoning, but it's not completely baseless. It emerged again a while ago when someone set off their personal beacon at a time when some people thought it might not have been necessary. One person in the group slipped and they were all sure it was a broken ankle at the time. A couple walked out (maybe 3 hours), they also pressed the button on an EPIRB (which they thought might have had flat batteries) and a helicopter showed up before dark. Everyone else camped where they were. Later on, some others in the club were critical that they should have waited longer to discover if the ankle was going to improve, at least overnight and especially since it proved possible to camp there. With the benefit of hindsight I like to think that's exactly what I would have done (waited), but I also know there were at least two (maybe three) people in that group with decades of back-country experience each, all of whom I have a lot of respect for, and they were all there at the time. If that's the decision they reached, I honestly don't know how I would have coped in the heat of the moment. They were no doubt also considering many other factors like on-coming weather, responsibilities to the rest of the group, camping possibilities... and to be honest it was very icky where the rest of them camped, etc. Despite the criticism, the helicopter guys told them at the time they'd done the right thing. So much of this stuff is subjective, and for better or worse it'll frequently be scrutinised in hindsight.

Jono51 -- if it helps, there was a thread about SPOT beacons a few months ago at http://www.tramper.co.nz/?view=topic&id=534 . I haven't seen the Wilderness magazine thing but it sounds as if you might be talking about them.

The thing to be aware of with the SPOT messenger is that it is not a PLB. It uses a completely different system. Sure it has a button to push in an emergency but this just sends a message on the satellite cell phone system to someone in the States who you hope will ring the appropriate authotities. The SPOT messenger is more designed to allow friends and family to follow your progress on the net. That in itself is a great safety feature if that is what you want.