"Death by GPS" in Death Valley

[pezar]

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/30/3362727/death-by-gps-in-desert.html

Stupid people trust technology WAY too much. It's called "Death Valley" for a REASON, guys. I used to follow the news out of Reno, and every so often you'd hear about people venturing into the desert with no clue. One family tried to brave a rocky desert road west of Gerlach in a little Japanese made car. They blew a tire and couldn't change it. It was only by luck that they were discovered. There are areas out there where there is no cell phone reception, and most people don't know that, AND try to call for help where there's no reception. When I traveled to Nevada I ALWAYS took a handheld CB radio with me. (I don't have a ham license.) I once saw an entire website about people being put in weird situations because of GPS. A man and woman in Germany were told that there was a bridge where there was only a ferry. It took a while to fish their pricey BMW out of the river. A truck driver in the Czech Republic tried to go down a narrow lane thanks to GPS, and got stuck on hedges. The GPS maps are mainly programmed in China, and the Chinese of course never visited the areas they map.

[bobenns]

Excellent post Pezar. In BC we had at least 3 lost hikers that never were found last summer. It almost always comes down to poor preparation. No compass and map. One guy tried to hike a little used route from Squamish to Coquitlam and never came out the other end. He was very experienced but didn't have a map, compass or sleeping bag. They found signs that he tried to scramble out of a creek bed in an overgrown ravine far off the proposed route. A couple disappeared without a trace on a mountain near Pemberton in Sept. They had plenty of gear and the woman was quite experienced. But they had not left any information about where they were going or when they planned to be back. Some friends rather casually set off the alarm when they began to post questions on hiking web sites days after they were missing. A mother and her two year old got lost on trails near Mission BC last spring and after about 5 hours she finally fluked into cell coverage and called police. They were lucky.

Cell phones and GPS may help if you are lucky, but they can fail, or loose reception. Even the satellite beacons can fail. There is no substitute for good preparation and telling someone you trust about what you are doing so if you don't come out they report you missing.

I have an Android smart phone with data and gps etc. and can navigate with Google Navigator. Its great in the car on a main road where there is good cell coverage. But anywhere away from the major centers in BC there is no coverage. This province is 90% mountains and cell coverage is very limited. The GPS is pretty much useless without the data connection because it needs to download the map. Otherwise it shows your location in the middle of blank space. Its good for finding an address in the city. Its mostly useless in the bush.

All the hiking discussion boards have warnings not to depend on this technology. Know what you are doing.