[HN Gopher] Man Stranded in Alaska Rescued After Using iPhone Em...
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Man Stranded in Alaska Rescued After Using iPhone Emergency SOS
Satelite Feature
Author : Markoff
Score : 70 points
Date : 2022-12-04 17:42 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.pcmag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.pcmag.com)
| bobbyi wrote:
| Apparently "snowmachine" is what they call a snowmobile in
| Alaska. I was confused because I thought that was a device that
| makes fake snow at ski slopes.
| di456 wrote:
| Snow maker is what I'd call those
| lokar wrote:
| There is not as much need for machines that make snow in Alaska
| dangerboysteve wrote:
| Guessing, the Apple media team is being dispatched to Alaska to
| film a segment on this for future commercials or Apple event.
| signatoremo wrote:
| They should, and if they don't other people should. It's a life
| saving feature using a device manage people already carry, and
| I don't think many people are aware of it.
| plastiquebeech wrote:
| Top Gear did this, back when they were still on the BBC.
|
| They dropped one presenter and a camera crew out of a
| helicopter around the top of a hill-climb OHV track in the
| Canadian wilderness, and had them activate an emergency
| beacon. The other two had to perform a rescue race in pickup
| trucks.
|
| Overall, it was an entertaining ad.
| di456 wrote:
| Absolutely. Stand alone GPS transponders with satelite
| connections must be expensive too.
|
| Having this as an extra layer of protection seems like a game
| changer.
| beej71 wrote:
| Kinda pricey for the standalone, but not too bad. $300 for
| a starter Garmin. But you'll have about a $160 per year
| subscription. (I've had one for years--it's been invaluable
| peace of mind on solo trips.)
|
| The Garmin uses Iridium; the iPhone is apparently
| Globalstar. So don't try using the iPhone at the poles. ;)
|
| Great to see it coming to phones. Maybe Pixel will get on
| board.
| ThrowawayTestr wrote:
| Keep in mind that your rescue is also dependent on the responders
| being competent
|
| https://youtu.be/LFLl9q-bEgk
| Clent wrote:
| This is likely an isolated incident.
|
| From the first responder's perspective, this guy got lost in
| terrain intimately familiar to them.
|
| Lack of professionalism on the responders part. There are no
| professional adults in the chain of command or someone would
| have told them no.
|
| A a social media post with victim information is bad. To then
| criticize the victim. Are they trying to get themselves sued?
| lzooz wrote:
| tldr?
| swagasaurus-rex wrote:
| Surely, but you'd be just as bad off when nobody knows you're
| stranded
| runnerup wrote:
| What a horror story
| TinkersW wrote:
| That guy seems like an idiot.. can't climb up <1000 feet, only
| .5 mile. The other two guys are able to come down easily...
| then he follows them up the hill, turns out he can get up it!
|
| Doesn't seem to realize he can simply soak his dehydrated food,
| doesn't need to heat it.
|
| Obviously they shouldn't have doxxed him, but damn some basic
| competence on his part..
| Someone wrote:
| He also didn't read the elevation map, thinking terrain would
| be relatively flat between two points because they were at
| about equal height.
|
| Also, he said he took for maybe a week of food for a 4-day
| round trip, and, because, not finding water, he had to melt
| ice, he got a fuel shortage after day two that forced him (or
| at least he thought it forced him) to start rationing food
| after day two.
|
| In addition, he wasn't at his destination at the end of day
| two, by a long stretch.
|
| I would think either of these would be a reason to turn
| around immediately. Or do I overlook something or
| misinterpret what he says?
| underwater wrote:
| Yeah I agree. In his story it sounds like he put himself into
| a situation with no backup if things went wrong. He didn't
| have water, only had dehydrated food, and only bought a
| single gas bottle. He hiked down a steep mountainside which
| he felt he couldn't hike back up.
|
| It sounded like thought he could use the SOS button as an
| instant escape button. In the end the Sheriff's department
| literally came and got him and his complaint is that they
| made a snarky Facebook post. That wasn't professional, but
| personally I'd prefer them doing that than me freezing to
| death.
| textadventure wrote:
| So someone did the thing advertised in the thing, and it did the
| thing as advertised. Sounds like they should have been more
| careful, maybe have a compass and overall know what they were
| doing.
| macintux wrote:
| I don't believe we know what went wrong to pass judgment on
| them.
| textadventure wrote:
| "The man's snow machine became disabled, an ADPS spokesperson
| confirmed to Insider."
| https://www.businessinsider.com/stranded-man-alaska-
| rescued-...
|
| So we know.
| macintux wrote:
| Do we know whether they had a compass, as you felt they
| didn't? Whether they had another emergency contact option?
| We know the driver was dressed appropriately.
|
| Mechanical failures happen.
| textadventure wrote:
| Sure, there are a plethora of things we don't know. But
| he was reportedly going from Noorvik to Kotzebue:
| https://imgur.com/a/GYfKk5w which is one tiny town in the
| middle of nowhere, to another slightly larger town in the
| middle of nowhere. The emergency alert was received at
| around 2AM, so he was doing this in the middle of the
| night.
|
| It stands to reason that when you are in such conditions,
| you should be prepared for circumstances such as "what
| happens if my means of transportation breaks down".
|
| It seems like a risk was taken, and when you take a risk
| and things go wrong and you need to be rescued, you are
| putting the lives of other people at risk.
|
| Maybe it was all completely justified, but on paper it
| doesn't seem that way.
| datalopers wrote:
| Noorvik gets 2-3 hrs of sunlight a day. The "middle of
| the night" argument doesn't really hold for the arctic
| this time of the year. It's basically always dark.
| djcannabiz wrote:
| i mean theres the compass on the iphone but i have no
| idea how accurate that is or even if works at high
| latitude. hopefully someone with more knowledge can
| enlighten us.
| UncleEntity wrote:
| What good is a compass going to do?
|
| Presumably he could have just followed the road he was on and
| _maybe_ reached town before freezing to death.
|
| And all conventional wisdom says to stay put if you find
| yourself in a situation like that. Years ago I was listening to
| the local radio on my way to Denver when a big storm was coming
| in and they were talking about how many people die in blizzards
| every year with most of the deaths being people who tried to
| walk to safety instead of staying in their stuck cars.
|
| More presumption but I'd say the standard thing to do in that
| part of the world is to just hunker down and wait until the
| next traveler comes along -- or press the magic button on the
| iPhone and get to town before last call.
|
| --edit--
|
| And damn straight I'd be pushing that button if I got stranded.
| textadventure wrote:
| So would I. But if I decided to traverse dangerous largely
| inhabited terrain and my only means of salvation are my phone
| with a brand new largely untested feature, then I'd be an
| idiot who took a big risk.
| ezfe wrote:
| If their iPhone was working for this, then they had a compass
| on their phone. Shouldn't be relied upon of course.
| spfzero wrote:
| Magnetic declination in Alaska is pretty severe too.
| csa wrote:
| That's something like 50 miles (eyeballing the distance).
|
| ... as the crow flies
|
| ... at 1 am
|
| ... in northern alaska
|
| ... in the winter
|
| I don't know that much about living in Alaska, so I don't know
| which side of the brave/stupid line this falls. That said, my
| initial impression is squarely in the "stupid" category.
| Someone wrote:
| > at 1 am
|
| https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/kotzebue: >
| Sunrise Today: 12:09 > Sunset Today: 15:11
|
| I think it's unavoidable to travel in the dark in Alaska this
| time of year.
|
| They also may have tried for hours to get out without outside
| help.
| helloooooooo wrote:
| At 1 am the winter, it doesn't matter if it is 8am or 5pm, it's
| still dark out. So why does it being 1am matter?
| playingalong wrote:
| I haven't checked today's weather, but it's likely colder at
| 1am than at 7 am on the same day.
| mattkrause wrote:
| It's usually coldest right _after_ dawn: the earth has been
| radiating heat all night and the very early morning light
| isn't yet strong enough to start driving the temperature
| back up.
| di456 wrote:
| Many people who live in remote villages use snowmachines
| (snowmobiles outside of AK) as their primary means of
| transportation.
|
| The article doesn't get into how they got stranded or why they
| were out there. But let's not jump to "stupid" as there are
| many things that could have gone wrong, and they were properly
| clothed with fire starting material in hand.
| downrightmike wrote:
| This is going to lead to more people being saved, but also more
| people taking large risks that wouldn't have otherwise, good
| luck.
| squaredot wrote:
| Luckily nobody applied this logic when thinking about
| introducing seatbelts and airbags.
| vikingerik wrote:
| There is data to this effect for bike helmets, that the
| feeling of safety induces more risky behavior. Helmeted
| riders act more aggressively near both cars and pedestrians,
| and also drivers allow less of a safety margin near a
| helmeted rider.
|
| Helmets are still likely a net positive overall, but there is
| enough reason to at least consider the second-order effects.
| dwaite wrote:
| Wearing a helmet is a choice (possibly one with legal
| consequences, but a choice), which gives a bias in any
| study which might have shown a behavioral difference by the
| rider.
| frereubu wrote:
| Do you have a source for this? I see this said regularly,
| but have not seen a link to the study itself.
| tobr wrote:
| They totally did. It used to be a common argument against
| mandatory seatbelts, that people would feel safer and drive
| more recklessly, killing more pedestrians. https://en.wikiped
| ia.org/wiki/Seat_belt_legislation#Risk_com...
| melling wrote:
| According to your article that's not true.
|
| "A comprehensive 2003 US study also did "not find any
| evidence that higher seat belt usage has a significant
| effect on driving behavior." Their results showed that
| "overall, mandatory seat belt laws unambiguously reduce
| traffic fatalities."
| kube-system wrote:
| The claim the above person made was that the argument was
| used, not that the argument was a good argument.
| bombcar wrote:
| Some safety devices don't encourage recklessness - id say
| seatbelts are in this category.
|
| However others could - perhaps ABS brakes and all wheel
| drive on slippery roads.
| jdsully wrote:
| Traction control is a more likely candidate. Encourages
| people to think there's more traction than there really
| is - only to find out the error when they need to stop
| dumpsterdiver wrote:
| I wouldn't consider being aware of a vehicle's
| capabilities and utilizing them as being reckless.
|
| One could argue that those folks are incurring a sort of
| opportunity cost by not learning the limits of vehicles
| that don't have ABS, and certainly they might be worse
| off for it, but that's not the same as recklessness.
| melling wrote:
| Most pedestrians aren't walking on highways and seatbelts
| didn't encourage people to drive faster down Main Street.
|
| but hey, I've only been driving for 40 years and didn't
| start wearing a seating until about 20 years ago.
|
| Sure, you can find an extreme person to argue anything
| but I certainly am not familiar with this difficult to
| believe argument
| kube-system wrote:
| > Sure, you can find an extreme person to argue anything
| but I certainly am not familiar with this difficult to
| believe argument
|
| I am not here to say it is either correct or incorrect to
| apply it to this situation.
|
| But it _is_ a commonly studied theory in behavioral
| science. And I don't think it is considered an "extreme"
| theory in general. It is definitely something that is
| discussed enough to have a variety of studies on the
| matter.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation
| melling wrote:
| yes, do people drive faster and more reckless at high
| speeds, like on highways. That's a great question, which
| has been studied.
|
| But that's not the point I'm arguing. Where do the
| pedestrians come into all of this?
|
| "killing more pedestrians."
| anonporridge wrote:
| It will be interesting to see the data roll in as this feature
| proliferates to standard consumer devices.
|
| Obviously Garmin and others have had dedicated devices like
| this for years, but if you're in deep enough that you're
| dropping several hundred dollars on a dedicated satellite SOS
| device, you've probably also done a lot of work to learn how to
| keep yourself safe and generally not get in trouble. And you're
| acutely aware that even if people want to come save you, they
| might not be able to and ultimately it's on you to self rescue.
|
| A lot of people don't know that at least in the US, search and
| rescue is free and largely volunteer run. It works great for
| now, but if the burden of unprepared wilderness adventurers
| grows to be too heavy, SAR as it currently is won't be able to
| bear it.
| Cupertino95014 wrote:
| Passing judgment on someone when you don't know the relevant
| facts is generally a bad idea. If this was a tourist near
| Anchorage or Fairbanks or Denali, that's one thing, but there
| probably aren't many tourists up near Kotzebue, especially in
| December.
| ramraj07 wrote:
| We know enough relevant facts- they went on a snow machine into
| the wilderness. Only got saved by an instrument that luckily
| worked as it's advertised but not with a guarantee. Only an
| idiot would go out into the cold in Alaska depending on
| technology that explicitly says it might not work for you if
| you have a hill or you're in a weird latitude.
|
| You can bet his townsfolk are talking about his stupidity as
| well. Maybe his baby was choking and he was going to get help.
| But maybe all our corrupt politicians are also held hostage by
| aliens and that's why they're corrupt? If we can't judge anyone
| until all the facts are in then we can't judge anyone ever. I'd
| prefer to judge with what I have but be ready to amend when new
| information comes in.
| di456 wrote:
| > A spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Public Safety
| told(Opens in a new window) Insider that search and rescue
| teams were dispatched at 3:30 a.m. and the stranded man was
| taken to Kotzebue at 6 a.m. According to Insider, the man did
| not have another form of satellite communication and was
| wearing "appropriate clothing" and had "fire-starting
| supplies."
|
| If you read the last line above from the article, that sounds
| like someone with experienced who was prepared for the
| journey. There are probably dozens to hundreds of people
| across Alaska making the same type of journey right now. We
| don't know from the article but could presume they had also
| shared a trip report in case something went wrong.
|
| How much real life experience do you have with arctic
| climates? You don't sound very educated or qualified to pass
| judgement.
|
| The fact that they were located using his device doesn't
| invalidate other forms of preparation or qualify someone as
| an idiot or stupid.
| grecy wrote:
| > _Only an idiot would go out into the cold in Alaska
| depending on technology that explicitly says it might not
| work for you if you have a hill or you're in a weird
| latitude_
|
| Tell me you're not from the North without telling me you're
| not from the North.
|
| I lived in the Yukon for 4 years, spent plenty of time up in
| the Arctic Circle (in early December the day time high temp
| was -48C / -55F.
|
| Slept in a wall tent plenty of times bison hunting when it
| was past -50C / -55F overnight. All our thermometers stopped
| at -50C so we don't know how cold it was.
|
| When you make a comment like yours you are showing you don't
| understand the life up there, and you don't understand why
| people choose to live in the north and go on adventures. The
| very, VERY vast majority of Alaskans say stuff like "I'm
| never going back to the lower 48".
|
| People in the north want the adventure life, they want to
| take risks and they want to live. They don't want to live in
| a cage and have their water changed three times a day. Let
| them live the life they want without criticizing and without
| push your opinion of what is acceptable risk onto other
| people.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _We know enough_
|
| People who know enough about what happened: The guy who got
| rescued, and the people who rescued him.
|
| People who do NOT know enough: Every other person on the
| planet, including and especially the nattering nabobs on the
| internet.
| labrador wrote:
| Alaska natives apparently don't have much sympathy for those
| from the lower 48 who get in trouble because they didn't
| research or prepare for Alaskan conditions before venturing
| out.
|
| _The majority of Alaskans share some version of the opinion
| that McCandless was deeply out of his element_
|
| The Cult of Chris McCandless
|
| https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/the-cult-of-chris-
| mcca...
|
| made famous by "Into The Wild"
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild_(film)
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