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Thread: Cellphones in Bushcrafting

  1. #21
    Tribal Elder BJ's Avatar
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    I can add nothing to the expert advice already posted here but would like to add my thoughts.
    I always have my mobile with me but considering I need to leave it on the windowsill at home to try to get the intermittent signal, it is the last thing I would rely on. I have a Garmin that also loses the satellites in a valley or under a good canopy of trees. These things are great when they work and good fun but seriously a map and compass and the ability to use them in conjunction with the safety kit already mentioned is in my humble opinion a minimum requirement for anybody going off the beaten track.
    Most people take the sensible precaution to have a map, spare wheel, spare lamps etc when driving and this is on our crowded roads. It never ceases to amaze me that the same people will then wander off into an area they don't know with no kit at all because it's leisure and therefore fun and "what could possibly go wrong".
    “For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”

  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by BJ View Post
    Most people take the sensible precaution to have a map, spare wheel, spare lamps etc when driving and this is on our crowded roads.
    and of course on the continent its a legal requirement !!
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  3. #23

  4. #24
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    http://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/201...call-avoidable

    “The lost couple of walkers had no mountaineering experience, no map or compass, limited equipment and clothing. They also did not know where they had started from or where they were going to."........!!
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  5. #25
    Ent FishyFolk's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sapper View Post
    http://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/201...call-avoidable

    “The lost couple of walkers had no mountaineering experience, no map or compass, limited equipment and clothing. They also did not know where they had started from or where they were going to."........!!
    Good thing they had a mobile phone with them then so that “The team leader quickly established their location as Mickledore, which is a col between Scafell and Scafell Pike and managed to talk them from the col down the gully into Wasdale without needing to mobilise the team."
    Victory awaits the one, that has everything in order - luck we call it
    Defeat is an absolute consequense for the one that have neglected to do the necessary preparations - bad luck we call it
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  6. #26
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    you miss the point Rune....They had zero experience, and were part of an organised charity challenge which was so badly supervised they ended up left behind and lost on the mountain.

    If they had been correctly led, or able to navigate themselves then a phone call to anyone would have been totally avoided.....

    Its far too easy to pick up the phone these days calling out essential emergency services to what are effectively false alarms where basic skills could prevent the call ever occuring..leaving the rescue teams to deal with people in real need of life saving assistance
    Last edited by Silverback; 07-07-2013 at 09:10 PM.
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  7. #27
    Ent FishyFolk's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sapper View Post
    you miss the point Rune....They had zero experience, and were part of an organised charity challenge which was so badly supervised they ended up left behind and lost on the mountain.

    If they had been correctly led, or able to navigate themselves then a phone call to anyone would have been totally avoided.....

    Its far too easy to pick up the phone these days calling out essential emergency services to what are effectively false alarms where basic skills could prevent the call ever occuring..leaving the rescue teams to deal with people in real need of life saving assistance
    I see your point, and agree. Yet rescue services in Norway is embracing mobile phone technology, and their GPS location apps have allready saved lives. They work by sending your position
    and some other info as an SMS to rescue services. But just like a map and compass you need to learn how and when to use it. And you can not assume that people will seek out this info on their own.
    It's one of those things that need to be thought by society as a whole, i.e in schools. In Norwegian schools basic orienteering or wahtever itæs called is part of the yearly curricilum. Knowing when and how to use your mobile device to call for help should also be part of that.

    We do have our fair share of morons here too. Before the mobile phone, Darwins law would take care of these individuals, now that the mobile phone and all that technology is here, "we" need to learn how to use it.

    That I am a firm beliver in the map and compass, but I equally believe that leaving your mobile phone at home is as idiotic as leaving your map and compass. Unless you go into an area with no coverage at all...but even then...even with no signal showing, you could get an SMS out.
    Victory awaits the one, that has everything in order - luck we call it
    Defeat is an absolute consequense for the one that have neglected to do the necessary preparations - bad luck we call it
    (Roald Amundsen)

    Bumbling Bushcraft on Youtube
    Nordisk Bushcraft - The Nordic bushcraft blog and forum

  8. #28
    Tribal Elder ADz's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by FishyFolk View Post
    That I am a firm beliver in the map and compass, but I equally believe that leaving your mobile phone at home is as idiotic as leaving your map and compass. Unless you go into an area with no coverage at all...but even then...even with no signal showing, you could get an SMS out.
    My thoughts exactly.

    Plus even with no signal/data coverage you can still get GPS and if you have a offline map you also have navigation.

    I'm planning on doing a decent navigation's course at some point but will still also have/use more modern tech if needed/wanted then I at least have both sets of skills to use/fall back on.
    "Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes; after that, who cares?! He's a mile away and you've got his shoes!​​"

  9. #29
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    Never said to leave the mobile at home......I sell the National Organisations message of not relying on it and not calling because youre late for lunch or a dinner party, or to check the bus times (these are true)....We have our own SAR app here designed for SAR by SAR (doesnt work on blackberry though)...We dont educate our folks at school, or via public information messages here, and theres a noticable hurrumph of righteous idignation from some avenues when anyone suggests that they may want to take a little bit more responsibility for their own well being.

    In a nation populated by nearly 60 million folks the UK has only circa 3500 MR volunteers......and less than 100 search and rescue dogs across the whole of the 4 nations so the resources are spread very thinly and with operational costs paid for solely by public donation. These calls are taking resources away from more needy injured folks .....(Lowland SAR not included in these figures because they dont get called to mountainous/moorland or upland jobs)
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  10. #30
    Ent FishyFolk's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sapper View Post
    Never said to leave the mobile at home......I sell the National Organisations message of not relying on it and not calling because youre late for lunch or a dinner party, or to check the bus times (these are true)....We have our own SAR app here designed for SAR by SAR (doesnt work on blackberry though)...We dont educate our folks at school, or via public information messages here, and theres a noticable hurrumph of righteous idignation from some avenues when anyone suggests that they may want to take a little bit more responsibility for their own well being.

    In a nation populated by nearly 60 million folks the UK has only circa 3500 MR volunteers......and less than 100 search and rescue dogs across the whole of the 4 nations so the resources are spread very thinly and with operational costs paid for solely by public donation. These calls are taking resources away from more needy injured folks .....(Lowland SAR not included in these figures because they dont get called to mountainous/moorland or upland jobs)
    Our SAR system is organized much the same way as yours. Only the SAR helicopters are military. Al of the rest are volunteers and paid for mostly by donations and little old grannies knitrting lottery prizes. And we have the same idiots you have. We just don't have as many per square kilometer as you.

    Yet I I suffer a heart failure in the hills, I will have to wait 30-45 minutes for a medevac chopper to reach me, if it can come at all. There is f.ex only 12 SAR helicopters in Norway. The closest ones are based in Bodø (aging Sea Kings, falling appart) , 320 km south of me. There is an air ambulance helicopter based in Tromsø, 300 km north of me, but that one need to be able to land to get to me. They don't have a lift capabillity as far as I know.

    Anyway, what you are complaining about is not the technology, but the way people use it it. And if nobody is teaching, how do you expect them to learn?
    But okay things where really bad here in Norway too, until one easter when dozens of people lost their lives in the hills, during a single easter. Since then national TV has been runnng campaigns
    every year drving in the message: learn the map and compass, abide by the Mountain code, etc...combined with education in schools and other places.

    But we still lose the odd idiot...in later years, mostly foreign tourists though...
    Victory awaits the one, that has everything in order - luck we call it
    Defeat is an absolute consequense for the one that have neglected to do the necessary preparations - bad luck we call it
    (Roald Amundsen)

    Bumbling Bushcraft on Youtube
    Nordisk Bushcraft - The Nordic bushcraft blog and forum

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