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[at-l] Whites Incident & Cell Phone
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Perhaps it's a little early for such, but it struck me that the
involvement of the Whites hypothermia victim with cell phone rescue should be
analyzed.
If I read the report correctly, the victim called in a rescue request
for himself by cell phone and was waiting for rescuers.
After reading the story it struck me later that this man was possibly
slackpacking the Whites hut to hut only carrying minimal gear and a phone.
The report said he had no pack when he was found.
I feel it important since this brings up several very serious issues
regarding cell phone dependency on the AT for safety.
If this victim had deliberately forsaken extra gear in order to
slackpack the Whites hut to hut, in order to save time and energy in an
injured state, he had probably brought the cell phone as a hedge against
risk.
If this proves to be the case, it would have dire ramifications for cell
phone use. It would mean the victim chose to bring a useless piece of gear
instead of more critical types.
If the victim was relying on the cell phone to bail him out, it turned
out it failed to do so. Reports were scratchy on how well he communicated his
situation to Camp Dodge. As reported, this communication was useless to his
predicament and did not help save his life. The rescue occurred from nearby
help and was too late.
If Camp Dodge was successfully contacted by the still-conscious victim it
failed to alert the Madison crew only a few thousand feet away. In this
interim the victim fell below the point of recovery. This incident has
several gaping failures, some of which directly involve cell phones, or
possible false confidence in them, that should be reviewed.
Though the tragedy was probably mostly age and exhaustion related, I
believe this incident leaves open the possibility that this death occurred at
least partly because of bad reliance on a cell phone as gear.