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phones



Anybody else get to see this yesterday??
> 
> > Hikers Tote Navigational
> >                  Phones;
> >                  Rescuers Pine for Simpler
> >                  Days
> >
> >                  By ROSS KERBER
> >                  Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
> >
> >                  For a hiking trip in New Hampshire's White
> >                  Mountains, Ari Pinski brought along the hottest
> >                  gear in trekking: a cellular phone and a
> >                  space-age navigation aid that takes its bearings
> >                  by satellite. Forest rangers wish he had brought
> >                  a map instead.
> >
> >                  Mr. Pinski repeatedly checked in with rangers
> >                  on the cell phone to ask directions as he and a
> >                  friend climbed Mount Tripyramid. The satellite
> >                  global-positioning system, or GPS, worked just
> >                  fine, telling Mr. Pinski his latitude and
> >                  longitude. But that didn't stop the pair from
> >                  missing a turn in the woods. A satellite can't tell
> >                  you which path to take.
> >
> >                  Lost Despite Everything
> >
> >                  Although there was no emergency, "we finally
> >                  sent a crew because of frustration," says Lt.
> >                  David Hewitt of the state's Fish and Game
> >                  Department; he dispatched two volunteers to
> >                  guide the hikers down the mountain in a
> >                  pouring rain. Armed with the sophisticated
> >                  reckoning system, "I guess I didn't want to
> >                  admit that we were lost," says Mr. Pinski, a
> >                  26-year-old electrical technician and self-styled
> >                  "gadget person" from Wynnewood, Pa.
> >
> >                  Use of portable communications equipment is
> >                  booming on mountainsides and back-country
> >                  trails, as the gear gets lighter and cheaper.
> >                  Rangers say they started seeing a significant
> >                  number of GPS devices for the first time this
> >                  year, as the price of basic versions weighing
> >                  about 10 ounces dropped to around $200.
> >
> >                  But as the wild fills up with wavelengths,
> >                  rescuers complain of unexpected side effects:
> >                  more nuisance calls and false alarms from
> >                  tenderfoots tenderfeet is second in the
> >                  dictionary toting the new devices. The problem
> >                  is especially bad in New Hampshire's White
> >                  Mountains, where cell-phone service is better --
> >                  and the peaks less fearsome -- than in
> >                  more-remote places out West.
> >
> >                  "People take these jobbies up, but they have no
> >                  idea where they are," says Lt. Eric Stohl, a
> >                  New Hampshire Fish and Game officer who
> >                  patrols 6,288-foot Mount Washington, the
> >                  highest peak in the Northeast.
> >
> >                  In one case last spring, says Lt. Stohl, a pair of
> >                  "very demanding" women in their 50s fretted
> >                  by cell phone that they couldn't make it a
> >                  mile-and-a-half to the end of a trail before
> >                  darkness was due to fall in four hours. They
> >                  asked to be carried down or have flashlights
> >                  brought to them. Lt. Stohl declined. Two hours
> >                  later, they were showering at the main lodge.
> >
> >                  Calling Up the Guard
> >
> >                  In response to annoyance calls, a form of
> >                  Yankee call-blocking is catching on: the
> >                  Randolph (N.H.) Mountain Club now prohibits
> >                  cell phones at its cabins on nearby Mount
> >                  Adams. Over the state line in Maine, Baxter
> >                  State Park also banned them after an incident in
> >                  which tired hikers tried to muster an Army
> >                  National Guard helicopter to fetch them from
> >                  the summit of Mount Katahdin.
> >
> >                  Some nature lovers say cell-heads spoil the
> >                  wilderness experience. "You hear them say
> >                  things like, 'Honey, you wouldn't believe how
> >                  silent it is up here!' " says Jed Williamson, an
> >                  outdoors guide and past president of the
> >                  American Alpine Club. "It's as bad as if they
> >                  were standing there taking a leak in front of
> >                  everybody. They should just go behind a rock."
> >
> >                  More worrisome, rescuers say, are techie
> >                  trekkers who take on too much trail. Last
> >                  January, Rick Mandia, of Cambridge, Mass.,
> >                  got a case of the shivers while camping
> >                  overnight near the summit of Mount Flume. He
> >                  and a companion couldn't light their portable
> >                  stove, and she was unable to warm him.
> >
> >                  At 5:36 a.m., she phoned to ask emergency
> >                  dispatchers for advice. They passed her number
> >                  to Lt. Stohl, who, after 30 minutes of trying to
> >                  get through, finally reached the woman. He
> >                  agreed to send a rescue party and says he
> >                  suggested swaddling Mr. Mandia in a space
> >                  blanket, one of those silver-foil wraps often
> >                  seen on runners after marathons. She did, and it
> >                  worked.
> >
> >                  Electronic Crutch
> >
> >                  Maj. Ron Alie, the department's chief of law
> >                  enforcement, says the campers weren't familiar
> >                  enough with their own gear and counted too
> >                  much on the phone to see them through
> >                  trouble. "They crossed the line as to what they
> >                  could handle," he says.
> >
> >                  Mr. Mandia, 28, disputes that and says he and
> >                  his friend brought the phone as an afterthought.
> >                  Hearing that help was on the way "helped my
> >                  morale a lot," he says. "You get to a point
> >                  where you're shivering uncontrollably and you
> >                  start to feel you might not get back." Bitten by
> >                  criticism, he says, he didn't pursue a proffered
> >                  cell-phone endorsement deal.
> >
> >                  Other distress calls from hikers are more trivial.
> >                  Larry Nickey, the head of emergency services
> >                  in Olympic National Park, in Washington state,
> >                  says he was floored by the request for a
> >                  helicopter rescue he got from a hiker in July.
> >                  The man was a day behind schedule and
> >                  worried about missing a business meeting.
> >
> >                  "I explained that helicopters aren't allowed
> >                  unless it's a real emergency," says Mr. Nickey,
> >                  who didn't get the man's name. Then the caller
> >                  offered to pay. When Mr. Nickey told him it
> >                  might cost him $1,500, the helicopter talk
> >                  stopped.
> >
> >                  Expecting Quick Service
> >
> >                  "People are just too programmed, with all the
> >                  cop shows on TV" and expect an immediate
> >                  response, says Holly Weber, an instructor at a
> >                  wilderness medical school in Conway, N.H.
> >                  Ms. Weber says that several times this past
> >                  summer, volunteers from the school hiked
> >                  hours to reach sprain victims cell-phoning for
> >                  help. "The attitude when we got to them" she
> >                  says, "was, 'What took you so long? I want a
> >                  helicopter here now.' "
> >
> >                  For those who neglect to carry a compass and
> >                  map, cell phones aren't of much use when
> >                  batteries fail. In August, hiker Michael Rego, of
> >                  Hooksett, N.H., spent a night on Mount
> >                  Cushman after he lost power on his GPS unit
> >                  and his cell phone. The mapless Mr. Rego
> >                  walked out unharmed the next day after his cell
> >                  phone revived just long enough for him to reach
> >                  authorities for guidance. Mr. Rego declined to
> >                  comment, citing local newspaper accounts that
> >                  poked fun at him.
> >
> >                  Even hikers whose motto is "Be Prepared"
> >                  sometimes dial for deliverance. Lt. Rick Estes
> >                  of the New Hampshire Fish and Game
> >                  Department says that in June, he got a call from
> >                  a Boy Scout troop seeking a rescue party. The
> >                  scoutmaster had hurt his wrist. After making
> >                  sure the scouts had a first-aid kit, Lt. Estes
> >                  says, he declined to send help: "When they said
> >                  he could walk, I suggested that unless he was
> >                  planning to walk out on his hands, we wouldn't
> >                  come for them."
           
I thought it would interest some ;)

bob

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