Family trapped on Mt. Hood rescued via Emergency SOS via Satellite
High altitude combined with bad weather caused a group of hikers to become stranded, but they were rescued within 24 hours thanks to SOS via Satellite for iPhone.
A family of hikers had hiked from the Salmon River Trailhead of Mt. Hood on Tuesday, ultimately climbing eight miles and gaining 3,500 feet of elevation. Due to changing weather and dropping temperatures, they used the Emergency SOS via Satellite feature to summon help.
According to a report from Clackamas County Sheriff's Office a call for help came in at 7:30pm. Due to worsening conditions, the family was advised to shelter in place as rescuers tried to reach them.
Ground crews using all-terrain vehicles were deployed, but couldn't reach them due to the changing conditions until 6am the following morning. Rescuers found the group "cold, wet, and dyhydrated, but otherwise okay."
There was still the problem of getting the group of four adults and two children back down the mountain. A helicopter rescue was attempted, but couldn't land because of the weather and terrain challenges.
Another ground crew, this time using a Snowcat vehicle from the Sheriff's Department, left at 10am and reached the family and first rescuers several hours later due to the difficult terrain. Ultimately, the family and all personnel were transported back to the search and rescue command post at 7:30pm on Wednesday, 24 hours after their initial SOS call.
The SOS via Satellite feature debuted with the iPhone 14 models, and has credited with saving many lives since its deployment. Text communication is limited due to the low bandwidth of satellites, but precise coordinates and other relevant information is automatically passed on to authorities when the feature is activated.
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Comments
It's a family, and they hike. Including the kids. It's great exercise until you don't reckon on higher-altitude weather/condition changes.
They've even added the ability to contact AAA via the system, which would be very useful if you break down along a stretch of road without other services, which is common — even along highways — in a large part of the midwest and west between cities. There's simply not enough people in those areas to warrant cellular access everywhere. There are call boxes occasionally but walking to them could take awhile and could cause their own dangers. Getting a ride from a stranger also has its potential perils.
But you keep on thinking that only Darwin Award nominees would ever use the feature. 🙄
https://dodoex.blogspot.com/2021/07/mt-hood-view-from-portland-mt-hood.html Even known in Korea
The government will of coarse in time want Apple to share every detail of their particular hardware/software implementation with everyone for free, what is bad is that the government at all levels won't do any forward thinking ahead of time. For example the Frand patent system needs some fixing and the unwanted junk mail/text/spam problem just goes on with no end in sight (company lobbyists in the way? Hmm...)
This is the way. I hope that Apple feels encouraged by all the success stories and triples down on efforts to accelerate evolution of their tech.
Here is wishing the tech evolves to be usable for earthquake victims and people trapped under rubble so rescue teams can find them quicker.