On his third attempt to climb Mt. McKinley, Steve Howe, Rocky Mountain editor for Backpacker magazine, decided to carry a SPOT Satellite Messenger – an Internet tracking beacon that is designed to send SOS messages by email or text message. It was a “just in case” sort of thing. You don’t plan to use it, you hope you don’t need to, but… Then his wife and friendgot an SOS text on their Crackberries. here’s what it said.

Steve Howe is injured or immobilized & cannot proceed, but has no immediate life-threatening condition. Evac please

Latitude:63.0807

Longitude:-151.0691

Nearest Location: Kantishna, United States

There was panic. Three hours of panic. What would they do? They called the park rangers. The rangers radioed up to high camp. Fortunately, before a full rescue was launched they learned Howe’s SPOT was triggered inadvertently. Howe was just fine, he hadn’t even realized the darn thing had gone off. He was a bit embarrassed by the whole thing. I know how he feels. I’ve left my phone in my pocket and accidentally called friends ’cause I sat on it wrong on a bar stool, but when that happens, there isn’t a potential of helicopters showing up (mainly because I don’t have that type of friends)

There’s a blog posting on the whole fiasco Backpacker.com (Click here to read) . Howe’s SPOT is now turned off.

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