I resisted such a device for a long time, as I felt the Highlands weren't really remote enough or wild enough.
We used such devices when on long trips in Sweden and Norway, where we were days from roads at times.
However, we now tend to multi-day trips in the wilder parts of Scotland, almost all canoe orientated. These include trips with a bunch of kids along. Easter 2019 we were in the middle of Inverpolly and spent 7 days without seeing another soul, and only once being able to receive a mobile signal enough to get a forecast update. Most of the time there wasn't even enough for a text.
After that trip, I heard from one of the parents, that one of the kids (about 10 at the time) had been a bit worried by how remote we were, and how we would get help if one of us had a problem. I think this also stems partly from an occasion where I poorly "skimmed" stone from one kid ended up with a trip to get stitches for another, and this lad had not forgotten that and was worried about how we'd call for help if needed. (Not that we would for a small wound!!) Some of the parents were getting a little pressure from grandparents to have some sort of safety device.
I also started thinking more about solo trips. When out in the canoe, there are times when we get windbound for a fair time, and it is possible that one day this might happen for long enough to fail to get to civilization when planning to. Also, we tend to be in the glens, as that's where the water seems to gather
, and nipping up a Munro to get a signal isn't necessarily a practical thing.
I thought about this for a while, did a little research and eventually bought the InReach Mini. It was a big investment, but you only need to pay a more modest annual fee, then any month period that you use it in; you can then suspend it when not tripping. So it made sense to me, though as the least worried of the group I'm not sure why it was me that ended up splashing out! I do go out lots more than the others though.
It also gives me a weather forecast when there is no mobile signal, which is useful on week long trips, and has proven as accurate as any other.
I have only dabbled with the tracking side. It works, but obviously as its in 10 minute intervals to make the battery last, the track is a bit simplified and takes straight lines where you didn't. Battery life itself seems good if you're not using it. A couple of weeks ago I used it in Letterewe/Fisherfield on our latest daft canoe/mountain adventure (which my friend Lynne has posted a TR on yesterday), and we had no phone signal at all except on the summit of A' Mhaighdean (the most remote 4G in Britain
). Mostly it was just a back up switched off in my pocket, but I tracked the 2 hill days as an experiment, plus I checked the weather on it perhaps three times. The battery was at 85% at the end of the week, most of which was the 12 or 13 hours of walk tracking I guess.
I'm less interested in the ability for others to follow my progress, but do understand that sometimes family want this. I would never set to full time tracking, the battery requirements would be too much, but for regular planned check ins, and using the preset messages to say "safe at todays camp" etc, it could be useful.
The software for all the extra stuff isn't the slickest and does take a bit of working out, however the "Call International Rescue" process is simple, obvious and has instructions on the unit.
I wouldn't bother for the WHW, as mentioned, but if those remote trips are truly remote, it does give some peace of mind, not least for those at home.
One final thing. If you are using such a device to be followed by somebody remotely, and using that as an extra back up, make sure they understand exactly how the device works. I've told this tale before, but will again.
A couple of friends of mine were doing a couple of nights paddle in Affric. They were using a SPOT device and one wife was tracking them from afar. I was elsewhere, on a weekends trip in Wales I think.
Just before midnight, I get a phone call from my mate's wife. She wants me to look at the track as she's spent the last few hours worrying about them. After dictating the web address to me one letter at a time, I could get the screen up, and it was a Google Maps based view, with the loch clearly show. The track of my mates canoeing could clearly be followed, but then in late afternoon, it just started going around in circles. Worryingly to the wife, it was a few hundred metres from the shore line. I looked at it, and thought hard, as I couldn't see how an accident could end up with such obvious circling, and then short lines going out and back. Eventually, it occurred to me to switch to the satellite view on the map. Which was very different, and the shoreline in a different place. They were on a peninsula, wandering around camp and walking back and out for a call of nature, but had forgotten they had the SPOT in a pocket turned on...
It just goes to show what happens if those at home don't understand what's going on and also, the importance of using the "I'm safe" message without fail if that is what you've agreed with those at home.
Of course had they actually been bobbing about in a loch, it wasn't much use waiting 6 hours worrying before ringing a friend anyway...