walkingpoles wrote:I (no wife, no kids) never carried such a thing in the highlands and probably never will. Not remote enough. My strategy to deal with the second worst event depends on the outing and is a combination of bivvy bag, whistle, telling somebody where I am going, bright colours, charged mobile, first aid kit, splints, poles and extra calories. And most importantly a defensive stance when making decisions.
It's not foolproof, but works for me.
Similar here so far, though I'm not so sure about the "never will" part - if PLBs get cheaper, or
my solo walks get longer, the balance may tip as far as I'm concerned. I have thought about (but not yet tried) using something like Viewranger's buddy beacon to let someone at home check my progress every now and then - most hilltops at least seem to have some 'phone signal, so it might give them a clue if I failed to reach a peak or ridge by a given time.
This report pointed out an advantage of a beacon that I hadn't thought of. It looks likely that the author was drifting in and out of consciousness without realising it, but was aware long enough to press a button. It's conceivable that someone would be able to press the button but not, for example, power up a spare mobile 'phone and type an emergency message, even if there was enough signal to use it. That adds another (small?) window where the PLB could prove its worth.