DULUTH, Minn. — The type of satellite SOS devices that may have saved two different Boundary Waters solo campers' lives over the last week are becoming smaller, more reliable and less expensive — and are being more widely used.
Whether that's always a good thing or not depends on who you talk to.
While wilderness experts caution against carrying the devices as an excuse to take unnecessary risks, like paddling alone into a snowstorm even as lakes are icing over, the devices are becoming a more widely accepted accessory in wilderness travel.
As the News Tribune reported Monday, on Oct. 17 a 34-year-old Elkhart, Indiana man used a Garmin SOS device to summon help after becoming soaked and cold while camping on Nina-Moose Lake off of the Echo Trail in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
The Ely outfitter that rented the first-time BWCAW camper a canoe also talked him into taking the SOS device, for a $10 daily fee, considering bad weather was approaching and that cell phone coverage in the wilderness can be spotty or non-existent.
The man had little food and inappropriate gear for the trip, and his rescuers — including the St. Louis County Sheriff's Rescue Squad and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officer Sean Williams — said he was hypothermic and may not have survived much longer without help.
"It was as dark as I've ever seen it out there," Williams said. "You couldn't see anything. It was snowing heavily, fog was moving in and there was ice on the lake. We had to break through ice to get to the middle of the lake, and when we made it to the middle it was so dark we had to use a GPS to find the shore and his campsite."
When rescuers arrived at his campsite, a St. Louis County Rescue Squad member applied heat pads to the man's core to begin warming him. Rescuers got him into warmer gear and built a fire, which he sat near for about 90 minutes while wrapped in a wool blanket. When the man was sufficiently warm, Williams noted, rescue personnel loaded him into the boat and headed back to their entry point. Other members of the rescue squad met them at the final portage and helped get the man out of the wilderness and to medical attention.
The man's decision to accept the outfitter's suggestion and rent emergency communications equipment likely saved his life, Williams said in a statement released by the DNR.
"Had we not gotten there when we did, I don't know that he would have made it through the night," Williams said. "Luckily, he had the communications equipment and wasn't afraid to use it once he knew he was in trouble."
Nearly the same thing happened again on Tuesday when a different solo camper was overwhelmed by wet and cold conditions and used the same kind of Garmin SOS device, from the same outfitter, to call for help. The man was paddling alone, camped on Lake One, which also was starting to ice over. The St. Louis County Rescue Squad responded and took the man out of the wilderness to safety. The outfitter will have to send a crew in to retrieve his equipment. (And again on Tuesday night, the rescue squad went into the BWCAW again to rescue a third ice-bound paddler on Muckwa Lake who used a cell phone to call for help.)
