This winter I wrote a review of some of the more interesting products I saw at the Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake City, one of the biggest events in the country where outdoor equipment manufacturers show and sell their wares to retailers. It's also where media scum like me arrive to keep tabs of what's new.
One of the more newsworthy products I saw at the show this winter was the SPOT Satellite Messenger, a tracking beacon that can send SOS calls through emails (computers) and text messages (cell phones). This lightweight satellite-messenger system offered expeditions an alternative to satellite phones (heavier and much pricier) and weekend warriors an alternative to cell phones (which, more often than not, don't give you a signal in the mountains).
Here's my article about SPOT.
Just today I received this compelling read about someone using SPOT to activate a rescue on Mt. Denali in Alaska. Maybe the story was compelling because I knew the players. Steve Howe, the climber involved in this ill-fated story, is a fellow writer with whom I've exchanged pleasantries at many a trade show. Jon Dorn, the writer of the story, is an editor I worked for back in the day when I wrote occasionally for Backpacker. Whether it was the people involved or the construct of the story, this was a page turner (or rather a mouse clicker) for me.