There is a difference between not making plans and having plans fail. I look at such incidents not to critcise the guy but to learn from his mistake. The guy lost his arm. You only get two chances in life to do that.

I am becoming more and more convinced by this board and stories like this one that people who can contact SAR or have SAR looking for them at the earliest possible moment tend to fare better than those who are not missed and not looked for.

Leaving a plan with a trusted person and taking the means to communicate/signal could fail, true. Not leaving a plan and taking the means to communicate/signal already has.

My mention of the whistle, mirror, and cell phone was what I took in the situation I was in recently, a hike up a rocky/grassy slope. The cell phone was left off until I called my wife from the top to let her know we actually climbed up the mountain rather than just found a route to the base. We changed our plan and I let her know where we were and where I had parked.

Serious injury can happen to anyone in the wilderness and the danger only compounds when you are alone. I can't imagine being in such a situation and thinking there was not a soul in the world that knows where I went because I didn't tell anyone. The fact that I could wind up with my hand under a boulder is the very reason I leave a plan and carry the means to signal. Mac