First, sorry about your friend.

Originally Posted By: Andy
weekend of mountain biking in triple digit temperatures.


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He and the others had been sure to enable GPS locating on their cell phones,


FWIW, while a prudent step, I wouldn't put much faith in a cell to save you, and even less faith that a "GPS enabled" cell call to 911 is going to work correctly.

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He carried water is his pack, but they never found it.


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Would a PLB have saved him? Probably, as the rescue helo took less than 30 minutes to reach the group once a 911 call was placed. That’s a subject I wish to God I had brought to his attention.


Well, while I'm a firm advocate of PLBs, I think people should not assume they press the button and someone is going to show up 30 mins later.

Maybe if he had a GPS enabled PLB they might have showed up in that four hours, maybe not. I think we need to assume when we press the button that help is about a day away.

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But I think he got caught in a maelstrom of bad circumstances and unfortunate decisions


I think the key element here is that he was exercising in triple digit temperatures. These are dangerous temperatures even without exertion. A very small mistake on his part could put him behind the reaction curve and once you cannot think clearly, you are in real trouble.

As someone who didn't go on this trip, I certainly wouldn't beat myself up. In reality, I think what ultimately contributed to this tragedy is they did not deploy some sort of buddy system.

Again, sorry about your friend.

-john