Basic skills are more essential than ever, exactly because too many people are relying on technologies and other people. Knowledge and skills are the most essential things in your survival kit.

My introduction into a survival mindset came during my initial days of flight training. Survival swimming, various dunkers and being pushed off of a boat so that we could be picked up by a helicopter — in other words, having fun. Yeah, it was fun, I was in excellent physical condition and the water was warm.

In the age of GPS & personal locator beacons, survival training is still relevant because you still need to actually survive and keep your body warm & hydrated with your heart still beating until the rescue ranger (or Coast Guard helo) arrives. Technology may take the search out of SAR, but survival is more than just pushing a button and being rescued. This form of instant gratification is pushing a button and then waiting and waiting and... during that waiting part you need to continue breathing, staying warm & hydrated and otherwise not dying — instantaneous is hours to days. But we digress...

It appears that Garmin is dealing with a Delorme inReach design issue that was fixed with the Garmin model of that system. It seems the issue is already fixed.

$.02, FWIW