The current thread on the lady missing in Montana tells us that no measure you take is foolproof. Companions are nice, but they must be competent and capable of dealing with the situation.

One of the saddest of my SAR experiences involved an all night trek on snowshoes to reach a solidly frozen corpse who had been abandoned by his two companions when he became exhausted and could go no further. They just retreated and left him to his fate.

I had to relate all this to his brother.