I'm a big Geko fan ... I only wish it had the high sensitivity receiver so that I could be more sure that I'd get a fix in heavy forest cover.

Even moderate woods will cause my Geko 201 to loose the fix. My GPS 60CSX just laughs at such situations - even giving a strong fix in my basement!!

One thing to remember is that improper use of a magnetic compass (without properly adjusting for magnetic declination) can make a mess of following GPS goto waypoint bearings. Declination can be as much as 20-30 degrees in Alaska. In that case they'd be much better off simply following the GPS's compass tool - whether it has an electronic compass or not.

Of course a Personal Locator Beacon would have made VERY short work of their whole problem. I believe in PLB's. I bought one and carry it with me when out in remotish areas. And of course, even with a PLB one still has to be geared up to be found (signalling) and to survive long enough to get rescued (first aid, shelter, fire, water, ...).

Ken K.