Even as we post, a search is underway at Glacier National Park for a missing fisherman who was just out for the day. They have found his fishing rod, submerged within a lake, and it doesn't look like a very good outcome is developing.

Length of trip has no relationship whatever to the severity of the potential emergency that might ensue.

On the other had, carrying a neato electronic whizbang PLB or SPOT is no guarantee, either. Slip, take a 100 foot plunge onto rocks, and you probably won't get a chance to trigger anything. In some folks, hopefully not many, possession of a PLB might even encourage risky behavior.

PLBs, et al., definitely are useful, and they probably should be in more general service. But they are truly no substitute for experience and proper decision making.

By the way, i am somewhat leery of "news reports of ...experienced outdoors enthusiasts". Typical news reports are incredibly superficial and rarely give a valid picture of the actual situation. "Experienced" is an often overused, uncritically used adjective which a victim's friends and family will apply to someone who has spent all of one night in a roadside campground. Rarely do you read a well developed analysis of the situation when all the information has been assembled.