At the very least, you’re probably misinterpreting what it’s saying. People’s attitudes toward GPS devices are very interesting. Since 2000, when selective availability was turned off, GPS has become ubiquitous to the point where most people have one and interact with it on…
NOTE: Updates to this post will be appended to the end. Update 1: 12:24 Monday October 29th Update 2: 20:30 Monday October 29th Update 3: 10:55 Tuesday October 30th Update 4: Saturday November 3rd Update 5: 14:00 Friday November 16th…
It was with dismay that I read the Time Colonist editorial entitled “First Responders Need Leeway” today (July 28, editorial published July 19th). It appears that the perception that the Premier of Ontario stepped in to save the day in the…
There’s an article over on the UnofficialNetworks blog about a new piece of “avalanche safety gear” made by a company called Snow-Beacon. The article, which I encourage you to read for yourself, describes the “SnowBe” as the “THE MOST DANGEROUS…
On TV when someone joins the police they hand them a badge and a gun. In BC, when I joined SAR I was given a pager, a compass, and a whistle. The brand we use is the Storm whistle; a huge…
Google just announced it’s new Public Alerts service recently. This isn’t like the other Google Alerts service which lets you enter a few search terms and have Google email you when new results are found (although this tool is also useful for…
It seems someone else is paying attention to the sledder situational awareness problem, and has come up with a handy tool to help people develop skills and make better decisions. Posted on the SledLink page, the “STOP” tool advises sledders…
When I was in University we would always take advantage of the Christmas break to get out there and do some backcountry skiing. We were poor; we had unreliable vehicles, lots of us either had used equipment, or we rented.…
I’m a member of the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC), Vancouver Section, so I get their monthly “Alpine-E-r” newsletter. For the past several months I’ve noticed the following message in the newsletter: NEW BEACON POLICY The ACC has a new…
I’ve written previously about how you shouldn’t use smart phones for backcountry navigation. In that article I made some claims about battery life. My article was reposted (not my me) in a forum, and some of the replies to that…
