Time is but the stream I go afishin' in.
Thoreau
I believe the GPS Essentials app runs on my Android phone without a data (cell) connection. Test: I tried it with cell data and wifi off. It did take significantly longer to get a fix (up to about 2 minutes), but it did work. Says I'm outside, about 15 ft on the other side of the wall from where I'm sitting. It seems to go in and out and lose its lock/fix from time to time - but this is inside a house with a metal roof as well. So it works pretty darn well all things considered. I know that Guthooks definitely works without cell data, as will google maps - but only if you download the necessary map/trip in advance of leaving cellular data range (and don't close the maps app).
I don't know of any smart phone GPS app that requires a cell phone connection. GPS Status doesn't require it, and I have had GPS Essentials on my phone and it did not require it. How do I know? Well, I used both at various times to check position when hundreds of miles offshore in a sailboat. No cell towers out there!
You're just ahead of your time
Hiking alone was the risk he accepted. If this happened 30 years ago, he'd have been found in a few weeks, not a few days. Satellites and cell-towers do not make you safer. I say get on the self reliance train or stay home.
With all due respect to you and to the deceased and his family, and from what tiny bits of info that are public from the sheriff and his family, and from reading perhaps more between the lines than I should, I am not convinced that he knew the risks or was capable of making clear, reasoned decisions, not just during the time he was disoriented/lost, but even before the trip began.
Thanks for bringing the topic back to Mr Eddie Noonkester and his unfortunate demise. I guess with so little information coming from the authorities this thread inevitably had to drift to smartphones and GPS/AGPS systems and 911 dispatchers and the GELS system and cellphone towers and Guthook and PLB's and low earth orbit satellites and Google maps and Iphone compass apps and all the rest. So many peripheral words but so little actual facts on the incident.
Back when I paddled lots of whitewater (including your neck of the woods, actually) American Whitewater would publish pretty detailed reports of incidents where paddlers were injured or killed, with an emphasis on lessons learned. And I suppose they still do. I haven't seen anything similar in the backpacking world, although it may exist and I just don't know about it. Publications like Backpacker will of course have articles on some events, but they're written for entertainment and seldom seem to give factual blow-by-blow accounts of what happened and talked about how it could be avoided by others.
I don't have a solution, just thinking out loud. Does anyone know of something that exists that serves this function?
Never seen it for the hiking/backpacking crowd but have seen it for the climbers and mountaineers....
although now now that I think about it—- does the AMC have some in their publication?
i have a subscription to their magazine but haven’t read one in years...
ill have have to look when I get home....
Yeah——just checked the AMC publication “Appalachia” and they have reports of hiking and climbing incidents.....
and, in theory, one could file a freedom of information act paperwork and request incident reports from various government agencies that have helped in a search or rescue.....
AMC does analysis of accidents and rescues in Whites in their quarterly Appalachia Journal https://www.outdoors.org/trip-ideas-...ces/appalachia. (Note this is not the same as the AMC Outdoors magazine they send out to members). I do not subscribe but have seen various reports they have done over the years and they are done objectively and triy to come to conclusions on the most likely scenario. The NH F&G department that directs all rescues in the state have debriefing sessions with the participants in the rescues after the rescue is over. They discuss what went right and what went wrong and try to add "lessons learned" as appropriate to future training scenarios. These are generally not public record.
Frequently families want closure but they also want privacy to mourn their loved ones. The major approach to a family finding closure is for the professionals to reassure them that everything was done to find their loved one and to return the remains with as much dignity as possible. There was case in the whites 20 years ago where a child got lost in hypothermic conditions and was found deceased after an extensive search. The family was unable to get closure and for years would pop up trying to force the case to be reopened as they could not accept that it was not foul play despite no evidence to the contrary.