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EPIRBs for climbing (rock) 4-Jan-2011 At 2:24:53 PM voodoo

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Seeing as the location of plenty of climbs is often quite separate from where you walk in from, the limitations of these devices need to be recognised.

Because they don't rely on the phone network, they can be invaluable in raising the alarm should something go wrong in an area without coverage. But in a location where you can't just plonk a chopper straight in and pluck the victims, you still rely on rescuers having a good knowledge of how you get to a specific location - either on foot or via rope access.

In the case of the Hotel Cal incident comment made by the coppers regarding the foolhardiness of not having a beacon - the people involved had no problem raising the alarm, but the rescuers reported taking 5hrs to access an area that climbers routinely get to in 45min. A beacon doesn't solve that particular issue, local knowledge does.

I fully agree that beacons can be incredibly useful (esp wrt initiating a response) but at the same time they can't be viewed as the golden bullet.