Spot/Sat Phone/Emergency type device?

[soup]

im looking at getting one of these types of devices that you can text or call or send an email when your in trouble or your totally fine. places where I sled have no cell service and im tired of nearly giving my girlfriend a heart attack everytime I choose to ride one more bowl or watch the sunset and stay out later than expected. Also it would be sweet incase anything actually does happen too.

Anyone have any experience with any devices in particular? im looking at the InReach Explorer + becaaue you can send an actual text rather than a generic email, and the gps seems legit but havent looked too much into it.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[treebeard]

I've heard good things about Spot. They have the same text feature, and apparently you can program the buttons at home to do pretty much whatever you want them to do.

I've never used one, but the guide outfitter near me (Sawtooth Mountain Guides) uses them and had good things to say

 

[ggfski42]

We used spot devices for work, and they always worked great. We woould take them for 2 weeks at a time in the backcountry, never had any issues with durability or communication with base. Ive used both the ghetto older versions and the newer ones with all the buttons and text features. The only thing is that you have to pay for a subscription to use Spot, and its like $15 a month.

 

[jca]

I use an InReach for flying in Antarctica, you can pair it to your phone for texts anywhere in the world. Pretty slick but expensive.

 

[soup]

We used spot devices for work, and they always worked great. We woould take them for 2 weeks at a time in the backcountry, never had any issues with durability or communication with base. Ive used both the ghetto older versions and the newer ones with all the buttons and text features. The only thing is that you have to pay for a subscription to use Spot, and its like $15 a month.

it seems that all these devices you need to pay for a subscription plan. worth it in my eyes though for how handy they can be.

im wondering if the gps feature is worth it. Ive used the tone down version before in a whiteout and it helped for sure.