SPOT Stories
SPOT Accompanies Denali Climber
The SPOT Satellite Personal Tracker was an essential part of my expedition to climb Denali. It provide much needed reassurance and piece of mind for my wife and family and played a MAJOR ROLE in their acceptance of me departing for four weeks on a dangerous, remote undertaking. By tracking my expedition progress in real-time, it also provided fascinating and engaging entertainment for my extended set of family and friends. It was completely indispensable and I highly recommend it to other adventurers.
Kurt Hunter
Denali Climber
Family Stays in Touch with SPOT
I just purchased a spot as my son and a friend were going to go to Alaska for a few months. It was so nice to get spot messages from them as they crossed Canada and as the arrived in Alaska. We hear from them about once a day and it has not only been comforting to know that they are safe but it is fun to be able to track them on the map. These things are great and I am telling all my friends about this neat tool. I thought cell phones were cool, not. This thing works everywhere they are.
David Leache
Grand Junction, CO
Primal Quest Presented by SPOT 2008
Primal Quest Montana 08 was a 10-day expedition-level adventure race, with 58 teams challenging each other and the Montana mountains over a 548 mile course. Try to imagine keeping track of 232 world-class athletes spread out over this course, and then reporting their progress to the world at any one time. PQ was fortunate to partner with SPOT for GPS tracking. Their motto is “Live to tell about it” – a fit motto for a partner in such a grueling race.
In addition to providing a safer race for the participants, the SPOT tracking services made it possible for race officials and spectators, as well as fans on the website, to follow the progress of the entire field moving through the race course. Their assistance in designing the Leaderboard and Tracking sections of our website gave us results that exceeded our expectations.
The team from SPOT provided outstanding service, and the quality of the product they delivered was far better than we could have imagined. The entire experience was a very good one for us, and we look forward to partnering with them again for next year’s race.
Greg Vogel, Race Operations
PrimalQuest
www.ecoprimalquest.com
Traveling Daughter Checks-in with SPOT
I wanted to tell you how your product has given me peace of mind. My daughter (Lynne,25) and her friend (Kelsey,22) took off for South America. My daughter insisted that I would not hear from her regularly and to not call out the National Guard to look for her. She was adamant about not sharing an itinerary or her friend's family information. Her friend's dad (smart man) purchased your device. Between blogging and "spotting" I have heard from them everyday. I enjoy the "Spots' because not only do I know their whereabouts but I learn something about the area they are in. It has been fun to virtually travel with them.
Their last location: Machu Picchu. Thanks again for saving me from panic attacks.
Pamela
SPOT Tracks 2,711 Miles of Tour Divide Mountain Bike Race
I just wanted to thank you and SPOT for sponsoring the Tour Divide and for providing SPOT devices to the racers such as myself. All my friends and family loved being able to track me and the other racers online in real time, and some even confessed to being "blue dot junkies" (an allusion to the blue dots representing the racers on the Tour Divide's Leaderboard web page). For sure, the SPOT devices made the race more interesting for them.
The SPOT devices were also invaluable for the racers, as it gave them (or at least their contacts with Internet access) the ability to see where the other competitors were. SPOT also gave me a little bit more piece of mind that in certain "death trap" areas (a highly exposed snow crossing in the Flathead National Forest of Montana comes to mind) that if something happened to me, at least there was a better chance that my body could be found.
Anyhow, as you can tell I am a big SPOT fan now. Thanks again.
Sincerely,
Felix Wong
#7 finisher of the Tour Divide Mountain Bike Race
SPOT Used In Alerting Authorities of Serious Motorcycle Accident
I was on a motorcycle trip to Death Valley this past weekend. While riding on a loop from Furnace Creek to Shoshone a friend and I came around a corner to view a serious
motorcycle accident. Two cruiser-style motorcycles had collided and
both riders were immobile lying in the road, but conscious.
Based on the gas pouring out of both bikes, it looked like it must have happened no
more than 1 or 2 minutes before we turned the corner. There is zero cell service out
there, a few miles east of Furnace Creek on 190. I pressed the 9-1-1
button on SPOT, and waited for the authorities.
In less than 5 minutes, a sheriff was onsite. I couldn't believe someone
could get there that quickly, the downed riders were quite lucky. At
that point I had no idea of my SPOT message was the one that caused the
response, I was just happy that help had arrived so quickly.
I went on my way as soon as help arrived, and sent an OK message out to
alert my friends/family that the 911 should no longer concern them. GEOS contacted my family to confirm the 9-1-1. It turned out that both riders were helicoptered out of the valley, so their injuries must have been deemed reasonably serious, and I'm glad that help was able to get to them as quickly as feasible.
I relayed the story to the rest of the folks I rode to Death Valley
with, and I have a feeling I may have sold a few more SPOTs.
Alex Ciurczak
Milpitas, CA
Canoe Trip Takes SPOT Providing Peace-of-Mind For Family
Just wanted to let you know about my 18 year old son's adventure. He and a friend are canoeing from the Minneapolis area to Hudson Bay, inspired by the book Canoeing with the Cree by Eric Sevareid. They left last Monday, and expect to reach their destination in early July. They are trying to go with minimal technology, so decided to use a SPOT Messenger instead of a satellite phone.
Though they have only been gone a little over a week, it's been fun being able to watch their progress. We're hoping their SPOT check-ins are the only feature they will use it over the next 2 months, but it's giving us a lot of peace of mind knowing that they are able to call for help in an emergency situation (we ordered the rescue insurance)
Here is a link to a website with more information on their trip in case you're interested. There have been quite a few articles in local media about it, along with many of the newspapers along their route.
http://www.colton-seanhudsonbay.com
Patricia Bloomfield
Minnesota
SPOT Technology Comes in Handy For Federal Agent
I bought my SPOT with my own money. I use it whenever I go into the woods by myself. Since most of the time I can not get cell phone reception I use the SPOT to let my family know that I am okay. This is especially important since this year I had a quadruple bypass (doing fine now) and my wife worries especially if she can not reach me by cell phone.
So about every hour I send her an "I am okay" message. And if she needs me she can find me with the map function or a text message on the cell phone (if I get some reception).
I also have figured out a way to use my SPOT at work. As a Federal Agent sometimes I conduct surveillances on people suspected of possession of large amounts of narcotics. Unfortunately, some of the places where these suspect hang out have poor or no cell phone coverage.
So I use my SPOT. The message on the "OK" button says, "Checking in everything is okay." The "HELP" button message says, "Movement detected. Send backup."
The messages are programmed to go to the cell phone and emails of the Command Post. This way I can check in every hour or so. And if the suspect shows up and I need backup, I just push the "HELP" button. Of course the Tracking function helps the backup team catch up with us if it becomes a rolling surveillance. And if things go really bad, the 911 button gets major help on the way.
Thanks for a great product!
Stephen
Federal Agent
SPOT Satellite Messenger Used By US Forest Service – Spotted Owl Surveying
Just wanted to say that contrary to what many have said, (and as you probably already know) the SPOT tracker works remarkably well under tree canopies and in steep canyons!
I am conducting Spotted Owl surveys this summer on US Forest Service lands, and because we go in to find the owls while they are active, the work requires us to hike cross country into some really remote and thickly forested areas to get to the birds at night. These birds really prefer the thickest pockets of mature trees you can find in the forest, and would probably find Middle Earth’s Fanghorn forest to be a happy place!
Trying to get into these areas at night, coupled the fact that you can only see as far as your headlamp while you are hiking cross country in the dark, there are a few (sarcasm here) times when at least one of my two cell phones work. So, before I leave my truck to go to an owl site, I send out an OK check-in signal with my SPOT, then when we get into the study area at the bottom of the canyon under the trees and such (no open spots here), I send out another OK, then when I get back to the truck I send out a final check out signal. And do you know what? My SPOT unit has never not sent out a signal, even when I have to prematurely turn it off half way through the transmitting process because we moved or something.
Thanks for making such a great product, hopefully I’ll never have to use the 911 feature, but it’s sure nice knowing it’s there!
Cheers,
Anthony Mann
California