Anyone carry an emergency rescue beacon?

If you are from out of province, but have Canadian medical insurance in another province you'll get emergency care covered, but not follow up care like rehab and not a $$$ medical flight back home. So someone from ON gets stuck in BC because they are too sick for commercial air flights, but can't afford a medical flight home and can't get rehab in BC. Often they are without family support because those folks can't simply stop working, travel across the country and stay in a hotel in BC for an extended time. It can be a real nightmare.

If you have travel insurance that usually covers medical flights back home at which point you'll get rehab/follow on services and your family can support you. Canadians are usually thinking about travel insurance for heading to the US, but not for travel within Canada.

It's worth mentioning most "premium" credit cards in Canada include out-of-province emergency travel medical insurance. Many Canadians may not know they have this. Just holding the card usually makes the cardholder and sometimes their families eligible. It's worth looking into but pay attention to language excluding "dangerous" sports in general or certain outdoor activities specifically.

Curious, do any of you know of a device or app that could let others know my location. I ride solo a lot these days and with my epilepsy I know my wife/family aren’t always comfortable with that. Maybe it would give them a little piece of mind.

Posted by: FLATCH

Curious, do any of you know of a device or app that could let others know my location. I ride solo a lot these days and with my epilepsy I know my wife/family aren’t always comfortable with that. Maybe it would give them a little piece of mind.

If you pay for Strava it can provide a link your family can track you with so that if you stopped moving they'd know where.

https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/224357527-Strava-Beacon#:~:text=in%20real%2Dtime.-,How%20it%20works,your%20activity%20in%20real%2Dtime.

InReach and Spot also offer this service, but they don't require cell service like Strava does to function.

Posted by: Vikb

Posted by: FLATCH

Curious, do any of you know of a device or app that could let others know my location. I ride solo a lot these days and with my epilepsy I know my wife/family aren’t always comfortable with that. Maybe it would give them a little piece of mind.

If you pay for Strava it can provide a link your family can track you with so that if you stopped moving they'd know where.

https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/224357527-Strava-Beacon#:~:text=in%20real%2Dtime.-,How%20it%20works,your%20activity%20in%20real%2Dtime.

InReach and Spot also offer this service, but they don't require cell service like Strava does to function.

Thanks Vik.

If you're generally in cell service just use life360 app. Free version is fine. Have used it for years.

Posted by: Kenny

If you're generally in cell service just use life360 app. Free version is fine. Have used it for years.

I'll have a go with this, I've used Glympse in the past, but the GPS signal it sends your nominated contact is pretty janky (this could be my phones GPS).

Posted by: FLATCH

Curious, do any of you know of a device or app that could let others know my location. I ride solo a lot these days and with my epilepsy I know my wife/family aren’t always comfortable with that. Maybe it would give them a little piece of mind.

You can set up various Garmin devices to allow others to track you. I think some can be set to send an alert to a phone number if the device detects an accident. 

There was a climbing incident near Banff a couple years back where the climbers had gotten trapped by weather up high so they triggered their emergency locator device. I think it was triggered a day after they were supposed to be back.  I don’t recall which one it was but they heard a helicopter within a few hours. Weather prevented a rescue that day but the chopper got there next day and they were rescued. But they discovered that no signal had been received. The rescue was initiated when their parents called it in. The climbers told their parents where they were going and when they would be back. So don’t rely solely on one thing for potential rescue.

The Zoleo is the one I have. I don't bring it biking but sledding I do carry it.

Posted by: Vikb

Posted by: TristanC

I also pay for the SAR insurance, after I saw a guy (during a non-remote, non-technical gravel ride) fracture his skull and have to get airlifted to a hospital.

What does the SAR insurance cover in BC that's not [mostly] covered already. AFAIK the actual SAR process is free and ambulance/air ambulance is under $100 if you are covered by MSP.

I'm in the States, unfortunately, so there's a separate policy for everything. I've heard stories of $50k ambulance rides.

Posted by: Vikb

Posted by: FLATCH

Curious, do any of you know of a device or app that could let others know my location. I ride solo a lot these days and with my epilepsy I know my wife/family aren’t always comfortable with that. Maybe it would give them a little piece of mind.

If you pay for Strava it can provide a link your family can track you with so that if you stopped moving they'd know where.

https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/224357527-Strava-Beacon#:~:text=in%20real%2Dtime.-,How%20it%20works,your%20activity%20in%20real%2Dtime.

InReach and Spot also offer this service, but they don't require cell service like Strava does to function.

Beacon works with free Strava as well, can't remember the limitation but I use it with my wife on every ride. I should be telling her specific ride plans/times etc. but beacon is better than nothing. She knows generally how long my rides are and if I don't respond to a text/call can see where I am (road and mtb, lucky to have cell coverage pretty much everywhere I ride these days).

lots of places in the sea to sky, even close to town, drop cell signals frequently so I almost always have my inreach mini in my pocket or pack. been a part of many incidents that while even close to town could easily have gone sideways quickly, so it's nice to have the extra peace of mind.

The new iPhone is offering a satellite SOS feature --> https://www.pinkbike.com/news/apple-launches-new-iphone-with-satellite-communication.html

Posted by: Vikb

The new iPhone is offering a satellite SOS feature --> https://www.pinkbike.com/news/apple-launches-new-iphone-with-satellite-communication.html

Though seen a few saying they will still carry their Inreach and what not because what if the phone breaks or whatever happens to it.