Laura,
I, too, hate to see someone lose their life for any reason in the mountains.
As someone who has witnessed a climbing accident and called out SAR. I know what can go wrong in a call out...like the Angeles National Forest not having the pertinent map so I could give them the UTM grid where the accident occurred.
I carry my GPS all the time now because it can help get people help a bit earlier, if something goes terribly wrong. I'm not a gram counter.
A SAR friend sent me an article that states people take their phones and tablets into the wilderness thinking this gives them license to do more than their skills allow, which ultimately cause more work for our SAR units.
