YouTuber Homemade Wanderlust, or Dixie, was put in the very difficult position of calling for search and rescue while hiking in the Idaho wilderness. It was nothing she did wrong, it was not her fault, but she still had to do it, pushing the SOS button on her Garmin InReach. It’s pretty rare that we hear from the person who actually had to press the button, so Dixie did a deep dive on her channel explaining her experience and what anyone else who might have to do the same can expect.
She covers a lot of very important portions of the process, from the emergency contact’s point of view to making things easier for the search and rescue team to find you. Very importantly, she covers the importance of pushing the SOS sooner rather than later. Obviously you shouldn’t be treating search and rescue as a free taxi service, but you know your body. If things are clearly going wrong, don’t be afraid to call for help.
Not only can waiting too long lead to your own death, but it’s a lot easier for SAR teams to find people in need of help when the individual is still able to signal helicopters.