Rost, funny you mention the SPOT. As you probably know the SPOT works on the Globostar system where as our sat phone works on the Iridium system. This experience has just confirmed that fact that I MUCH prefer a sat phone over a SPOT having used both in the past. While playing sat phone tag to the different departments on teh mountain, troopers, Kodiak police, and finally our USCG we were dropping calls even on the Iridium system due to the mountainous terrain we were in and would have to wait (we passed that time by dragging my wife further down the mountain to where a chopper could get close to her) and try calling back in a few minutes. It was invaluable to us to have the ability to have a two way conversation with the folks on the other end and explain the problem and then get the confirmation that the bird was in the air and be there in 30 minutes. Had we just had the SPOT we would have hoped we got the signal out and then sat there wondering if they would send a boat to our base camp 4 miles away or a chopper or if they got the signal at all.
Don't get me wrong SPOTs are a great tool, I use my bros so family can track my wife and I progress on our long 100+ mile backpacking trips, but for emergency rescue and what not a sat phone is hard to beat and $1500 for a phone is a drop in the bucket when your wife is laid up on a steep mountain side with no possible way to get her to where the float plane dropped us off 4000 feet lower and 4 miles away through nasty Kodiak alders. Heck I would have paid 10X that amount for that phone in that situation. Just something to consider atleast as this experience was a learning experience for us and while we were as prepared as one could be given the circumstances, it just goes to show how fast a slip or misplaced step things can go from "Awesome we got a goat lets go back to camp" to broken bones on the side of a steep slippery mountain side.
