New Cell Coverage in Death Valley NP

[Jan Pietrzak]

Ah, the good old days of CBs. On the way down to Bad Water a car pass us at a good rate of speed. I know this road some what and know that afew of the bends and turns can not be taken real fast. Well, you might know the rest of the story. We saw a dust cloud in the distance. As we came up on the car it looked like it had rolled. Yes we got on the CB (not good range) and did the E channel call. We had to go past before I could turn around. Still on the CB, 2 or 3 of the cars behind us stopped. I stopped at one of the high points calling for help. A very short time later the first Ranger showed then the rest. At that time I though it was time to go down and tell them what I saw. One of the Ranger came up the the truck and we talked and thanked us for stopping. He saw my antenna and said if you talk to 'Ford Alaskan' tell them thanks for the E Call, he said it had gotten bounced all over the valley until we got it and where able to send units out. The folks in the car just got banged up a pit, but the rental was a total.

Jan Pietrzak
Oh ps did tell you I drove a Ford with a

[Vaughn]

Substitute snow for sand, and this is exactly what happened...

Another thing...about 4WD. If people drive in such a way that they get stuck with 2WD vehicles, when they get 4WD vehicles, they'll just get stuck further out in the boonies.

[Jan Pietrzak]

Vaughn,

Back in the old days, (the 70/80's) of Death Valley, some one rented 4wds, after a year or two of going out to get them unstuck. They stopped doing the rentals. It was so much fun to see the east coast city folks deal with the tow truck drivers out in the desert.

Jan Pietrzak

[Sirius Glass]

Substitute snow for sand, and this is exactly what happened in the exceptionally remote Owlshead Mountains region in the lower SE corner of DVNP just last year. STORY.

My belief is that those who rely on technologies like GPS, SPOT, cell, for navigation and life support are more likely to end up stuck or dead because of them. I'll take common sense, a map and compass, and a gameplan over any devices any day of the week. If I can't save myself, I don't expect anyone else to be able to.

I can get lost on my own without GPS.

Steve

[Sirius Glass]

Another thing...about 4WD. If people drive in such a way that they get stuck with 2WD vehicles, when they get 4WD vehicles, they'll just get stuck further out in the boonies.

Those of us who know what we are doing do not have these problems.

Steve

[Mark Barendt]

It's common sense to be properly prepared with gear that can help get you out of a jam. It's common courtesy to be properly prepared with gear that can help you help others out of a jam.

None of us are born with common sense and courtesy, common sense and courtesy is purely cultural.

I grew up exploring California's deserts, Northern Mexican deserts, and Death Valley, I knew the risks early. I hung out with people who viewed painting the underside of there vehicles blaze orange as "common sense" because we "knew" eventually we were probably going to be alone and upside down and the search plane would be able to spot us better.

I have very smart successful friends that grew up in close to me in So Cal that had no clue about desert survival, let alone about the need to check the dipstick now and again or even how to change a flat tire. These smart successful people navigate in worlds that I don't understand, where I don't have common sense.

The "fall" of Death Valley and other isolated areas into cell coverage means that many people will never experience or understand "wilderness".

An entire set of common sense rules and courtesies is about to disappear, it's language lost to "can you hear me now?".

[Paul_C]

Mark, motor vehicles have done a lot more to destroy "wilderness" than cell phone coverage ever can.

[Dave Jeffery]

"Far more common but no less perilous, park workers say, are visitors who arrive with cellphones or GPS devices and little else — sometimes not even water — and find themselves in trouble."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/sc...s.html?_r=1&hp

Same story at the NY times.

[Paul_C]

Great article.

Cathy Hayes was cracking jokes as she recorded a close encounter with a buffalo on her camera... Seconds later, as if on cue, the buffalo lowered its head, pawed the ground and charged, injuring, as it turns out, Ms. Hayes.
...
A French teenager was injured after plunging 75 feet this month from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon when he backed up while taking pictures.
...
The national parks’ history is full of examples of misguided visitors... putting children on buffalos for photos

Yet for some reason I don't think I'll hold my breath waiting for an outcry to ban cameras from people here.

The service acknowledges that the new technologies have benefits as well. They can and do save lives when calls come from people who really are in trouble.
...
Like a lot of other national parks, Rocky Mountain does not allow cellphone towers, so service that visitors may take for granted is spotty at best. "Sometimes when they call 911, it goes to a communications center in Nebraska or Wyoming," Mr. Patterson said. "And that can take a long time to sort out."

One of the most frustrating new technologies for the parks to deal with, rangers say, are the personal satellite messaging devices that can send out an emergency signal but are not capable of two-way communication.

...without two-way communication, the rangers cannot evaluate the seriousness of the call, so they respond as if it were an emergency.

And these are great arguments for putting up cell towers.

[Jim Galli]

I'm a local. I don't bother going to death valley because no matter where I set up my tripod, some other "culturally challenged" photog will set up his tripod in front of me.

We drove 2 unrestored Model T's and a Model A through Titus canyon one year. No cell phones. Lots of water. The old cars with the skinny tires did little damage. Of course there were only about 1/3 the people on earth then.