My Take.

With all this discussion of Spots - who has them, why they carry them, who actually made the purchase, I know three things -

First - it's going to be freakin' Sweet to watch the Leaderboard for The Tour Divide (and other none-official TDers who will be racing the course while packing) this year.

Second - it's really hard to quantify exactly what advantages and/or handicaps are presented to different riders depending on whether they do or do not carry a Spot, mobile phone, GPS device, iPod etc. Does it add or release you from addition pressure, knowing so many might be watching your progress???

Third - the worst part of TransIowa v4 was after I had called for help and was waiting... not knowing where help was, how long it would take them to get to me, etc. Having run into Essam while he was attempting to ride the Kokopelli trail this year, showed me just how added the uncertainty was with a Spot. He knew he had pushed the buttom, but he had no idea if that meant his contact was actually on his way to pick him up or not, or even it his contact had gotten the signal he had told the bight orange box to send. And not knowing these things, it makes it pretty darn hard to figure out what the next step is... stay where you are, move closer to where you presume help is, find water, find a place to hide from the weather, or remain as visible as possible... when you're racing and moving you can make those decisions easily but when you don't know how long you have to remain somewhere it throws a lot of uncertainty into the mix... and no one I know who has a Spot doesn't already appreciate that.

I would think, even if you had a Spot, in most cases it would still be easiest and safest to get yourself out of whatever problem situation you were in - unless you were no longer capable of movement.


In a perfect world, each person would draw their own technology line, knowing themselves well enough to know what would or would not be an unfair psychological advantage... but the world isn't perfect -

and personally, if the whole point is to be all Person against Nature, or Person against Themselves, out alone, in the desolation of their own mind and backcountry, with nothing but two hands, years worth of amped up muscles, and incessant thoughts of inferiority - I'd take away iPods and satellite radios before Spots.