This may be taking the topic off-track just a bit, but…

Two years ago my wife, son, daughter-in-law, daughter, and I were on a ten day route through the Boundary Waters. All of us had done similar trips before. My son and I have had training in handling basic wilderness emergencies and my wife is an RN.

On our fourth day out my wife slipped and dislocated/broke her ankle rather badly. Since I suspected that dislocation was a real probability I knew that time was an issue. We were able to portage her out to an edge of the BWCA that has a few powerboats on it and flagged down an outfitter on his way home for the day. (We still haven’t figured out how she slipped. She was crossing a section of exposed, smooth, bedrock. The orthopedic surgeon who fixed her up good-as-new called it a “horrific injury”.)

Getting her out ourselves was never going to be an option. It took us three hours to get her across one especially difficult portage that was only 1/3 of a mile long. We would have been facing at least a dozen more portages. The only other option I could see was to set up camp for her and two of the others, while two of us went out for help. That would have taken at least two days, most likely more.

Everything turned out okay. She broke her ankle at 10:00 AM and we were at the Ely ER by 9:00 PM.

But I know just how lucky we got that day. Of all the outcomes that had both good and bad possibilities, we had almost totally good. However, the incident made me rethink my desire for those types of outings. For a time I considered myself done. I didn’t want to test the Fates who decided to go easy on us that day.

The itch is starting again, despite the very strong memories of how I felt that day. Even so, I think the only way I would consider going again is with a PLB.

My question to the group is…would triggering a PLB have been appropriate in this situation?

Pete