I know a lot of Yukon trappers, First Nations and non First Nations, who carry a sat phone when in the bush or travel with a buddy for safety. And if you get the right phone (Iridium, not the cheaper and unreliable Globalstar/SPOTphones) you have pretty good coverage even way up north.
The way you describe it sounds like First Nations people and old-school trappers don't need those ways of communications. Funny enough, many search & rescue operations in the Yukon involve First Nation people in need for help (probably just as many as non Fist Nation folks...). Had they any means to call for help, it would have been much easier for anyone involved. Reading CBC North news, I always stumble across articles about First Nation hunters getting lost and being overdue for days, and having major search & rescue operations looking for them. Some are being found alive, some dead, some never.
You may be right about all the signal gimmicks are of not much help in a vast environment. But if you left a trip plan with someone reliable, chances are that someone comes looking for you at some point. And if they search the right area, signal mirrors, flares, signal fires, etc are exactly the things they hope to see, because they stand out.
It is true though how with modern technology like satellite messengers & phones, we feel safer. And very naked and vulnerable without. This of course is not quite the way it should be, since those technologies are not capable of preventing accidents. But they may enable us to call for help if something went wrong. Two very different things! Unfortunately they often get mixed up.
My personal view on this kind of safety equipment changed with two events. First was a severe case of diarrhea (probably a bacteria obtained in BC) in which after two days I was so dehydrated and weak that I was no longer able to do anything and I fell unconscious a few times. Took another three days until I got "rescued" and brought to a hospital. That was not even in a real wilderness situation. It was the first time when I experienced something that knocked me off my feet so badly that I thought I could have died, had it happened far away from civilization and without communication means.
Second time was when I was out with a dog team sledding and some nerve in my back got pinched and all muscles locked up. I was no longer able to stand up or walk. Fortunately I was not alone (but often I am) and I got help to get out and to the hospital. If I had been alone somewhere in the Yukon wilderness in the middle of winter without the ability to make a fire or get to shelter, it could also have meant the end.
Those events made me think pretty hard about means to call for help if need be.
Thanks for this, so well put.
Just to add...
IMHO obviously each of us has to assess their own risk and what to carry day to day, what we end up deciding on carrying will probably be right for us in the environments we wander in.
However for emergency use the majority of us will hopefully have no direct experience of what is needed or what this means. Especially since most of us will not be putting ourselves in harms way intentionally. Clearly signalling equipment is not needed 999 times out of a 1000 but when it is it could mean the difference between being saved or not.
Also by their very nature accidents tend to be freak events that are hard to plan for or that will happen even after all the right precautions are taken.
An itinerary left with someone, weighs nothing and is the most surefire means of someone looking for you if you happen to get into difficulty. Thus leaving a route/plan with someone should be a matter of course.
Having a definite means of lighting a fire should really be on your person at all times, this is a no-brainer and we all tend to do this. A signal fire is therefore already in our power.
Most people take a torch or lantern for overnight trips, again many keep it close to hand so another signalling device.
Whistles weigh next to nothing and are great to use to attract attention. Why not take one on a string around your neck?
A mirror or signal mirror, any sufficiently shiny surface might work but why not add a small signal mirror to your wallet?
As for a brightly coloured tarp, my spaceblanket doubles as a groundsheet, tarp or protective layer, it weighs very little and gets used every trip anyway. It just happens to be bright orange and silver. A no brainer for me.
In the UK at least it's surprising the places a mobile phone can reach and coverage tends to improve all the time. Also the majority carry one every day so why not keep one in a pocket.
Further afield or where risks are greater then a sat phone or 2 way radio might be useful but obviously each has to assess the relative pros and cons in that situation.
To my mind it then becomes not why are you taking signalling devices but rather why not??
