Garmin inReach 2024 – injured hikers get themselves airlifted is the best summary.

Garmin has just published its annual look back at inReach and how we used the service. There are some interesting changes to the previous year, but the best summary is that injured hikers continue to get themselves injured and then airlifted by helicopter back to safety. If that was you…you were not as unique and special as your mother may have once told you. But the changes to how we use inReach aren’t happening in isolation; other more significant changes are afoot in the wider emergency space.

Garmin’s Stats

The pie chart below shows that hikers continue to face extreme danger more than any other activity. I always thought horse riding was the most dangerous activity, but it seems that ill-fitting walking boots are far more of a serious problem than the impetuosities of our oversized four-legged friends.

A more sensible interpretation of the stats shows increases in dirt biking and rafting; other increases came from camping and mountain biking. Readers unfamiliar with inReach should know it is a satellite-based safety service (iridium) necessary for those beyond regular cell range. So, the increases in call-outs are probably more likely to reflect increased numbers of people doing more unusual activities in remote places than general increases in carelessness.

The stats Garmin shared this year and last show percentages rather than absolute values. So we don’t know if the use of the inReach service is growing, although Garmin’s wording elsewhere suggests there is growth, and I would probably buy that.

The most common reasons include injury and medical issues, which far outweigh vehicle-related causes. Garmin further shares more detailed reasons that involve increases in altitude sickness, hurricanes and wildfires, plus wildlife, including bears and rattlesnakes (not horses 😉 )

Most calls were for injury to the owner of the unReach, but almost half of the calls were related to other group members.

We can assume the subsequent call-outs were for serious events requiring airlifting or ambulances. I’m guessing that you need decent insurance and an inReach subscription.

Take Out

You can see from the first map showing callouts that the locations tend to be remote, mountainous or both. So, in the UK, I’ve never encountered an inReach owner in the wild; our callouts have come from Scotland and the North.

However, I strongly suspect the global safety support infrastructure, including that over cell networks, is changing rapidly. The two/three key changes from now on will be

• More low Earth orbit satellite systems, such as Starlink. These already can route more than simple cries for help when you are out of cell range.
• Encroachment on inReach by Apple and other smartphones – even my lowly iPhone 15 Pro from 2 years ago can connect to satellites to send messages should I need help. More and more people are getting phones that are sufficiently capable of being assistance devices in most cases.
• Ever more connected watches – My Apple Watch has LTE connectivity, and I usually rely on it for communication rather than taking a phone. 5G RedCap connectivity should come more widely to watches this year or next, and we might even see satellite chips in smartwatches.

These trends all conspire against the Garmin inReach service, offering alternatives that are certainly cheaper and might be good enough as a safety net.inReach will always have a place, but, like with Fenix, that place might be relegated to the true adventurers who need precisely what that service offers with mainstream alternatives taking over for the assistance needs of less adventurous weekend warriors and their iPhones.

2025 could be the first year we see 5G or satellite connectivity on a Garmin watch if the company chooses to respond to the changes. I’m pretty sure they will respond. It’s just a question of when and why Apple was able to do this before Garmin.