Fenix 8 Satellite SOS, Hiking Rescues and inReach: What 3,000 Callouts Tell Us About 2025

Garmin has published its annual review of inReach SOS incidents for 2025. The headline writes itself again: injured hikers got themselves airlifted. If that was you last year, you were not alone – far from it.

But genuine changes in the nature of 2025’s callouts are making themselves known, and Garmin has made a significant move in the competitive landscape — more on that below.

The Numbers

For the first time, Garmin has confirmed a hard figure: more than 3,000 SOS incidents were received in 2025. I am genuinely surprised at how low that global figure is.

Whether that represents growth from 2024 is impossible to say — Garmin still publishes activity breakdowns as proportions rather than absolutes — but the direction across multiple categories suggests expansion rather than contraction in callouts.

The top five categories were unchanged from 2024: hiking and backpacking remain the dominant source of callouts, followed by driving, motorcycling, and climbing and mountaineering. Within those categories, trail and mountain incidents were notably up. The trend flagged in last year’s review — dirt biking and rafting rising — did not continue. Both appear to have plateaued.

The more telling shift is on the water. Boating has replaced hunting as the sixth-largest category, with sailing incidents trending upward. Marine is a genuine growth area for inReach callouts, reflecting both increased adoption at sea and Garmin’s active push into that market. Cycling, motorcycling and paddle sports also increased.

Why Were People Pressing SOS?

Injuries remain the top cause — no change. Motor vehicle accidents and issues were second. Vessel issues were trending up, consistent with the marine activity story. Medical issues, stranded persons and lost parties completed the top five.

The continued year-on-year rise in medical issues — altitude sickness, heart problems, gastrointestinal conditions — is the one to watch. The most plausible reading is a combination of more people attempting high-altitude objectives and an ageing adventure demographic pushing harder than it perhaps should.

Who Triggered It?

Most activations were still by the device owner, but that proportion fell slightly in 2025. A growing share was triggered on behalf of another party member, a group, or a third-party individual. InReach is functioning less as personal insurance and more as group safety infrastructure. Worth noting the next time a hiking companion argues they don’t need one because you have yours.

What Was Dispatched?

Helicopters, ambulances, police, and search-and-rescue teams were again the most common responses. The standout figure: helicopters were dispatched in roughly one-third of all incidents. These are not calls for help because the path got muddy. Professional organisation responses increased — a direct consequence of the work-related category growing. In over 12 per cent of cases, two-way messaging enabled self-rescue without requiring emergency resources.

What Garmin Changed Mid-Year

Three new products altered what happens after the button is pressed. The Fenix 8 Pro launched as the first Garmin smartwatch with native inReach satellite and cellular SOS — no separate device required. The inReach Mini 3 Plus and GPSMAP H1i Plus added photo and voice messaging via satellite, including during an active SOS event.

That last capability is the significant one. Garmin Response coordinators can now receive images and hear audio from a scene in progress. It is a materially different capability from a traditional one-way beacon, and it will likely improve outcomes in ways that won’t appear in the statistics for another year or two.

Take Out

The quietly important story is enterprise. Work-related incidents entering the top ten reflect commercial adoption — field crews, expeditions, offshore operations — in a segment Apple is not competing for and is unlikely to pursue. That is a more defensible growth vector than the consumer adventure market, where competitive pressure is real.

Three thousand rescues a year and rising. Carry something that works where you are going. What that something looks like is changing faster than it was.

The competitive threats I identified last year have moved on. My prediction that 2025 might bring satellite or cellular connectivity to a Garmin watch was correct — the Fenix 8 Pro delivered it natively with no additional InReach accessory now required.

On the three emerging threats highlighted last year (low Earth orbit satellite constellations, satellite smartphones, satellite smartwatches), Garmin fares well tactically:

• Apple’s satellite coverage remains limited to around 20 countries, with no two-way coordination, no LiveTrack, and no professional response team managing the rescue. For serious objectives in genuinely remote terrain, that gap still matters. The arguments against Pixel Watch and satellite smartphones is similar.
• Starlink and low-earth-orbit networks are expanding, but are not yet a consumer personal safety product in any meaningful sense.
• Garmin has answered the connected watch question directly with the Fenix 8 Pro

Last Updated on 4 March 2026 by the5krunner

the5krunner

tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors.