One of my first summers in the field really nailed home the message.

Picture this scenario, me and my partner wearing red. Heli-pilot drops us in a cirque that's about 1 mile across. No trees. No bush higher than 1 ft tall.

When heli pilot returns he circles for 10 minutes to find us. Gives up and lands. Waits for us to use the Garmin to text him our coordinates.

Luckily we were a 4-5 hour hike from main camp and had a fully charged Garmin and sat-phone. We would have been ok even if the clouds rolled in and we had to hike out.

But yep. Never heading out without a heli flag again.