IPHONE TO THE RESCUE

When cell towers failed, one climber's iPhone became his lifeline.

- Words By: Aadithya Harish

On a quiet day in Colorado, a 53-year-old mountaineer found himself in serious trouble. While descending Snowmass Mountain from nearly 10,000 feet, he slipped and injured his wrist, leaving him stranded, alone, and out of cellular range.

With no signal and no one nearby, he reached for his iPhone not to make a call, but to activate the Emergency SOS via Satellite feature. The phone guided him to align with a satellite overhead and allowed him to send a distress message to his family. That alert was quickly relayed to the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office and Mountain Rescue Aspen.

Within hours, a 17-member rescue team was mobilized and the climber was brought to safety. This marked another real-world example of how Apple's satellite-powered tech is reshaping emergency response in the most remote corners of the world.

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