Speculation on missing people is a bad idea. I've been involved with 3 long term searches, all 3 went way, way off the rails. Huge dedicated search teams, found all 3 eventually. In all 3 of these accidents, search teams went over the missing person and somehow missed them on the first go.
In this accident could it be be, that, he somehow dropped his Tracker, flew on and then later, many miles away, had a major problem? Is he in the local area the tracker last pinged? In a crevasse? Just out of sight?
I used my InReach today and looked at the strap, it seems quite sturdy. Again, speculation which is often wrong. It's So hard on the friends and family not knowing. A bad situation that won't seem to end.
Remember how long it took for someone, way off any trail and not even looking, to stumble upon Steve Fossett?
Years.
Nevada is huge, and extremely rural and remote, he could be anywhere.
He might not ever be found.
This is a good lesson for us Glider Pilots to make sure our trackers stay attached to our body's in a bail out incident. If you bailed out in the wind or wave at 17K and lost your tracker you could drift quite a way.
Everyone I fly with has a Tracker and Flarm, were evolving and getting better.
Fly safe in 2020
Nick
T