This personal locator beacon (PLB) feature can be activated by revealing the SOS button, which you can do by pulling the SOS tab and holding the button down. The SOS message is then relayed to the Garmin IERCC service, a 24/7 staffed professional emergency response coordination centre. They will then escalate things to the relevant emergency services in your local region while also keeping yourself and your kin updated on the whereabouts of the rescue team.

While the device might be miniature, a decent amount of battery life has been sustained to help you keep you relaying your position even when you’re days into a long ski tour. This impressive battery life equates to 14 days of continuous run time in the default 10-minute tracking mode, or 30 days when you space the tracking to 30-minute intervals. These GPS intervals are stored onto the device the moment you start tracking meaning that, if you manage to find yourself lost or disoriented, you can then retrace your steps by following the on-screen breadcrumb trail.

GPS features can be activated by scrolling through what Garmin calls an “intuitive user interface” which allows you to navigate through location updates, weather alerts and messages, in an extremely, you guessed it, intuitive way. The new ‘quick view’ feature filters out all but the essentials that you need to view. This seamless device navigation is all shown through a new and updated LCD screen that’s been optimised to be clear and legible in all weather conditions.

And, while the LCD screen and side-mounted buttons can be fiddly at the best of times, the InReach is able to piggyback onto the larger screen of a smartphone (through the Garmin Explore App) to make it easy for you to quickly type messages, get up-to-date weather information, download a variety of maps and use the new course creator to mark and start an automatically generate course line.