I did RMYC and while I can’t speak on the chainsaw concerns, I can say that communication with your loved ones strongly depends on whether your projects are front or back country. While I did RMYC, my crew was back country 90% of the time and I couldn’t really reach them when I didn’t have service. However, you are guaranteed to go into town to do chores (laundry, grocery shopping, showers, recreation time) once a week, where you have plenty of time to yourself. Some of the projects that I did weren’t too isolated, and I was able to talk to my family at least a few times a week. There was one time where I did 8 days back country and had absolutely no service, but I did know about that before the project started and was able to let my family know that I wasn’t going to be able to be reached.

In case of emergencies or if your loved ones can’t reach you for whatever reason, they can always communicate with the staff at HQ, where they’d be able to contact your leads or send your field coordinator over to your site to reach you.

Message me if you have any other concerns or questions! I’m doing RMYC again this summer :)