Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: gunsmith on October 04, 2012, 03:17:57 PM
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Some of you may remember this thread, about the Canadian couple stranded in the NV outback
http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=29552.0
From what I saw on TV he nearly made it, if they had at least minimum survival knowledge they both would have made it.
A grim reminder that GPS isn't reliable and if you are driving through the American wilderness - you need to be prepared.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/10/01/albert-chretien-body-found.html
where he made it to was far beyond what he was equipped for.
meaning if he had been equipped it may have turned out different... =(
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http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/10/01/2294586/remains-of-missing-canadian-found.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy
From the article:
Prall was in charge of the original search for the Chretiens in the spring of 2011. He said it's hard to explain to people the remoteness of the area where Idaho's high desert collides with Nevada's snow-capped Independence Mountains. Rvers and streams with headwaters mostly in the wilderness area drain off 10,000-foot peaks to the north on their way to the Snake River.
"Somebody who's never really been outside of the Las Vegas city limits wouldn't understand, but it is very vast," he said.
Amen to this. You get under the thick forest canopy in the mountains out here and it can be some tough going trying to cover country or be seen in an aerial search. Add in bad weather, the inability to see landmarks for dead reckoning, and that the high country forest is a food desert, and things can go south in a hurry.
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Know your limits. Expanding them is a good idea. But going WELL past your skill and knowledge level, with poor equipment... Yep, not surprising. I take water and minimal supplies with me on day hikes. Honestly, as long as I'm warm and have access to water, I can survive a week unless injured. Water purification pills and a GOOD emergency "space blanket" takes care of that.
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GPS may be useful, but if you can't find your way there and back again without it then you shouldn't go out of sight of a Starbucks ;/
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I was 5 miles outside Darwin in the NT heading towards Kakadu, when I decided it was prudent to turn around, drive back and load up on supplies at a grocery store.
Boyscout training FTW.
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GPS may be useful, but if you can't find your way there and back again without it then you shouldn't go out of sight of a Starbucks ;/
lulz.
It does amaze me the number of people that head out into the wild places without paper maps or prior experience of the area.
I'm glad the family got closure, and that the man's body was left alone.
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I pack a compass and printing out a topo map of the Boy Scout Camp when we camp out there for a night or two.
For me, it is force of habit. If I am going out into the wilderness or woods, I want a topo map and a compass.
I was the only one on several canoe trips down the Rio Grande to pack a topo map. And heat.
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Oh the stories I could tell...
Latest favorite is the idiot who started out at evening on our hardest trail. This individual was encountered by a group of experienced hikers who stopped him, talked to him, and after much difficulty were able to convince him that he wasn't prepared for the trail, that it was too late, and that it was just not a good idea for him to go down it.
The guy was in his '70s, had no equipment, no water, nothing, and for the icing on the cake, he had an insulin pump. Yes sports fans, you read that right, an insulin pump.
You can lead a horse to water but can't make it drink. That's what our problem was. We had maps all over the place, we would talk to hikers and answer any and all questions and try to help them, but in the end they would frequently decide to do completely retarded *expletive deleted*it they had no business doing and wind up with us having to pull their asses out of the frying pan.
I *expletive deleted*ing HATE search and rescue work.