Camper found after 6 wks in wilderness

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longbow

Joined
Jan 9, 1999
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A camper(female) was just found yesterday I belive in the Gila National Wilderness in New Mexico. She went camping for a planned 2 wk stay I belive on 12/6. Gila River became swollen and she couldn't cross back. 2 other campers found her yesterday. She hunkered down in her camp for all this time. Had approx. 2 wks of food when she left. Amazing. keepem sharp
 
Lucky or not, it sounds like she kept her wits and had an idea of what she was capable of doing and not doing. She sounded like she was plenty alert when the brothers found her. Definitely a neat story. I look forward to hearing about it from her.

Her story reinforces for me the 'prepare for the worst, and hope for the best' rule.
 
Kudo's to her! She didn't let her ego kill her.:D

Not suprising a women would be able to survive a situation of this kind, they typically have more sense than us dudes.
 
To be clear though, she broke the fist rule of survival and did not leave a trip plan with friends or family. She was VERY lucky that the hikers stumbled upon her.

If someone wants to go solo without leaving a plan then it seems investing in a PLB would be a reasonable consideration.
 
she sat around waiting on someone that might or might not come. My version of survival is a little different.
 
Well she obeyed the very first rule of survival in that she stayed put. She made her food last and used water from the Gila River when she ran out of personal water. I wouldn't call it lucky after surving for 6 weeks. Some modicum of luck maybe but definetly had her shit together if you ask me especially making it through low temps and lots of snow and not panicking. keepem sharp
 
longbow said:
Well she obeyed the very first rule of survival in that she stayed put. She made her food last and used water from the Gila River when she ran out of personal water. I wouldn't call it lucky after surving for 6 weeks. Some modicum of luck maybe but definetly had her shit together if you ask me especially making it through low temps and lots of snow and not panicking. keepem sharp
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that is the first rule assuming you are going to be rescued. The search party had been called off and these guys just happened to find her. She would not have lived had they not found her. If she had been truly surviving and living off the land she would have had the energy and crossed the river and returned to her vehicle. The people who found her crossed it so did the pilot so she could have also. All she did was stretch her food and prolong death a few weeks longer and someone stumbled upon her. I am not belittleing her at all in fact I tip my hat to her for the descisions she made that kept her alive. By all mean good show old gal. She still didnt really survive like our ancestors would have. So true survival story yes and no.
 
edit: I agree with Art, also, the line is drawn at Living or Dying.

I'm going with Longbow's take on this one.
She planned on 2 weeks, and made it for 6 weeks. She must have used her brain, experience and equipment and didn't panic.
Did you catch her age? 52 years old. So this wasn't some 28 yr old young-lass out there.

I will throw out this idea:
I think she was MORE prepared to endure since she had planned on being out for at least two weeks, Versus someone who only only plans to be out for a Day Hike. Then , to the next lower level of preparedness, like the Kim's, who hadn't "planned" on being outdoors at all.
Our level of preparedness is increased with the total duration of our "Planned" outing.

-If you are going on a 1 hour hike, you have a pocket knife and bottle of water.
-Day Hike you have a fanny pack.
-Weekend Hike you have BackPack, tent, bag, cooknig stuff, food & water, etc.
-2 week hike, Pack Mule time.

example; It might be easier to survive 2 months in the Alaskan Wilderness, if you had already planned to do it for a month anyway.

Having a full pack of goodies and equipment had to be a huge help. Also, this women was no Day Hiker, any lady who ventures out for a planned 2 week trip is "most likely" an experienced hiker that mis-gauged her path of egress.
If she is a beginner hiker, that struck out alone, with no posted plans, no cell phone, no itinerary, and did this, then it really is Luck. The serachers never imagined she would have covered that distance, what does that tell ya?
No slouch.

One of the lessons I have picked out of this, and probably went through James Kim's head , "By now, they have called off the search".
The first few days, you gotta figure they are looking, but, after a week or so you must start wondering that they have written you off for dead.

At what point do you plan to Hike Out? No matter how big the obstacles?

I wonder if there are any fish in that river?
 
If she had even left a note with her travel plan in her car - and stuck to her plan - then they might have searched farther out from her car; instead they gave up.

I said that leaving a plan with a friend or family is the first rule of survival - maybe that is the first rule of survival prevention, and staying put is the first rule of survival.

I read that by the time the water had gone down enough to cross the river she was too weak to do it. They also said she was dehydrated. I suppose she had become too weak to drink enough water, which makes me think that she was near death. Clearly there was water in the nearby river.

If she'd had a PLB they have found her in a matter of hours - long before her food would have run out.
 
She was dehydrated yes and was weak from that according to what I have read. Hosp. reported her as being in good conditon. After 6 wks with the weather she endured well holy crap and 52 yrs old to boot! She's good to go in my book. keepem sharp
 
amazing! the more people who post threads about the 52 yr old hag, the more weeks she scared off grizzlies:eek: The way i heard it she was some wacked out city woman that grabbed a pack and headed out alone without leaving any trip plan with the local park office:jerkit: So more tax dollars were spent to put people in danger so she could wander around in the woods and look at the pretty trees:( I'm not big on people who put them selves in poistions of needing rescuing....but then again I'm not some city hick who could care less what it takes to mount a SAR to come get their sorry a**:thumbdn:
 
longbow said:
She was dehydrated yes and was weak from that according to what I have read. Hosp. reported her as being in good conditon. After 6 wks with the weather she endured well holy crap and 52 yrs old to boot! She's good to go in my book. keepem sharp
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i agree with you totaly on this.
 
kenk said:
If she had even left a note with her travel plan in her car - and stuck to her plan - then they might have searched farther out from her car; instead they gave up.
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In 98.6 Degrees, Cody Lundin makes this point time and time again: make sure someone knows where you're going and when you'll intend to be back. He also suggests leaving your itinerary in the car, and he suggests leaving your boot (or shoe, as the case may be) impressions in the car by using aluminum foil to record them. All of these things are intended to help people find you should shit happen.

At least one reviewer of that book suggests that no one should be allowed to graduate high school without having read it. I agree.

The more I study the phenomena of people getting lost or hurt, the more I think that people simply venture out of town too casually. Too many people act as if they're living in a great, grand amusement park where the rent-a-cop will come to their rescue should they stub a toe or something. Somehow, the vast majority of Americans have forgotten how puny they are in the face of nature's unpredictable moods.

I don't blame this woman for the situation she found herself in because, frankly, I think her mental models are more the norm for Americans rather than the exception. She's just a product of her (our) culture. Really, it's too bad to see how stupid and overconfident "civilized" people have become.
 
bulgron said:
In 98.6 Degrees, Cody Lundin makes this point time and time again: make sure someone knows where you're going and when you'll intend to be back. He also suggests leaving your itinerary in the car, and he suggests leaving your boot (or shoe, as the case may be) impressions in the car by using aluminum foil to record them. All of these things are intended to help people find you should shit happen.

At least one reviewer of that book suggests that no one should be allowed to graduate high school without having read it. I agree.

The more I study the phenomena of people getting lost or hurt, the more I think that people simply venture out of town too casually. Too many people act as if they're living in a great, grand amusement park where the rent-a-cop will come to their rescue should they stub a toe or something. Somehow, the vast majority of Americans have forgotten how puny they are in the face of nature's unpredictable moods.

I don't blame this woman for the situation she found herself in because, frankly, I think her mental models are more the norm for Americans rather than the exception. She's just a product of her (our) culture. Really, it's too bad to see how stupid and overconfident "civilized" people have become.
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I agree, any idiot (not saying she is one) can take their credit card down to EMS, REI, Sports Authority and get a full on 'backpacking kit' and drive to the 'edge of civilization' and park their car and start walking. Does that make them 'skilled to survive'? I think not, it encourages folks who have no business past the parking lot to imitate TV shows, knowing that at the worst they will have bad hair when the media photograghs their rescue. I'm all for PAID RESCUES, you pay, you get lost, YOU PAY:thumbup: .... my taxes are high enough thank you, and I work for a living, not a trust fund baby:mad: You should be required to pass a written profieciency exam in order to carry a backpack into the bush; without it you'd restrict yourself to sight of your car from the fear that no one was coming to get yer sorry a**:eek:
 
1Tracker said:
I agree, any idiot (not saying she is one) can take their credit card down to EMS, REI, Sports Authority and get a full on 'backpacking kit' and drive to the 'edge of civilization' and park their car and start walking. Does that make them 'skilled to survive'? I think not, it encourages folks who have no business past the parking lot to imitate TV shows, knowing that at the worst they will have bad hair when the media photograghs their rescue. I'm all for PAID RESCUES, you pay, you get lost, YOU PAY:thumbup: .... my taxes are high enough thank you, and I work for a living, not a trust fund baby:mad: You should be required to pass a written profieciency exam in order to carry a backpack into the bush; without it you'd restrict yourself to sight of your car from the fear that no one was coming to get yer sorry a**:eek:
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While I agree with your general attitude here, I want to point out that SAR efforts often aren't as expensive as you might think. Most of the people involved are volunteers. Helicopters and other such SAR gear is often obtained from the local National Guard and the search effort is usually a highly valuable training exercise that they'd be conducting regardless of whether there was someone actually lost.

As for a required written exam for entering the bush ... no way. I won't elaborate except to point out that most of the people around here would scream if they had to take a written exam to purchase a firearm (and I know what I'm talking about -- in the state of CA you must take a written exam in order to exercise your second amendment rights). For the same reason, you shouldn't want written exams for backcountry entry.
 
Anywhere in canada You need a Written exam to own firearms, then another one to hunt, if you should choose to do so. damn, fire arm laws, Although I am happy about Steve taking off the registration on hunting rifles, If your gonna shoot someone with a hunting rifle, your probably so far gone off, it wont matter if the gun is registered or not.
 
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