Survivor
Post date: Dec 11, 2012 4:11:21 AM
But this is not the sleazy television show--this is real life. In case you missed it, a couple of adventurers drove their 4wd up into the snowy mountains a week ago...and then got stuck. He climbed out after a few days and went for help. She waited a full six days before finally hiking out.
The good news is that she was found, and alive. She is now recovering and will tell her tale in more detail. But her friend died on the way for help. Here's most of the rest of the story, from the local Reno newspaper:
http://www.rgj.com/viewart/20121210/NEWS/312100028/?odyssey=tab%7cmostpopular%7ctext%7cSPORTS06
The story does drive home a few good points about winter travel.
1. Please be careful, and understand what you are doing. If you don't have a viable plan B, stop until you think of one. If there isn't a plan B. get the heck out of there now.
2. You can live for six days without food, but you can't live that long without water. Despite what those idiots on the TV do and say, don't worry quite so much about foraging for edibles, and make sure you know how to walk out
3. If the road is closed, the road is closed. We aborted a hike last weekend because the road to the trailhead was closed. Yeah, the weather had improved, and we probably could have made it just fine. But if we got into any trouble at all, nobody would have known where we were or how to get there. And well...you get the picture.
4. This is not the first time that the man has left the woman behind in the car, and the woman survives while the man does not. Frankly, I think we'd always stick together in a situation like this, and work together to get out of it.
Winter is a lovely time in the Sierra, and this story should just caution you to enjoy it safely.