A couple of friends decided to take a day hike on a trail just outside of Palm Springs, California, but it wasn’t long before things went horribly wrong. They became lost, one of them got injured, and it took two days before rescuers could airlift him to safety. What happened in the intervening time was a comedy of errors that almost cost one man his life, and it all could have been avoided if he was prepared beforehand.
What Happened
The trail in question was well-known, and it ended at the edge of town, but this was the first time the men attempted to hike it. They started out in the day, expected to be back in the evening, and they carried a minimal amount of supplies with them as a result. Somewhere along the way, the two men lost the trail in the snow and became disoriented. They ended up wandering onto a rock face where one of them lost his footing, stumbled and started to slide.
He slid about halfway down before his leg got snagged on a crack between rocks, and he became trapped. His friend decided to go off in search of help. While he was away, the injured hiker managed to get himself free and decided to slide down to the bottom of the cliff where he assumed it would be safer to wait. He was wrong.
He found a stream just as it started to get dark outside, and he decided to follow it, assuming that it would lead to civilization. Instead, he stumbled in the dark, ended up walking right into a rocky drop-off and fell about 5 feet. He broke his shoulder, and his hands were scraped-raw from trying to hold on to rocks as he tumbled. He was alone, cold, thirsty and injured all while being stranded in the California desert.
Little is known about what he did the next day, but he started to hear rescue helicopters searching for him by the second night. However, it wasn’t until the third day that he was spotted and rescued. By that time, he was severely-dehydrated, weak from hunger and his injuries, and he was at the point where he was hallucinating. While he was rescued and made a full-recovery, he is also the first to admit that this trip almost cost him his life, and that his lack of preparedness contributed to the magnitude of the situation.
Simple Things
This story illustrates how a simple misstep can turn a normal day into a survival situation. This is why it’s so important to be vigilant when it comes to taking basic precautions before heading out on any trail. Bring a backpack that has plenty of water, food, a first aid kit, warm clothing, flashlight, whistle, compass and trail map. Tell someone where you’re going, and let them know when you will check in.
If you do get lost, don’t wander off before taking time to assess the situation, and make sure that you aren’t taking any unnecessary risks in your quest to reorient yourself. In this case, it would have been better for the man to wait somewhere near to where he and his friend parted ways because rescuers would have gone there first.
A little bit of patience, preparation and trust could have gone a long way to prevent the situation from occurring in the first place, and it most-definitely would have shortened the amount of time that it took for him to be rescued. While we’re glad that this story had a happy ending, it’s also a textbook example of how quickly things can deteriorate into a life and death struggle if we’re not prepared to deal with unexpected mishaps.
