
Two California hikers found a family's message in a bottle and helped save them - curtis
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/11/us/california-hikers-bottle-message-search-trnd/index.html
======
lentil_soup
This reminded me of this real life story of trying to find a German family
that got lost in Death Valley. It's a tragic story but I found very
interesting how this person tries to piece together what happened. It's a long
but worthwhile read.

[https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-
hu...](https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-
death-valley-germans/)

~~~
sizzzzlerz
It is a fascinating story and the persistance of the author in trying to find
the family is remarkable but its totally different than this story. The
Germans were completely unprepared for their adventure without the correct
clothing, not enough water, and apparently little or no knowledge of where
they were going or where they were. The family in this story were prepared,
knew exactly where they were going and where they were. They just ran into
some bad luck but kept calm and did precisely the correct thing. The Germans
were responsible for their own situation and paid the ultimate price.

~~~
carlmr
I think this is almost a phenomenon. Europeans have trouble imagining the
vastness and untouchedness of American national parks.

In Europe almost all hiking trails are close to civilization and well-marked.
If you expect the same in America you're in for a surprise.

~~~
bedhead
I just returned from a three week RV trip to some of the national parks out
west, including Death Valley. Two of the things I noticed were (1) Europeans
outnumbered Americans in the RV parks and (2) Europeans seemed far more
inclined to break the national park rules. At one point we were in a guided
jeep tour in Canyonlands which is some seriously treacherous driving on
cliffside switchbacks. An Escalade sped by us at one point and we were all
like WTF these people are insane...it's a cliff!! We caught up to them at an
overlook (the Thelma and Louise Overlook) and our guide got out to scold them.
He came back and was like, "No surprise, they're Italian." He went on to
explain that 90% of the issues they see with people acting recklessly were
Europeans who didn't seem to comprehend how dangerous these places can be.

~~~
sizzzzlerz
I've been visiting Parks throughout the west for decades and have noticed the
same thing. Its a virtual United Nations when you go into the Visitor's
Center, gift shop, or restaurant. Personally, I think its great and love to
show off what the US has that no other nation does. But, things like abusing
the wildlife, putting themselves or others a risk because of stupid (and
illegal) behaviors, and generally disrespecting the Park push me close to the
edge. That kind of behavior isn't tolerated in the monuments and cathedrals in
Europe; don't do it here.

~~~
bedhead
There were multiple times when we were either in a park visitor center or the
RV park's pool and I realized I was the only American. It was all (in order)
German, Dutch, and French. Everyone was really friendly and we made some good
friends at the pools. But we kept noticing all the people doing dumb stuff at
the national parks weren't Americans. Feeding squirrels, flying drones,
climbing on stuff that wasn't safe, etc. It kinda became a running joke.

~~~
ddrdrck_
If as you said Americans are outnumbered by European people it is not very
surprising that most people spot doing silly things are European and not
American ...

------
hprotagonist
Among other reasons, this is why i have a contingency email draft that I have
ready to go whenever I go out on a serious-ish hike, along these lines:

“here’s who is going, this is our license plate, this is our gear, this is how
much food we have, here’s a very rough itinerary; if i don’t update this email
by such and such a time, contact the following SAR groups...”

~~~
latchkey
My favorite service for this:
[https://www.deadmansswitch.net](https://www.deadmansswitch.net)

~~~
LorenPechtel
Useless for backcountry safety, it won't trigger for way too long. Off the top
of my head there are two apps that are actually useful: Cairn and I believe
AllTrails has just added such capability. You can set a notification that will
be delivered at a certain time if you don't check in with it. Cairn's
capability on Android I find quite limited, I haven't tried AllTrails.

------
roymurdock
I went backpacking up arroyo seco with 2 friends on the same weekend. On our
way into the campgrounds the rangers told us this story, we almost didn't
believe them the story was so ridiculous on its face. Crazy to see this
article in the news now.

Beautiful place to hike and camp, and if that's not your thing then check out
the Tassajara zen center.

I wrote a trip recap here:
[https://roymurdock.com/blogs/2019/0722ventana.php](https://roymurdock.com/blogs/2019/0722ventana.php)

------
dgaudet
the news article left me wanting to know more about the hike, and i discovered
this ropewiki article[0] which seems to be related, and link to a more
detailed trip report[1]. i'm more of a peakbagger myself, but the photos of
the canyons are fascinating (many examples in google images).

i'm guessing satellite locator beacons (such as resqlink, spot or in-reach)
don't work very well in canyons. you'd need a much more monster antenna and
transmitter.

[0]
[http://ropewiki.com/Arroyo_Seco_Gorge_(Los_Padres)](http://ropewiki.com/Arroyo_Seco_Gorge_\(Los_Padres\))
[1]
[http://www.teamsk.org/arroyo/seco.html](http://www.teamsk.org/arroyo/seco.html)

~~~
opwieurposiu
We use an in-reach for text messaging at our cabin which is in the bottom of a
gulch in the rocky mountains.

It does work, but only when a satellite happens to be in the right position.
This basically means you have to queue up a message and it will get sent in
5-50 min.

------
newsreview1
I grew up in Southern Utah, just a few miles from the Zion Narrows, and have
read of many tragic situations that didn't end nearly as well as this group's
story. (Including my own brother on an overnight scouting event). God bless
the two hikers who "left before the rescue without giving their names!" I hope
the family can find them so they can give them personal thanks.

------
gardnerbickford
I don't mean to be rude but: why is this here? It would be a neat project to
map out the changes in the types of stories and comments on HN over time. Over
the years, HN has grown more and more in the direction of reddit front page
and become less and less like an irc channel where people talk about
technology.

~~~
viach
>> Over the years, HN has grown more and more in the direction of reddit front
page and become less and less like an irc channel where people talk about
technology.

Here is HN snapshot from 2008:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20080105031416/https://news.ycomb...](http://web.archive.org/web/20080105031416/https://news.ycombinator.com/)

The top submissions is "Obama's Victory Speech". I don't think it's very
technological, at least in common sense.

Probably the only very true HN existed in 2007, for several month. Well, these
were good times..

~~~
dsfyu404ed
I feel like the comments are becoming more "reddit" than the submissions
themselves. Seems like way more ideological up-voting/down-voting than there
used to be ~2yr ago. It seems like on every issue there's a side (varies by
issue) you can't criticize unless you water down your comment with weasel
words.

~~~
ganoushoreilly
Sadly I think that is the by product of a larger issue where in almost all
things in life have become victim to this stance of us vs. them. People
pretend to want to have civil conversations around opposing views, but the
reality is it's more of a "i'll listen to your view as long as you know your
view is wrong" type thing instead of honestly being open to having your mind
or principle changed with the right information. The other side effect is
everything becomes a political point of contention at some point. It's almost
like a new take on Godwin's law where not only is there a probability of
Nazi's being referenced.. it's simpler that a conversation will become
Democrat vs. Republican. .. Though we know that will eventually lead to
comparisons of Nazis at some point too.

I don't see this in real life though, it's only on hyper exposed platforms
like the news, websites, social media. In person I find most people are
actually still pretty civil (though It's largely based on who you associate
with).

Don't debate me on my opinion or else it's obvious you're a shill of "insert
something here" ;D

------
savingGrace
Why could they not turn around and go back the way they came? I am not a
hiker.

~~~
jseutter
From reading
[http://theory.stanford.edu/~rvg/arroyo/](http://theory.stanford.edu/~rvg/arroyo/)
(warning: nudity) linked from the ropewiki page, when hiking from the top,
this journey is a combination of hiking, wading along the river and floating
down it. It sounds like lots of fun. Turning around at the waterfall means
that they would have to hike back as well as swim upstream, possibly through
rapids, to get back to their starting point. It could be next to impossible.

I could see this being an easy trap to be caught out by if you had limited
exposure to conditions in the area, or even if you had checked weather
conditions and missed a rainfall upstream while out hiking. While they might
be ashamed of needing a rescue, they thankfully made a smart choice and this
is a cool story rather than a search for bodies.

~~~
senorjazz
> It could be next to impossible.

Do you know this of assumed? Sounds difficult for sure, but is it possible?

I mean, if you had no way forward and had two options:

1) turn around

2) throw a bottle into the waterfall and hope

I would turn around (unless as you said, is actually impossible, but I haven't
been able to find anything definitive on this)

~~~
ahi
This wasn't the most robust crew. They were at a local minimum, both
topographically and risk. They were safe where they were for at least a few
days. Hiking out might have been beyond their ability. Having read some
stories of people who didnt get out of these situations, it's not usually the
first mistake that does it. It's the process of trying to get out that results
in digging a bigger hole. I think they made the right call to abort rather
than increase the risk.

------
thiscatis
Unrelated to the article but damn, that autoplay of the video and that woman's
voice scared me.

------
DenisM
It surprises me that people can’t bring a PLB along when going to a non-
trivial hike.

It’s only $300 and it can transmit SOS both to low orbit satellites and to
rescue copters, and it has shelf life of five years (no need to charge).

~~~
Rebelgecko
I think the monthly subscription fees are a turnoff to some people (although I
think there are a few brands now that don't require that)

~~~
LorenPechtel
PLBs have no subscription. You must register them with the government but it's
free. And mine only cost $250--watch prices on Amazon to get a better deal.

What you are thinking of are the SPOT & inReach units--those have subscription
fees but provide you text messaging while off the grid. PLBs are single-shot
HELP messages, they can't be customized. (Are you simply stranded like these
guys, non-threatening injury that keeps you from getting yourself out, or is
it a major issue--say, the guy here last year that keeled over on top of Hell
Hill. It probably wouldn't have made a difference but the hour it took to get
help certainly wasn't good.)

------
olalonde
That autoplay video almost gave me a heart attack.

~~~
mjevans
I would actually love if there were a browser setting that froze video (and
motion image sets) until they receive mouse focus; preferably also with a
payload size dependent switch to having a play button start the download.

------
bobowzki
I always bring ham radio equipment when I hike like this. Most people don't
realize mobile coverage is very limited.

------
doctorRetro
Nothing really poignant to say about this, other than thanks OP for posting
something positive to read today.

------
laumars
I really enjoyed this story. However I did struggle on one part:

> _Whitson, his 13-year-old son and girlfriend, Krystal Ramirez, had decided
> to spend Father 's Day weekend backpacking the Arroyo Seco River._

It took me longer to parse this sentence than I should perhaps admit to. The
first couple of reads lead me to believe his son and girlfriend were the same
person.

~~~
jdbernard
Nice place for an Oxford comma.

~~~
hervature
Just an fyi, Oxford comma only applies to lists of 3 or more. I think this is
just a dangling modifier.

~~~
mikeash
This is a list of three: Whitson, his son, and his girlfriend.

~~~
ant6n
Girlfriend of the whitson or the his son?

~~~
mikeash
Beats me!

------
chooseaname
I love stories like this. But, what if the hikers would just rather not be
found?

~~~
ukyrgf
It's just one sentence mentioning it at the end of the article. Doesn't sound
like they're launching a massive campaign.

~~~
chooseaname
I really wasn't implying they were. I was just rhetorically asking the
question. Just something to think about.

