
US hiker 'lost for 26 days before dying' - sjcsjc
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36389383
======
xofer
A long time ago -- before cell phones -- I was a member of a wilderness search
and rescue team. Based on the description of where this person was found, I
can tell you it's one of the last places we would have gone. Finding lost
people is a game of profiling and math -- certain types of people (e.g.
injured, despondent, young, experienced hiker) are more likely to do certain
things, but AFAIK going to high ground and setting up camp isn't on anyone's
list. I don't know if that's changed as a result of cell phones.

~~~
tfm
Well, you'll need water, which generally finds itself at lower ground ....

Are folks not taught stuff about lighting smokey fires to attract attention,
or would there have been local factors that prevented it in this case?

~~~
xofer
One article[1] at least suggests that she wasn't able to start a fire.

    
    
      She had also tried to make fires using the matches and 
      lighters she kept in her backpack. There was a stream 
      near her camp, but it's unclear whether she was able to 
      find any food.
    

[1]: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-
mix/wp/2016/05/2...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-
mix/wp/2016/05/26/when-you-find-my-body-please-call-my-husband-wrote-dying-
hiker-lost-along-the-appalachian-trail/)

------
United857
I wonder why people aren't more aware of personal locator beacons that use
satellites to work in areas without cell reception. For the cost of a
smartphone, this could have saved her life :(

[https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/personal-locator-
bea...](https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/personal-locator-beacons.html)

~~~
curtis
Looking at it the other way, why don't search and rescue services have a
mobile cell-phone "tower" attached to an aircraft?

~~~
paavokoya
This is a fantastic idea, although they'd need to have several carriers to
make it feasible (what if someone uses t-mobile instead of verizon?

~~~
PuffinBlue
At least on UK networks you get an indication that says 'emergency calls only'
when you are within range of any network.

Does a similar thing happen in the US?

Also seems like a perfect application for those Stingrays the police have
stockpiled.

~~~
LoganCale
I'm not aware of a similar thing in the US. And depending on the remoteness of
your location, you may get an indication of a good signal (3+ bars) but still
be unable to transmit or receive a text. It's common in the mountains where I
hike and backpack to get "ghost bars" like that which suggest you should be
able to send and receive messages but only a tiny percentage ever get through,
if any.

~~~
dogma1138
The US has actually several emergency networks, a cellphone even without a
valid sim card can still be used to dial 911 this is part of every cellular
standard. But in more common cases when you are outside of the coverage of
your carrier and with roaming disabled/no roaming partners you will still see
Emergency/SOS displayed on your phone.

[http://s9.postimg.org/umb1a3tjz/s5570.jpg](http://s9.postimg.org/umb1a3tjz/s5570.jpg)

Besides 911 there are probably a few other emergency numbers in the US which
are open on all cellphones, as well as the emergency broadcast system which
will display push notifications on every modern cellphone in such cases as
natural disasters.

------
curtis
Here's another article with some more specifics:

[http://outthere.bangordailynews.com/2016/05/26/outdoor-
recre...](http://outthere.bangordailynews.com/2016/05/26/outdoor-
recreation/warden-file-on-largay-disappearance-leaves-plenty-of-questions/)

This part stood out:

 _On the initial missing persons report that was filed, Largay’s husband
itemized a number of items that he knew she’d been wearing or carrying. Under
the category labeled “GPS, PLB, Compass” — the acronyms referring to Global
Positioning System, Personal Locator Beacon– the responding warden wrote:
“SPOT. Left at motel.” SPOT is a company that makes, among other things,
satellite-based devices that allow hikers in remote areas to communicate their
whereabouts to others without the benefit of a cellular signal._

So apparently she had a beacon, but for some reason she did not take it with
her on that leg of the trail.

------
curtis
This article has some more details:

[https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/05/25/hiker-who-
died-...](https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/05/25/hiker-who-died-after-
disappearing-from-appalachian-trail-survived-for-
weeks/KAcHuKSdYVHNTNu0qQobvK/story.html)

~~~
PuffinBlue
I don't think I understand how dangerous these forests must be.

It seems extraordinary that someone can step off the trail like this and get
so lost so near to where they need to be.

It also seems extraordinary that a hiker of her age, carrying as little kit as
she was, decided to do this alone.

~~~
LoganCale
It's not dangerous if you have navigational skills. Most people, however, do
not, or haven't developed theirs very effectively. I see it myself sometimes
with other hikers at the front of a group—they take a wrong turn and suddenly
have no idea where they are and start freaking out rather than just
backtracking. Fortunately they're in a group, generally of people who can
navigate and do know where they are, but when someone with poor navigational
skills gets into that situation it usually leads to panic and bad decisions.

It's not at all extraordinary that a hiker of her age decided to go
backpacking alone (which in this case she didn't—she was with someone else who
left). It's a very common thing for people to solo hike and backpack. Carrying
a small amount of gear is not a problem either—it's the norm. But navigational
tools of some sort, even just a micro compass and a map, are generally
considered an essential.

~~~
PuffinBlue
> It's not dangerous if you have navigational skills.

I'm ex-military so this point is probably why I don't understand the mindset,
I just had navigation slammed into me time and time again. And we weren't
allowed GPS so you got it right and you learning to recover if you did screw
up.

> It's not at all extraordinary that a hiker of her age decided to go
> backpacking alone (which in this case she didn't—she was with someone else
> who left).

Another articles mention she started without them and stayed at a lodge with a
number of other people so definitely took the decision to go alone. I guess
the buddy/buddy thing is built into me too.

> Carrying a small amount of gear is not a problem either—it's the norm.

Another article mentioned she was carrying less than the normal 35lbs.
Obviously I'm not sure what the norm is so defer to your experience.

------
DarkTree
This is really sad. Part of me wonders why, in such a remote area, she decided
to go far enough off the trail to get lost just to use the bathroom.

It's scary how disorienting the woods can be.

I was hiking in the woods in my _backyard_ and after a few twists and turns to
get around thorny areas, discovered about 20 minutes later I was hiking in the
_opposite_ direction I thought I was. It was completely dumbfounding.

~~~
zyxley
This kind of thing is why a visual marker - orange reflector tape, sidewalk
chalk, whatever - should be a part of any serious hiker's kit. Going off trail
at all? Leave a nice obvious path back to it.

~~~
LoganCale
Please don't do this. I see people doing it, even going so far as to leave
flagging tape on obvious, maintained trails so they don't "lose their way".
And usually people don't remove it after. It makes an area trashy, especially
when done unnecessarily—and saying you should do it whenever you go off-trail
is very unnecessary.

If your navigational skills are poor enough that you can't trust yourself to
walk off-trail without getting lost, use a passive system like running a GPS
receiver during your hike so you can backtrack along its track until you find
your trail.

------
ape4
Probably the "trail" wasn't marked every inch like a sidewalk. But had blazes
every so often so hard to return to.

------
sixQuarks
We can expect to see a movie made about this within 2 years.

~~~
DanBC
We already have Gerry.
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302674/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_19](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302674/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_19)

------
LoganCale
I'm a very regular hiker and backpacker, and while I always feel bad in
situations like this, I also always feel that people who get lost so easily
that they can't find the trail—especially one so developed as the Appalachian
Trail—after stepping off it for a few minutes shouldn't be hiking alone, or
should be using some sort of navigational aid to help avoid that happening.
She wasn't initially hiking alone, but she should've left when her hiking
partner did if she wasn't competent enough to navigate solo.

Perhaps I'm unusual among hikers, in that I hike off-trail regularly, hunt for
lost and abandoned trails for fun, and am a trailwork volunteer with the
Forest Service, but I cannot understand how people get lost. If you lose the
trail, you simply go back the way you came until you find it again. And yet
people get lost all the time.

~~~
PuffinBlue
Apparently Maine is singularly treacherous for hikers due to the density and
scale of it's woods.

I've seen comments from many experienced hunters/hikers how say they live/hike
in the woods up there and all of them mentioned how easy it would be to become
disorientated.

Here's one for instance:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/2r32uy...](https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/2r32uy/how_could_a_woman_just_vanish_on_july_22_2013/cncex4z)

~~~
maxerickson
I wonder if a "road pressure" map would be useful to encourage people to know
what they are doing. I've spent a lot of time in the woods in Michigan where
there are developed roads all over the place. When there's (even moderately
trafficked) roads 1/2 mile away in 3 directions, you aren't very lost, so I've
never felt the need to be incredibly well prepared. When it's 5 miles in one
direction the thought process needs to be a little different.

