Posted on 03/23/2017 12:27:38 PM PDT by simpson96
A woman who spent five days stranded in the Grand Canyon described the "true panic" of her harrowing experience in an exclusive interview with ABC News.
"I was panicking and crying and sobbing - I was a mess," said Amber Vanhecke, 24, about the moment she first realized she was lost without GPS or cell reception.
Vanhecke, a college student from Denton, Texas, was sightseeing by herself last week near the southern rim of the Grand Canyon when her GPS instructed her to make a wrong turn, leading her through increasingly tough terrain.
An experienced Girl Scout and outdoor adventurer, Vanhecke had traveled by herself numerous times before and visited other national parks including Yosemite, Yellowstone, Sequoias and Redwoods.
"I planned out my itinerary, had it posted on Facebook and stuff and off I went with some non-perishables and water,"Vanhecke said of the spring break trip she'd been planning since January. She left Denton and spent a day in Carlsbad, New Mexico, before driving the rest of the night to the Grand Canyon.
During her drive, she followed her GPS from a highway to a dirt road. But she eventually came across a more primitive road with grass and cacti.
"The problem was, the road wasn't there," she recalled. Vanhecke said that eventually her GPS stopped working entirely and her car ran out of gas.
Early on after getting lost, Vanhecke was able to briefly get through to a 911 dispatcher but the call dropped.
"And that was the first moment I felt true panic," she said.
(snip)
Around Vanhecke's fourth day in the desert, a truck passed by as she sat off to the side of road in her car.
"I chased them as far as I could," she recalled."[But] they didn't hear me and they didn't see me."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Her app was pinging towers for a fix—not GPS satellite.
“Whenever there’s a major snow coming, I make sure that both cars are full of gas. If the storm knocks out power, the house’s heating system will also go out. “
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Good point!
We really should invest in a generator. We live in a rural area; before we moved here, there was that huge ice storm. People were without power for like, a week? A long time, anyway.
I don’t know what that means.
Thanks for the information!
I had no idea.
He’s keen on saving money, so this might help.
Thanks, FRiend!
Julie
Per Yoda, “The stupid is strong in this one.”
When I go off road I have food and water. I also know where the hell I am at. I also carry an aviation phone and if every needed can contact aircraft that monitor emergency frequency 121.5 and I also know the frequencies that ATC is using for these same aircraft. They can call for help.
When I worked in Wyoming in the oilfields in my car was food and water, and a good sleeping bag. Never needed to use it but if stranded I would have survived for days until help arrived. Also of great importance is to have a full tank of gas when you go off road. If your needle gets down to half a tank you should have already turned around.
Each winter people would die that were stranded due to mechanical failure of their vehicle. Oddly enough it was always relatively close to a well traveled road. They always thought they could walk the 10 or so miles to the road and get help. If you have proper clothing you can do this. If you do not the Wyoming blizzards will kill you.
If you are going off road someone must know where you are going and when to expect your return. That is the cheapest insurance you can buy.
Wyoming does not kill you but stupidity will.
She apparently was born after paper maps.
So cell tower GPS, pretty marginal outside developed areas.
I am of the opinion that there’s NO such thing as TOO much information or TOO much preparation in those situations.
Same here at work. I document everything just in case there is a problem with the computer.
not for that..just to flash at something flying over head..like a DHS drone looking for illegals...err immigrants..
It’s pretty common knowledge to “never go alone” into the wilderness.
Excellent two points.
I remember the elderly couple in SoCal, following their GPS blindly to take a short cut through some deserty land. One of them lived, the other one died. Their son was on all the local radio shows begging for help and eventually they were found.
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