Posted on 12/07/2012 10:05:40 AM PST by GSWarrior
A woman trapped for six days in the Sierra was found by her brother as she crawled along a snow-covered dirt road where she and her male companion had been testing the man's new four-wheel-drive Jeep, authorities said Thursday.
Paula Lane's companion didn't survive the ordeal and died in the snow after leaving Lane in the vehicle and setting out to find help, said a spokesman for the Alpine County Sheriff's Department.
Lane crawled past her companion's dead body as she was trying to make it to safety, said Undersheriff Robert Levy.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Nature has a way of weeding out stupid people
Do not leave civilized areas without a well stocked survival pack and means of emergency communication.
One single mishap or poor decision can result in an agonizing experience or death.
Depart from the known path at your own peril.
And 1st rule - make sure someone knows where you are going and when you should be expected back.
Should have brought warm clothing.
Should have brought a survival kit.
Should have stayed on the main road.
Once they go stuck, they should have remained with the vehicle and created a smokey fire. Spare tires create a lot of smoke.
Ping.
They’d have made it out with a winch equipped Wrangler.
Should a bought a Ford
Went off the highway, got lost/stuck.
He left the vehicle to find help and died. She stayed behind and lived.
I think that's the hint about where things went wrong.
Further point: The additional sub-dermal fat that women carry often makes all the difference in cases of surviving exposure to cold.
I used to drive in some real harry areas when I lived in NW New Mexico. I knew the limits of my VW THING so did not push it beyond those limits. Never had a problem.
I say no
The lines mock us.
The lines teach us conformity.
They teach us to do as we are told.
The lines keep us from exercising our minds.
They keep us from stretching our wings and testing our limits.
Ignore them at your own peril but be smart and have a plan to cover your ass. Know where you are going. Make sure someone else knows. Bring sufficient kit to ensure the ability to deal with unknowns and get back between the lines safely.
Otherwise, be safe and stay on the approved path.
</fevered rant on a slow boring day>
“He left the vehicle to find help and died. She stayed behind and lived.”
They had snow, therefore fresh water, and shelter in the vehicle. With that, they could survive for weeks.
Out in the cold without warm clothes, you might only survive for hours. Not exactly a tricky decision there.
Yup!
Young people are irresponsible and don’t think past their noses.
They have NO common sense because they watch WAY too much TV, where everything ‘works out’ and problems are just ‘cinematic’. They have the most smug and smart a#@ attitude about ‘the rules’, too!
>> Not exactly a tricky decision there.
I dunno... I’d have to know more about the woman he was trapped in the car with. If it was my ex, for instance...
>> Young people are irresponsible and don’t think past their noses.
With the exception of the body part you chose for illustration purposes, I’d have to agree in general.
This story does not mention the ages of the unfortunate couple. I had the impression they were elderly.
So curious minds want to know: as she crawled past his frozen, dead lifeless body, did she weakly kick him in the face and mutter “dumbazz”?
My memory of that case, the software developer from SF, is that the couple was returning from Thanksgiving with family and made a wrong turn, or a gate hadn’t been properly closed. They had their 2 kids with them. They did survive about 2 weeks before he decided to leave and try to find help. The family was found within a day or so of his leaving but that killed him. Really sad.
He was 44 & she was 46.
“Gary Lane drove up the road with the loader for several miles, where he found (his sister) distressed and crawling in the road,” Levy said. “Gary Lane loaded Paula Lane into the bucket of the loader and returned her to Highway 88.”
That’s actually pretty funny. Implies Paula is a little on the large side.
During summer, probably. In winter the body burns a great many more calories trying to stay warm, and length of time you can survive without food goes way down.
... with 4wd you’ll get stuck farther out
Plan accordingly.
James & Kati Kim. There is a movie .. ‘Wrong Turn: The Kati Kim Story’ that does a good job telling the really tragic story.
Or maybe the loader only had one seat.
...and shouldn't have bought a Jeep
Well, yeah. But it’s more fun think of a woman so large he had to bring along a loader to move her.
I’m hoping that’s the explanation.
I hope she chooses wisely next time, and at least no spawn from this pair.
DUMB! Events like this happen year after year and people continue to do it.
The Donner experience supports that theory.
I may be wrong on that last point above.
“When people panic,” Levy said, “we know they don’t make good decisions.”
Hells bells, he had already spent 6 days in the vehicle with her, he figgered it was worth the risk to save his own sanity. But he lost.
Well, they’d still survive longer than they would being exposed to the elements AND trying to stay warm.
“He was 44 & she was 46.”
Lesson learned, “boomers are dumbasses.”
You need to watch the movie What’s Eating Gilbert Grape if you haven’t already. They have ways of dealing with incapacitated fat people.
;)
The Donner Party also didn’t know the danger of the Sierras.
Although their mistakes were made many weeks before in another state.
But the similarity is that they chose a foolish “short cut” like these people did.
So curious minds want to know: as she crawled past his frozen, dead lifeless body, did she weakly kick him in the face and mutter “dumbazz”?
I’m thinking more along the lines of: “Well how did that test drive thing work out for ya, huh sh*&head???!!!”
Us too, but we always dug out, jacked it up, paved the way with vegetation or whatever we had to do to get out and we’ve never been stranded.
LOL...yeah...
“Once they go stuck, they should have remained with the vehicle and created a smokey fire. Spare tires create a lot of smoke.”
My plan is to start a large smokey *forest* fire. They only turn out so many searchers for one dumbass lost person, but they mobilize half the county for a forest fire.
The youngest "boomers" are now 48. These are early Gen-Xers. I'm almost 44, and I certainly know better. Our winter trip packing includes extra water, food, compact shovel, a bag of sand, extra clothes/winter clothes, blankets and fire-making stuff. That's just for the trips where we won't be leaving the highway on purpose.
We were following the directions on our GPS system down in Alabama a couple of years ago; and it directed us down an old logging road that looked okay at first - then it suddenly disintegrated into a one-lane, washed out hog wallow on the side of a steep ravine from which you couldn’t back out if you wanted to. Somehow, we were able to continue on; but it was tense and in the middle of nowhere.
In the Oregan case, the man was following his GPS and it directed him to take a logging truck road that closes in the winter.
These people were not boomers. As it turns out, you’re the dumbass.
Just last week Les “Survivorman” had this same thing. ‘cept he was in Norway, way down a road no one usually went on in winter.
Trying to hike out is rarely a good idea.
Sauce, goose, gander. You instantly blamed young people and they turned out to be boomers. :)
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