there’s an old saying, “you can have 18 yrs of experience, or one yr. of experience 18 times”
She may have been hiking over some years, but she obviously never progressed beyond the most miniscule knowledge. Indeed, she should have learned what would have saved her life in this case before she ever went out on a hike alone.
Sorry if anyone doesn’t like criticism of the dead, but I’ve been on mountain rescues and have many friends who devote a lot of their lives to rescuing stupid people making stupid choices. There is reasonable risk (we can always debate what risks are reasonable, of course), but then there is downright blind reckless ignorant risk.
I agree; she was not competent. She wasn’t well prepared and she didn’t make good decisions. She relied on that cell phone too much, which was the dumbest thing of all. There are no cell towers in the wilderness.
That area in the photos looks so wooded. Ten paces from the trail she could have had her privacy to do her thing and get back to the trail.
Next mistake: she decided to go to higher ground for cell reception rather than try to find the trail. She knew correctly she was north of the trail. Walk [bleeping] south! There was, if you look at the map, no way that if she walked south she would not cross that trail!
Third mistake I’m not knowledgable enough to comment on but why couldn’t she start a proper fire? Perhaps that was a preparation mistake. But she had lighters. Not getting that.