Posted on 12/04/2006 3:18:35 PM PST by sockmonkey
CNN has it now.
They are lowering rescuers via a helicopter.
What a shame.
I wonder how long it will take for rescue/recovery to get to him. This is just so sad.
Maybe, but one should never leave a road for wilderness if one hopes to be rescued.
wow....not the outcome I expected. I really thought they'd find him alive....maybe injured or something...
Well, yeah ... but the road has the advantage of going somewhere, offers the best possibility of meeting somebody, and is pretty much always visible from the air. If he had to leave the car at all, he should have stayed on the road, hill or not.
Sad.
It ain't over 'til it's over.
If they are lowering them down by helicopter, it shouldn't take them long to find out if he is alive, if it is, in fact, him.
kgw.com reporting some reports of alive some say he's dead.
live feed
http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=57406&live=yes
I doubt the guy had any survival training. I've been on a NOLS course years ago so I have some experience in what to do and not to do regarding wilderness survival, but a lot of city folks just react in emergency situations - NOLS taught that the first thing you should do in an emergency is sit down and smoke a cigarette so you can get your head back on straight.
The curse of real-time coverage.
Frankly, this minute I'm praying for a coma.
Maybe he's alive, just "down"? I wonder where they found him....how close to where they found the clothing.
Well, as a non-smoker, I'm doomed.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1749424/posts
Don't Leave the Car/Airplane.
FYI in case you're ever in a similar situation: advice from the search and rescue folks in this area (Pacific Northwest):
STAY WITH THE VEHICLE. You'll have a much, much better chance of being found alive.
Also, always take extra food, WATER, and thermal clothing even if for an outing you expect to be very short.
Thanks for that, POP.
NOT found face down. According to CNN
Just speculating, but since they got lost trying to follow the roads coming in, perhaps he beleived the road was marked well enough with signs for him to find his way out of the maze. If you look at topo maps or aerial photos, the area has all kinds of winding paths, many of them mile+ long dead ends. Perhaps he knew the river was heavily used in summer by rafting groups and had campsites (shelters) along it. Maybe he went to gather some berries, slipped down a steep slope, and then decided to keep on going down (remember, when he left he told his wife that he would be back in 5 hours.) They had been stuck for 7 days on the road, perhaps he concluded that he had to increase the odds by trying something other than the road (since the family was still with the car in case rescuers finally covered the roads), knowing that heading downriver would eventually lead him to the lodge. Maybe he just decided that doing the same thing wasn't go to work. Or maybe he started to lose his sense and logic due to hunger and cold. I dunno.
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