That guy seems like an idiot.. can't climb up <1000 feet, only .5 mile. The other two guys are able to come down easily... then he follows them up the hill, turns out he can get up it!
Doesn't seem to realize he can simply soak his dehydrated food, doesn't need to heat it.
Obviously they shouldn't have doxxed him, but damn some basic competence on his part..
It’s actually true, as the naive backpacker noted, going up is trickier. That, and him being in an obviously had mental state mean the troopers should definitely be the ones going down to him.
Doxing him was wrong and should lead to meaningful consequences, writing an anonymized account of the guys rescue and his mistakes that led him into the situation would have been fine. Dressing him down a bit privately after he was in safety would also be okay, giving him attitude during the rescue was not.
The guy’s account leaves much to be desired as he doesn’t seem to have actually accepted what led him to make his way into the situation and instead seems more to justify his decisions. He did a few things that were good practices but completely neglected many non-optional wilderness best practices. He’s lucky to be alive.
The most egregious issue is he seems to believe the garmin means he does not need back up plans and it gives him a false sense of security. The rescue button is absolute NOT a backup plan. Having a premium plan means nothing. Having insurance means nothing. None of those mean one should be any less cautious but the way he described having those things it seems like he was taking more risk than otherwise as if having insurance to pay for it means it’s less of a big deal to call for rescue.
In his situation pushing sos was absolutely the right thing to do. But he should not have been in that situation in the first place, and that’s left out of his analysis.
Yeah I agree. In his story it sounds like he put himself into a situation with no backup if things went wrong. He didn't have water, only had dehydrated food, and only bought a single gas bottle. He hiked down a steep mountainside which he felt he couldn't hike back up.
It sounded like thought he could use the SOS button as an instant escape button. In the end the Sheriff's department literally came and got him and his complaint is that they made a snarky Facebook post. That wasn't professional, but personally I'd prefer them doing that than me freezing to death.
He also didn’t read the elevation map, thinking terrain would be relatively flat between two points because they were at about equal height.
Also, he said he took for maybe a week of food for a 4-day round trip, and, because, not finding water, he had to melt ice, he got a fuel shortage after day two that forced him (or at least he thought it forced him) to start rationing food after day two.
In addition, he wasn’t at his destination at the end of day two, by a long stretch.
I would think either of these would be a reason to turn around immediately. Or do I overlook something or misinterpret what he says?
Doesn't seem to realize he can simply soak his dehydrated food, doesn't need to heat it.
Obviously they shouldn't have doxxed him, but damn some basic competence on his part..