[Rockhounds] Day hikers are the most vulnerable in survival situations.

[J Bryan Kramer]

I just read a long but captivating account of the Death Valley Germans and
the search for what happened to them. This was a party of four, a man his
girlfriend and their two boys. They drove a minivan up a high clearance 4X4
road surprisingly far trying to cross the mountains and get to Hwy395 so
they could get to Yosemite. Unknown to them this road and the pass are
rated as the most difficult in the park by four wheelers.

Very stupid plan but obviously Germans have zero experience of deadly
conditions in DV in July. 120 degrees in the valley. Their car eventually
broke down and even tho they had visited a rescue cabin that was stocked
with food and had a flowing spring next to it, they did not walk the three
miles back to the cabin.
No they took off directly south, this was in the south west corner of the
park. That park is the largest of any in the lower 48 and bigger than some
states. The theory is that they saw China Lake Naval Station on their map
and thought they could get help there. They vanished into the wilderness
despite hundreds of searchers looking for them. This link is by a fellow
who doggedly searched for them for over a year before finally finding them:

<
https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/
>

BK

““There exists a law…inborn of our hearts…by natural intuition. … If our
lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any
and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.””
Cicero

J Bryan Krämer       North Florida, USA
photos at: http://pbase.com/photoburner


On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 9:53 PM Paul <etchplain at att.net> wrote:

> Below are a couple articles offering advice  fossil and rock collectors,
> who bushwhack off-road and into the wilds in pursuit of rocks, fossils,
> and minerals.
>
> Day hikers are the most vulnerable in survival situations. Here's why.
> A new study looks at who lives and who dies when lost in the wild.
> By Jayne Moye, National Geographic, 2019
>
> https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/2019/04/hikers-survival-tips.html
>
> Safe and Found, George Brown, SmokyMountainsCom
> https://smokymountains.com/safe-and-found/
>
> Yours,
>
> Paul H.
>
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