Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

A 33-year-old hiker is in stable condition at a Salt Lake City hospital after he was trapped in a drainage tunnel in the foothills east of the city for four days and three nights.

…

When his cell phone died, he found a rock and banged it against the tunnel walls in hopes of attracting someone’s attention. But no one ever came although numerous hikers passed by above the tunnel.

…

By Saturday afternoon, after four days without any food or water since the fall, it became clear that he needed to take action. Samuelsen decided to crawl out of the corrugated tunnel. He was able to find a piece of wood and make a split of sorts for his severely fractured leg. He eventually crawled to a nearby highway, where he was discovered by a motorist.

…

According to doctors at St. Mark’s Hospital, Samuelsen’s right leg is broken in numerous places, and may need to be amputated, because the wound was open for four days.

Biiiig balls. A compound leg fracture is major bad news. Just the mental image of looking down and seeing a jagged chunk of bone sticking out of the skin is enough to make my stomach do flip flops.

A couple things I’m curious about. First, why didnt anyone miss this guy for four days? One of the first rules of going somewhere is to let folks know where you’ll be, when you’ll be back, and at what point to start worrying. Second, he had no food and water for four days? So where was his pack? Did he lose it in the fall? Did he even have one?

I can understand the cell phone being useless…there are plenty of places I can go out here where signal is absolutely nil. This is why when I go hunting I usually take the cellphone and a couple aerial flares. But, I also tell people where the heck I’m going and when to expect me back and, more importantly, when to call the SAR guys. (“I’ll be in hunting area 282, I’ll wrap it up around 4pm, if you don’t hear from me by 9pm start panicking.”) This is also why I keep pen and paper in my hunting kit…so I can leave a note at the truck in case I have to change plans.

Hope this guy keeps his leg (at least he didnt have to cut it off himself like that guy that lost his arm a few years back). I’d like more info on what happened to his gear, though. And, hey, you’ve always got gear in your pack for this kinda situation, right? Right?

Technically, not a stranding…but I’ll use that tag for convenience.