Another tragic story about a couple who Jim Kimmed themselves.
GLOBE, Ariz. (AP) – Dana and Elizabeth Davis had spent nearly five grueling days stranded in their car in the rugged Arizona mountains during a snowstorm when they finally realized they needed to venture out for help.
The car had run out of gas, and their rations of sandwiches, cookies, chocolate bars and juice were depleted. Dana, 86, bundled in multiple layers of clothing, put socks on his hands for warmth as he and 82-year-old Elizabeth started walking.
What happened next became a story of incredible tragedy and survival. Elizabeth collapsed just 15 to 20 feet into the walk, her body in a weakened state after five days in the cold. Dana forged ahead, walking eight miles, spending a night under a tree and leaving behind pieces of his wife’s knitting yarn to create a trail to the body.
My usual comment about this sort of thing is ’stay with the vehicle’. Easier to do when you’ve actually got a pack of gear in the vehicle for just this sort of an emergency….sleping bag, blankets, candles, food, water, etc. But, beyond that, one of the biggest factors in these cases is that people made a mistake and then compounded it. If youre not driving a four wheel drive vehicle and your not equipped for an impromptu roadside campout then you need to stop and turn the frak around when you realize you’ve a) gone in the wrong direction and b) the pavement has disappeared. Taking unfamiliar ’short cuts’ seems to be a common thread here too. It seems like amny of these situations could have been avoided by just turning around and going back the way you came once you realized you were not where you were supposed to be.
On the other hand, I’ve also come across stories of people who stayed with the vehicle and died anyway, usually from starvation over a course of several weeks. So, even staying with the vehicle, while normally a good choice, can sometimes prove to be equally ineffective. In every case, however, prior planning would have made a difference…more than anything else, knowing when to turn around and say ’screw this, I’m going back’ would have made all the difference. After that, having a bag of gear for just such a situation would probably have turned several of these tragedies into happy endings.
I’ve a surplus military pack that has a goodly selection of items I’d want to have in such a situation…the absolute first thing that went in the bag was a sleeping bag and a wool blanket. After that, a broad selection of the usual things you’d want to have….matches, firestarter, candle lantern, water, flares, flashlight, batts, etc, etc. Stuff like that would have made the difference in some of these cases, myabe not in others….but at least the opportunity is there with the right gear.
Previous posts can be found under the category: strandings
