Brave woman hiker's last journal entries finally revealed
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Anonymous
And, she was a person. Imagine, PP, if your mother did something like this, or died in a way others feel is "moronic"...would you want internet people calling her a moron? Have some empathy a heart, something that resembles humanity. |
Anonymous
Yeah I get that. But basic survival alone: don't go far from trail to pee. Who is there anyway? |
Anonymous
Or had dementia |
Anonymous
| The sun rises in the east, sets in the west, the rest isn't that hard. Maybe if she had a compass and knew how to use it, she would still be alive. |
Anonymous
I was wondering if she had a paper topographical map. I did all my backpacking before the advent of smartphones. I wonder how many people take to the wilderness with just their cell phone these days. A topo map would have made it more likely she could find her way. |
Anonymous
Yes, this has been bothering me. You're out in the middle of nowhere with no one around. How far do you have to go off the trail to pee? Hell, you could just squat down there by the side of the trail. |
Anonymous
I read the articles in the Post and Herald and cant help thinking about this. Apparently she a 10 minute walk to a dirt road south of her, she was about 2 miles west of the trail, she set her camp near a stream, and rescuers came within 100 yards of her camp multiple times. Her failed text messages indicated she knew she was north of that road. In those 28 days, she had she walked parallel to the morning sun towards the road she knew was there she would have hit it in 10 minutes. Had she followed the stream, she would have been out in no time. Had she just walked in the direction of the sun one morning she would have gotten back to the trail. I hate to Monday morning quarterback, or guess at other motives, and I know panic can be overwhelming, but something just doesn't add up for me. |
Anonymous
| I read somewhere that she suffered from anxiety, but might have run out of her meds. In which case, she may have been less than sharp-minded. |
Anonymous
That was in the New York Times, where it said she had anxiety disorder and was prone to panic attacks when unmedicated. A former hiking partner also said that she had a poor sense of direction, had made wrong turns previously on the AT, and became "flustered and combative" when her errors were pointed out to her. Put together, this sounds like a woman whose judgment was too poor to go hiking by herself. |
Anonymous
| This may be insensitive, but it may have been a form of suicide. She couldn't think of how to kill herself, so she "lost herself" in a remote area. |
Anonymous
The moron part is too harsh, because we all do stupid things all the time. But yes, she died because she made a series of mistakes and lacked basic survival skills. As do many, many people who hike and do other activities. They just are lucky enough not to die from their mistakes. She was unlucky. To me it's similar to people who try to summit Everest and other high mountains. Many people are not adequately prepared but manage to succeed. Many people are not adequately prepared and fail, and some died. And even some people who are very prepared fail and died. Shit happens. All the knowledge in the world is not 100% foolproof. |
Anonymous
That's a topic deserving of another thread. Many people who shouldn't be on Everest go and pay a lot of money to tour companies who put at risk local Tibetans to carry all of the stuff up the mountain for the Westerners who are looking to cross something off their bucket list. It kind of makes my stomach turn. There was an interesting documentary. The sad part is that the Tibetans do need the income, but it seems pretty clear that they don't feel like they're respected. I also suspect they aren't paid enough and that the tour companies reap most of the profits. It's exploitation. But beyond all of that, unless you are a professional mountain climber or at least a really, really experienced one (athlete level), I don't think you have any business on Everest. But no one wants to hear that. As for this hiker, I personally don't think that even experienced hikers should hike alone. So much can go wrong. The hiker could injure herself or himself in such a way that he/she can't walk. But it just isn't wise to go walking alone in remote areas. Even when humans were hunter-gatherers, they stayed in groups. Why is it so hard for people to get over their ego and overconfidence? Her biggest mistake was not stopping when her hiking partner had to go home. Sure, lots of people hike alone and live to tell about it, but I think they're just lucky. It's still foolish. And if you are going to hike alone, then you should be extremely prepared. I believe there's relatively cheap technology that doesn't rely on getting a signal. It uses satellite technology. I think they're called personal locators or something like that. If you are determined to hike alone, you should at least get something like that. The problem is in part that this woman wasn't planning on hiking alone. Her trip was planned with a partner in mind. So it's likely that she didn't pack or prep with "I'm going to be alone" in mind. That's part of why should have cut the hike short when her friend had to leave. I kind of view hiking in remote areas like going to sea: preparation is important, but you also have to have some sort of lifeline/communication/SOS system if something goes wrong, and a cell phone isn't going to cut it. It's also not wise to go alone. Why? Because humans are social creatures. When they're in remote, uninhabited areas (like the sea or the deep forest), it doesn't take much for them to panic or to lose a sense of sanity in part because of the isolation. That's why even if people know what they are supposed to do in emergency situations while hiking or while at sea, they can easily mess up because the sheer reality of being so isolated is enough to send them into panic. If there is one other person there, that sense of isolation and aloneness that makes people freak out isn't as intense. |
Anonymous
Did you not read the post? hiking ALONE is downright foolish. Hiking is great, fantastic. But going into a remote area ALONE where you know you can't rely on cell phone reception is foolish. There's a difference between being too timid to do anything and being naive. It was fine that she went with a friend. When her friend dropped out, she should have cut it short and planned for another hike when her friend was available. There's nothing odd and sad about my view. I'm fine with hiking, but you shouldn't go alone. |
Anonymous
As any student of literature knows, the biggest factor (usually) in human tragedy is hubris. I'm sorry, but I think many people *think* they know how to survive in the wilderness, but the reality is that even people who for a living have to have those skills acquire them over years -- with LOTS of time actually spent surviving and living in the wilderness. And even those people -- who train for years and actually spend time relying on their survival skills -- still fear the wilderness. You aren't adequately prepared if you don't have some fear. It's unpredictable and can be harsh. There is a reason why humans eventually established cities and civilization, because the wilderness is harsh and -- here's a shock -- WILD. Bears, for example. You are a fool if you don't have a healthy fear of bears. Does that mean you should be paranoid about bears when you go hiking? No. But it does mean that if you are in an area where there are bears, you should have a healthy enough fear of them and recognition that even despite all of your best efforts and the recommended things to do, you could still run into a problem with a bear. Fear isn't a bad thing. It exists for a reason. Animals who live in the wilderness use it to survive. Panic is the bad thing. Panic is what you want to avoid. Fear can be healthy, especially in nature. But aside from that, if you really want to prepare your child, you should teach him/her that even with all of the things you are teaching him, don't be over confidant. I love nature. I love being outside. But the first and biggest lesson anyone should learn about nature is to be humbled by it. Our ancestors knew that. We've forgotten. |
Anonymous
I hope you hike alone and often....... |