I just wanted to share this solo hiker quicksand Survival Story with our community, in addition to the article in the New York Times about it ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/us/hiker-quicksand-rescue-utah.html?searchResultPosition=1

... the reader comments are also interesting. NOTE -- for anone who does not have a subscription -- I think they let people read up to three articles for free.

... the hiker also posted his own account on Reddit ...

https://www.reddit.com/r/backpacking/com...ke_trail_today/

I hope this posting helps to re-awaken this community as it feels like there hasn't been much activity here lately.

This is a fascinating video about using grape vines and a cypress branch to filter swampy water.

I'll add a bunch of warnings about trying this yourself.

https://youtu.be/nSBwJNDDUfc?si=wGfIPf8ZvdpoEs4E

We're back again! Thanks Doug!



chaosmagnet

Here is a link to the survival story of a hiker who made some bad decisions that caused him to fall, lose most of his gear, and break several bones. He managed to survive a week near a Norwegian Glacier before being spotted by rescuers..

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/world/europe/alec-luhn-missing-hiker-norway-found-interview.html

... it is worthwhile to click on the "comments" button that appears at the end of the article. Perhaps you may want to contribute your thoughts to the comments.

TL, DR: Use the "Wayback Machine"

This forum has been running for at least 18 years, and some of the pages our posts link to go offline every day.

If you click on a link in an old post and get "page not found", don't assume you can't read that page.

There's a good chance the linked page was saved by the Internet Archive.

To find out, and to read the archived page if so:

1. Copy the link URL
2. Go to https://web.archive.org in your web browser
3. Paste the link URL into the search bar at the top center of https://web.archive.org
4. If it was backed up, you will see a timeline with black bars at each time that page was saved
5. Click on the year you want (for news articles, I suggest the oldest year)
6. In the calendar displayed for that year, hover your mouse over a blue dot
(it will display the backup times in a popup window)
7. Click on the time of the backup you want

For an illustrated version of the above, you can go to:
WikiHow article: Use the Internet Archive Wayback Machine

The official video tutorial is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ts1tu1BiSuY&t=602

and the official help page, here:
https://help.archive.org/help/using-the-wayback-machine/

SUGGESTION: If you are putting a link in your post, and want to be sure that
the Internet Archive backs up the linked page, you can go to
https://web.archive.org and post the link into the "Save Page Now" box
at bottom right. You will also have to click on the "Save Page Now" button
on the resulting page.