"...far back do you need to go to find a Christmas tree?..."

Actually, at least in my experience, finding a decent looking Christmas tree in a whole forest of trees is not easy. "Real" trees are not groomed almost from birth like those in tree farms are. You have to look and look and look to find one that is presentable from all/most sides. I can see city folk wandering around and getting lost.

Nice looking CHP chopper they rode out in, huh???

Report from the search.

Lots of families were out there cutting trees, so the victims were not alone, at least in the general area.
They were probably as well prepared as most.

The lost folks needed more of the 10 essentials and should have dropped some bread crumbs. However once they realized they were lost they did it right.

What they did right

Gear-
Had heavy winter coats and wool hats
Saw

Actions-
found shelter
didn’t move around
signaled with branches in the snow which led searchers to them
conserved energy
found water
took care of each other
built moral by singing, telling jokes, praying


Deep snow on brush made for difficult going.
The folks were found 2.4 miles from the vehicle according to one
team members GPS.

Story from some of the team-
One of our teams was
paired with a snowshoe group from another county. There is a little bit of competition sometimes between teams.

Of course the ski team was able to ski to the appointed section to search
before the snowshoers could walk there. Suddenly while the snowshoers
were still traveling to the search area, a radio transmission from the snowshoers-”We have located some human feces, still warm, but no sign of tracks, the victims may be nearby!”

Well, the snow was crusty, and our team’s skis left little sign. You can figure it out from there.