Three miles...

"McDonald seemed to know the area well."

It makes you wonder what he was waiting for, unless he thought it was the easiest way to die. Maybe he had been alone too long and it didn't matter.

Sue

It seems to me that there is a bit of confusion in the survival literature about leaving the vehicle VS staying with the vehicle. Here is a case where leaving the vehicle would have best the best option (if McDonald knew where to go), whereas Chretien (Stranded for 49 days), it seems that staying with the vehicle was the right thing to do.

Another “rule” from the survival literature is to make a plan and stick to it – perhaps a plan like “I’ll stay with my vehicle”, or “I’ll stick to my intended shortcut” ?

I don’t have any real insights here, just wanting to make the point that “the literature” is only a guideline and ultimately you need to make your own decision. It seems that case by case in these newspaper-worthy articles we can see the wisdom of what was right or wrong. I suspect that these rules are good guidelines for a general breakdown, but can’t be blindly applied in a “real” survival situation ?

Let me pose the question: How do you know when you go from a simple “difficult situation” to a survival situation ?
I think that this is a question which can only be answered with hindsight and probably can’t be answered at the time you are actually stuck, because at that time you will only have imperfect information, you don’t know if the snow will melt tomorrow (and you can drive out), or a bunch of hunters will come down the track, or no one will come for another 2 months.



PS – little survival tip, or even just for fun: When you are out in the bush, especially in hills or mountains, it always pays to survey your surroundings in the dark as well as during the day. It amazes me that at night you can see the sky glow from distant towns and even direct lights from a cabin or farm, or the light from a distant camp fire. Perhaps if McDonald had done this he may have seen the lights of the restaurant, just 4miles away ?
A couple of times I’ve taken out my compass (at night) and taken a bearing on the lights, during the day, there is no indication of a settlement, but with a compass bearing, you can see over hills to where it is.

Definitely a tragic story. We'll never really know for sure what happened up there, although the evidence and handwritten calendar log gives some insight. I think the fact that this individual was estranged from his family, had no permanent residence, but yet had good knowledge of the outdoors makes this case that much more sad.

Seems like there have been a lot of rescues, stranded hikers, stranded motorists, and outdoors fatalities lately here in the PNW. The other day a Washington State Trooper was rescued in the backcountry after taking off alone from his snowshoeing group. Then another day a hiker slipped off a stream crossing, fell into the stream, and drowned. Yet another pair of hikers had to be rescued off a ledge in the Columbia Gorge by the Oregon Army NG chopper. Then a husband & wife went missing outside of Baker City while enroute to Nevada (wife found after something like 70 days, husband still missing).

Maybe it all has something to do with La Nina and the extra liquid sunshine we have been getting.