In follow-up to my other thread about the young Labrador teenager who died near the village of Makkovik last week, after his snowmobile got stuck:

Despite the chorus of angry voices complaining about the slowness of the military SAR response, I noted that ground searchers from the community, assisted by civilian helicopters, located his snowmobile on Tuesday afternoon - i.e. within the "first 48" hours after he was last seen alive.

Putting aside the tragic result, this strikes me as an excellent response time.

For those of you who have been actively involved in Search and Rescue, would you agree or disagree that finding the search subject's vehicle within 2 days is better than average, average, or below average?

This leads to my next question: How long would you wait to be rescued? At what point would you say "Well, they're not going to find me, so if I want to survive I'd better start walking"?

Or, in general, under what conditions would you decide it was better to leave the stranded vehicle and try making it to safety on your own?