It is valid to critique the decisions of people in such situations, that is how we learn to do better. That is a large part of the purpose of this forum.

The article claims that she took survival classes. She either did not learn anything or she did not use the knowledge that she gained. They made many bad decisions and did not seem to be prepared.

The comments about people consuming urine are valid in my opinion. Things appear in some TV shows and then you have reports of people doing it. In this particular case they had other options but chose to do the wrong thing.

Yes survival is a pass/fail situation, but these people were just lucky. It could easily have gone the other way based on their decisions. Last time I was in that area there was no cell phone signal at all, and they had no other method of communicating and did not leave a plan with anyone else. Nobody was looking for them until they did find a signal and made a call.

I believe that when people violate rules or laws, such as trespassing into a closed park, they should be held legally liable. Like those going into off limits areas, knowingly making that decision, they should be prosecuted. Just my opinion. These people endangered their own lives, and the life of their son, deliberately crossing into areas that were clearly marked as off limits.

A simple pocket survival kit with a good fire starter would have made a significant difference. A smokey fire in that area at that time would have brought park rangers to investigate, I am sure. They should have tried the cell phone before she decided to hike out.

This just shows that you can do everything wrong and get lucky. We should learn from this, though most people here already understand these principles.

I would like to know what survival training she received. Whoever taught it should be scrutinized to see what they are actually teaching.

Critical thinking in this forum should not be discouraged. Discussing what they did wrong is important. They came out alive, but only through luck and the efforts of others. We need to learn the correct lessons from such incidents.