Sorry if it's been posted before. Stacie Albright posts about a family found by a group of four-wheelers.

She made some really bonehead mistakes. Expecting the cell phones to work? Forgetting your inhaler? Expecting a Colorado to work in the snow? Well, that one I'll give them, it IS a truck. At least they had a fire going, and only a 4 mile hike. Woefully unprepared. Probably would have gotten lost walking back too. She needs a good slap upside the head (seriously, at those ages, the kids won't remember it anyway - wait a few years)

Just some general observations from the video.

Why is everyone wearing blue jeans?

Why does there appear to be no attempt at extracting the vehicle by the owners in the story? i.e. Dig out the snow, place pine boughs under the vehicles tires and reduce tire pressure and rock the vehicle to get themselves out of the hole they are in? No snow shovel I suspect.

Why did they attempt to tranverse a mountain road that had not been cleared of snow in a vehicle, which is far to heavy and ponderous to be a serious off road vehicle. Even in a foot of snow, specialist vehicles are normally required i.e. tracked vehicles.

The problem here is that this family could have been 20-50 miles from the nearest rescue rather than the 3-4 miles and even attempting this distance would have required favourable weather conditions assuming this family know where to find help, presumably at the campground. Navigation is probably not one of these aldults strong points considering the bind they got themselves into.

At least 'Johnathan is a Survivor Man junkie' had a SAK and at least could get a fire going, but maybe he needs to start watching some Ray Mears and hopefully a little bit of PPPPPP will compensate for the lack of common sense.

This family was indeed fortunate to get rescued when they did. A slightly more remote location, a change in the weather together with a few more bad decisions and it could have been March before all their bodies were discovered from under the snow.

Here's another picture. This was in my neck-o-the-woods.

A lot of people (myself included) go on these 'closed' roads for the season to go sledding and have fun 4x4. We found a van that rolled,flipped and skidded once, it was pretty darn sketchy (character) and the patrol arrived shortly after. We've also found a burned car off the side of the hwy (closed for snow season).

"Most" families/people go up for the day to have fun but don't realize or think of 1.) it's hard to turn around 2.) it gets cold at night and even though you can wear a t-shirt at night it can get into the teens at night. 3.) only bring enough food/water for a day. 4.) There may be 100+ people on the road during the day but MOST leave and by 4ish (dark coming in) most are off the mountain and you are alone.

My rule when snow 4wheeling... always go with 2 vehicles minimum. Prepare to stay at least two nights (food,water,shelter,etc). Give someone a "if we are not back by date" instructions.

Cell phones actually work in the mountains around here, service is spotty and if you are not familiar with the terrain/roads you could miss your 100ft gap to get a call out.

"Why is everyone wearing blue jeans?"

Because that's all they own. People who don't bring extra diapers for their babies aren't going to dress appropriately themselves.

"Why does there appear to be no attempt at extracting the vehicle..."

Because there was no such effort? Look, the guy managed to start a fire -- do you expect him to be able to think, too?

This woman mentioned the 'bulge' in the diapers... did it even occur to her to EMPTY the diaper? I'll bet not.

The scary thing is that these people are (obviously) breeding.

Did you check out her website? "I am about maintaining responsible access to our lands and resources..."

Responsible??? Does she even know what the word means?

Sue

I'm hoping that the kinda flippant, "it was all sort of funny" now that the experience is over attitude is only there out of relief. It's scary to think that anyone that went thru that could keep up that sort of attitude after coming very close to killing their own family thru sheer ineptitude.

We all make mistakes, it's the compounding them over and over again that is scary to me.

JohnE

Another little cell phone tip; instead of calling, send a text. Works on a lower powered transmission, and may make it out when a call cannot.

WHY would you have a 4x4 vehicle, take it offroad, and NOT be prepared for the occasional "campout"? My jeep has enough in it to keep me alive for a week, and I am rarely more than a mile from a hardball. A small daypack is all you need, with a sleeping bag thrown in! These types of stories really get under my skin...these type of people EXPECT to get rescued...and therefore do not prepare