I discussed this from the signal mirror point of view here -
this was really a signal mirror tour de force.
http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=200661#Post200661

However, for those without my signal mirror fixation,
I thought it was an unusally well documented survival case
that might be worth general discussion. If nothing else,
just look at the after action report[2] - I've never seen
so many lavish photos in a after-action report before.

The hiker was:
+ reasonably well equipped
+ flagging his route
but he:
- "off-roaded" his return
- chose to hunker down in a spot hard to find
(canyon bottom)

Since the URLs were insanely long, I used tinyurl to
make shortcuts. (If I was better with HTML, I could probably do it in this forum, yes?)

[1] Rescue Team, Finds Lost Hiker, p. 3 of Airwaves, Sept. 2008
http://tinyurl.com/08M1313c

[2] Hell Canyon Search CAP 08M1313 (Power Point) - very well illustrated
http://tinyurl.com/08M1313a

[2] "Another typical Rocky Mountain misson", page 24, top left of page 25 Civil Air
Patrol Volunteer, May-July 2009 PDF page 24, top of page 25
http://tinyurl.com/08M1313b

[4] News story: http://www.co.larimer.co.us/news/newsDetail.cfm?id=196

[5] News story: http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=96374&catid=339

[6] News stories: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/16977456/detail.html

[7] News story: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_9983652?source=bb

[7] CAP bulletin: http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=5611.msg107134#msg107134

[8] News: http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20080724/NEWS/185048856/1035/NONE&parentprofile=1062

[] News story: http://www.backpacker.com/blogs/the_pulse/337