Don't know if you noticed this last week. The interesting part of this Survival Situation is that they actually hiked into the wrong water shed and were actually heading south-west instead of south-east and being drawn down a much larger valley deeper into B.C. "The women thought they were hiking back toward Upper Kananaskis Lake - but they had become turned around and were headed in the opposite direction, into B.C.".

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I think this survival situation points out five good lessons:

1) You need to carry a Map and Compass and understand how to use them.
2) A GPS is an excellent tool to tell you where you are.
3) A SARSAT or SPOT beacon could have reduced this search and rescue to a simple rescue operation.
4) In the wilderness a moving target is always harder to find.
5) Water is an essential element of survival. They became dehydrated because they could not purify water even with a good source beside them. This ability is essential to survival.