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.
Could the hikers navigational errors added up by not taking into account the 15 1/2 East Magnetic declination. That is quite a considerable declination and not taking this into account after say 4 waypoints might have eventually had them heading 90 degrees off course into the wrong water shed valley.
2) A GPS is an excellent tool to tell you where you are.
Unfortunately a GPS isn't a very good tool to tell folks which direction to head off to. i.e. the wrong map datum and incorrect Mag declination information may have made matters worse because the hikers will trust the electronic box to point them in the correct (wrong) direction.
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.
The nice cup of strong sweet tea procedure should have sorted them out so that it forced a
Stop
Think
Observe
Plan.
They must have had the ability to make a cup of tea, if going for a planned 3 day hike. Shudders to think otherwise.
Previous Topic
Index
