2021-06-20, 08:20 PM
I've never needed SAR, and although I've carried an emergency locator system for over a decade, never had to fire it off either. But I've been in a few dicey situations and made a few mistakes in my time.
It seems a frequent factor is that we are out and we have a plan and we believe we will execute the plan, and our focus on "the plan" prevents us from paying adequate attention to the small things that should clue us in to the fact that the plan may not happen. But we ignore those clues until we end up in a bad way. There is a tension between giving up at the first sign of difficulty (a slope steeper than expected), in which case we don't achieve many of our goals, and being so focused on the goal that we ignore the danger signs.
And when I have a plan, it is often easy to fit suspect terrain into it and imagine that it does match the topos and I'm not off route (and getting further off with each step). I've had to teach myself that it is *never* a waste of time to stop and check the map, gps, compass, whatever, and to quickly admit "Hmm may be off route here...".
Though the best course of action would have been to follow a known path to known water, perhaps this party was so focused on the goal (getting to LA to catch a flight, I believe) to consider going back in the opposite direction, and simply admitting that the goal was not going to be achieved, and in fact the situation had turned completely into one of survival. Which, unfortunately, they lost.
When we find ourselves in a situation like this, will we have the presence of mind to come to a screeching halt and totally revise our response to the situation? Worth thinking about it, because if we do think now, we are a bit more likely to do the right thing later, if it ever comes to that.
(of course lots of other lessons here, like not assuming you know anything you have not confirmed on a map, being unaware of conditions, and having way way too little water for such a wild place.)
It seems a frequent factor is that we are out and we have a plan and we believe we will execute the plan, and our focus on "the plan" prevents us from paying adequate attention to the small things that should clue us in to the fact that the plan may not happen. But we ignore those clues until we end up in a bad way. There is a tension between giving up at the first sign of difficulty (a slope steeper than expected), in which case we don't achieve many of our goals, and being so focused on the goal that we ignore the danger signs.
And when I have a plan, it is often easy to fit suspect terrain into it and imagine that it does match the topos and I'm not off route (and getting further off with each step). I've had to teach myself that it is *never* a waste of time to stop and check the map, gps, compass, whatever, and to quickly admit "Hmm may be off route here...".
Though the best course of action would have been to follow a known path to known water, perhaps this party was so focused on the goal (getting to LA to catch a flight, I believe) to consider going back in the opposite direction, and simply admitting that the goal was not going to be achieved, and in fact the situation had turned completely into one of survival. Which, unfortunately, they lost.
When we find ourselves in a situation like this, will we have the presence of mind to come to a screeching halt and totally revise our response to the situation? Worth thinking about it, because if we do think now, we are a bit more likely to do the right thing later, if it ever comes to that.
(of course lots of other lessons here, like not assuming you know anything you have not confirmed on a map, being unaware of conditions, and having way way too little water for such a wild place.)