Man Rescued, Wife Dead After Spending 10 Days Out of Bounds

Frankly, I'd be pointing fingers at the local search & rescue before blaming the RCMP.
 
Someone in the rescue groups are feeling very nervous about now (just how big will that lawsuit and scapegoating be).
 
Tragic. I can never quite understand when people realize they are lost after going O.B they don't at least attempt to go back the way they came?
 
This reinforces the idea that you should always carry basic survival gear, especially when skiing unknown slack country. I'm packing a cheapo bivy sack, whistle/compass/mirror combo, flint & steel, and some GU at all times. Cheap insurance against the unknown.
 
This reinforces the idea that you should always carry basic survival gear, especially when skiing unknown slack country. I'm packing a cheapo bivy sack, whistle/compass/mirror combo, flint & steel, and some GU at all times. Cheap insurance against the unknown.

would that be 10 days worth of GU?
 
hayduke":25esjr4u said:
This reinforces the idea that you should always carry basic survival gear, especially when skiing unknown slack country. I'm packing a cheapo bivy sack, whistle/compass/mirror combo, flint & steel, and some GU at all times. Cheap insurance against the unknown.

would that be 10 days worth of GU?
Click to expand...

That's like a whole camelback full, eh? :-&
 
If you have been to Kicking Horse, you could hypthesize what happened to a certain extent.

Kicking Horse is a giant NW-to-SE ridge. The ski area is on the east side. The west side drops into a valley that you think might be populated but is remote - separated by the aforementioned ridge.

I guess the skied off the backside, thought they could get back to civilization - but not really. They either needed to go south along the river for 10 miles. Or they needed to hike back up Kicking Horse at 4000 vertical feet and did not. I could be wrong - but if they skied off the front (?!?!)....it has to be the backside. And if they had a map or clue, they could have just followed the river.

By day 2, I would hike back up Kicking Horse. Mountaineering rate: 1000 vert/ft per hour. Even if tired/starving: 1000 vert/ft per 3 hours.

However, this couple -- I do not get it. I would have to assume one got injured. Or they had no map skills. Or were just extremely unprepared.

I lost some friends do to Google Maps and its poor West Coast directions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kim
(And Google continues to put money into crap like http://www.dodgeball.com/ - versus refining its Google Maps product - like what roads are closed in the West in the winter.)
 
ChrisC":2zlixe82 said:
(And Google continues to put money into crap like http://www.dodgeball.com/ - versus refining its Google Maps product - like what roads are closed in the West in the winter.)
Click to expand...

Not any more....
Hey guys, as some of you have probably already read, Google has decided to shut down dodgeball. I know this is kind of a bummer, but the site has been in maintenance mode for a while now, and it's just time to shut it down for good.

We're planning on doing this in two stages. Everything will continue to function as-is until midnight on Friday, March 6th (can anyone say shutdown party?). At that point, we'll turn off the SMS service and the site will enter read-only mode. At this point we'll also turn on some features allowing you to export your checkin history in various formats. We'll leave it like that for about a month giving you time to save or export any of your data that you might want to keep. Sometime around the beginning of April we'll shut the site down for good, delete all the user accounts, and the associated data.
Click to expand...

Pardon the off topic sidebar.
 
Marc_C":1hwbmv3l said:
ChrisC":1hwbmv3l said:
(And Google continues to put money into crap like http://www.dodgeball.com/ - versus refining its Google Maps product - like what roads are closed in the West in the winter.)
Click to expand...

Not any more....
Hey guys, as some of you have probably already read, Google has decided to shut down dodgeball. I know this is kind of a bummer, but the site has been in maintenance mode for a while now, and it's just time to shut it down for good.

We're planning on doing this in two stages. Everything will continue to function as-is until midnight on Friday, March 6th (can anyone say shutdown party?). At that point, we'll turn off the SMS service and the site will enter read-only mode. At this point we'll also turn on some features allowing you to export your checkin history in various formats. We'll leave it like that for about a month giving you time to save or export any of your data that you might want to keep. Sometime around the beginning of April we'll shut the site down for good, delete all the user accounts, and the associated data.
Click to expand...

Pardon the off topic sidebar.
Click to expand...

I have been through the Google machine: Adwords, Adsense, Froogle-Shopping-Products, Blogger, Checkout, Maps....

I am familiar with Dodgeball. I dislike the supreme-Manhattanhite Dodgeball ex-CEO ---and he was demoted to Product Manger - and then quit. The idea and site is crap.

And Google is so, so desperate for mobile. But I would never use Dodgeball - yet Google Maps should pay attention to winter road closures. We could have added that to the price paid for many mobile properties being left as roadkill.
 
ChrisC":p4s688ca said:
.....

However, this Kicking Horse couple -- I do not get it. I would have to assume one got injured. Or they had no map skills. Or were just extremely unprepared.
Click to expand...

Let's not rule out the Darwin factor...
 
yak":yro649z3 said:
ChrisC":yro649z3 said:
.....

However, this Kicking Horse couple -- I do not get it. I would have to assume one got injured. Or they had no map skills. Or were just extremely unprepared.
Click to expand...

Let's not rule out the Darwin factor...
Click to expand...

This is getting some press in the media, especially in Quebec.


Lost skiers more scared by prowling wolves than cold: brother
RCMP admit failure to search for missing skiers was mistake

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columb ... escue.html

Family of dead skier says RCMP 'could have done more'

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Fam ... story.html

We messed up, RCMP admit
Lost LaSalle couple's SOS signs ignored; search began too late

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/mes ... story.html

HUSBAND SURVIVED ON FOLIAGE AND SNOW
Skier lost in B.C. 'felt she could no longer go on'

http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=1333495



Sad story.
 
Patrick":27g57rjp said:
yak":27g57rjp said:
ChrisC":27g57rjp said:
.....

However, this Kicking Horse couple -- I do not get it. I would have to assume one got injured. Or they had no map skills. Or were just extremely unprepared.
Click to expand...

Let's not rule out the Darwin factor...
Click to expand...

This is getting some press in the media, especially in Quebec.


Lost skiers more scared by prowling wolves than cold: brother
RCMP admit failure to search for missing skiers was mistake

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columb ... escue.html

Family of dead skier says RCMP 'could have done more'

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Fam ... story.html

We messed up, RCMP admit
Lost LaSalle couple's SOS signs ignored; search began too late

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/mes ... story.html

HUSBAND SURVIVED ON FOLIAGE AND SNOW
Skier lost in B.C. 'felt she could no longer go on'

http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=1333495



Sad story.
Click to expand...


Almost unbelievable I think. With skis on you can travel pretty far in a short amount of time. You either go back the way you came or go down hill. For being "outdoorsie" types to me this does not add up. No disrespect, but something is fishy :?
 
I don't understand... I'm looking at a topographical map of Kicking Horse. Wouldn't they have known which way they were skiing away from the resort? This indeed does seem weird. Perhaps the guy thought he knew more than he really did. I mean if there was a sunny day, wouldn't it make sense to climb back which way you came from? or at least go above the tree-line to get some geographical orientation?
 
B.C. was in an extended dry spell during this entire time. It does puzzle me that someone with enough survival skills to last 10 days couldn't figure out which way east was in order to head toward the resort and/or Golden.

Nonetheless RCMP dropped the ball on the SOS markings.
 
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