WP article
Noted about carrying a Garmin Communicator in places with patchy cell coverage.
In addition to the article above, here's what he posted in the comments:
I'm the hiker who was rescued in this story and I'll give some more context to why I couldn't get out of the quicksand. The advice I heard growing up did not work. People say to spread out, lay back, increase surface area, and swim out. None of that was possible for two major reasons.
First, my leg was trapped behind me at a bent angle and locked in place like it had been poured in concrete. There was a huge amount of strain on the knee just keeping myself upright. Laying down or twisting would have dislocated my knee or broken something. I tried small movements to break the suction but it wouldn’t budge.
Second, the air was in the twenties and the water was just above freezing. I’d walked past patches of ice that morning. If I had laid back, I would have soaked myself in the stream flowing over the quicksand. In those temperatures, hypothermia would have beaten the rescue team to me.
I tried everything I could to shimmy free, but the leg was locked too tightly. Digging with my hands and trekking poles was hopeless because the stream filled the hole faster than I could clear it. By the time you see the drone footage, I’m completely spent from hours of fighting the sand. Nature won the first round. I’m grateful SAR showed up before it claimed the second.
Noted about carrying a Garmin Communicator in places with patchy cell coverage.
In addition to the article above, here's what he posted in the comments:
I'm the hiker who was rescued in this story and I'll give some more context to why I couldn't get out of the quicksand. The advice I heard growing up did not work. People say to spread out, lay back, increase surface area, and swim out. None of that was possible for two major reasons.
First, my leg was trapped behind me at a bent angle and locked in place like it had been poured in concrete. There was a huge amount of strain on the knee just keeping myself upright. Laying down or twisting would have dislocated my knee or broken something. I tried small movements to break the suction but it wouldn’t budge.
Second, the air was in the twenties and the water was just above freezing. I’d walked past patches of ice that morning. If I had laid back, I would have soaked myself in the stream flowing over the quicksand. In those temperatures, hypothermia would have beaten the rescue team to me.
I tried everything I could to shimmy free, but the leg was locked too tightly. Digging with my hands and trekking poles was hopeless because the stream filled the hole faster than I could clear it. By the time you see the drone footage, I’m completely spent from hours of fighting the sand. Nature won the first round. I’m grateful SAR showed up before it claimed the second.