Anita's Notebook

There’s a common thread in many stories told by people who’ve survived being stranded out in the wilderness. It seem weird to me that it doesn’t get much notice even though it’s as dangerous as any life-threatening element of nature that people in these situations come across.


THE AGONY OF ALMOST

I’m talking about ‘almost being rescued’ and the aftermath of it. You know, where the people who are stranded see a search plane go by and they jump up excitedly and run to go signal it. They climb to a tall rock or something and start screaming and waving their arms but then the plane slowly passes across the sky and never returns.

Their hearts sink and the hope bleeds out of them. For the first time they seriously consider the possibility that they will soon die in the middle of nowhere.

This deep realization that they might not be rescued is a turning point for many people in survival situations, and how they deal with it means the difference between life and death.


WRONG TURN

A father out for a day of skiing with his young son takes a wrong turn on the slopes and they both unknowingly end up going down an abandoned side of a mountain. By the time they realize they’re lost they are already deep in the wilderness and in the midst of a fierce snow storm.

They had no survival supplies of any kind and so resorted to huddling together in a cave while the seemingly never ending snow storm played out. The father hoped that staying put would conserve their energy and buy enough time for them to be found by a rescue party, but after days in the cold with no food the son’s condition started to rapidly deteriorate. The father began to work on a farewell letter to his wife but the hope of rescue was a motivating force to keep going.

Then the moment he was waiting for finally happened. A rescue helicopter was flying overhead in a search pattern and the father rushed out of the cave to get the attention of the rescuers. He jumped up and down and waved his arms and screamed, but …nothing. The helicopter did a couple of passes then swung out of sight and was off to search another part of the mountain. This happened not just once but several times, and when the helicopters stopped coming he lost all hope of the rescue crew finding them.


MAKING A CHOICE

Despite the overwhelming feeling of helplessness brought on by almost being rescued the father dug deep within himself and found the strength to keep going. He came up with a plan to climb a high ridge that was nearby and try to spot any sort of thing that could help them. This was a risky plan since he was already very weak and could easily get injured and die on the way up.

However this plan saved his life and that of his son as he was able to spot a group of cabins way in the distance. After a grueling trek he reached the cabins and was eventually found by a group of loggers.

The father ended up saving them, but what if he had just given up on all hope and accepted death in the cave? How many people out there heard the drone of search planes go over and away and gave in to hopelessness because of it? ‘Almost being rescued’ broke those people’s will to survive and they never lived to tell their story.

This is something that I haven’t really seen mentioned in survival books or shows, which is a shame because learning how to cope with the psychological chaos of almost being rescued is a crucial skill that anyone who might end up in a survival situation needs to know.