http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2010/01/20/brandon-days-survival-stor y-to-air-on-i-shouldnt-be-alive/
Lost: How a dead man (John Donovan) saved two Dallas hikers
http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/2007/01/24/Lost.aspx
Brandon Day and Gina Allen.
This episode really annoyed the crap outta me! I was going to make my own post but there is already a few up so I hope you don't mind if I rant here.
This guy and girl did NOTHING to help themselves! What kind of guy is this??
I'm a city boy, as a matter of fact, when I played in punk bands we made a song called City Boys because we love the city so much. But even I am not completely useless in a situation like this. I know where they went. I went to Pom Springs California once to see a girl I knew but we never got a chance to ride the mountain thing.
1. Maybe it's my paranoid nature from living in rough areas but I would never have left my cell phone behind when going to that mountain trip. Also I would never wander off without asking the guide and telling them.
2. The guy never built a shelter. I would have definitely built a shelter.
Never tried to get food. Didn't try to find plants, didn't try to find animals, didn't try to fish. Nothing.
3. The guy didn't go back to the gondola drop poff area and place a help S.O.S. sign using rocks or anything so that if another tour came up they would see it.
4. They got a huge break which they only saw as a horrible thing. They found a 60 yrs old man dead who wandered off the trail and broke his leg but had left behind camping gear such as an emergency tent, cooking pans, match box, fishing hooks and lines, sneakers, etc. They should have been all set! But instead they sat down and cried going crazy thinking that since he died, they would too! The guy was 60 with a broken leg having fallin off a ledge!
It wasn't until the guy just went nuts and tried to light the foreset on fire, that a helicopter came to pick them up. Other then that, the guy did NOTHING to save his own life and hers, but wander off to worse locations.
I usually really feel compassionate and sad for the people on this show but this episode I found myself yelling at the tv "dude, make a shelter! Don't just sit through out the night on a rock! I know your a business man but you can't be completely useless. Built a shelter low to the ground where it is warm with no wind, make an S.O.S. sign, find food."
People could live off that land. They had water just had to get food, after 2 days the guy said his body was starting to break down eating itself? I've gone without eating for 2 or 3 days many times. These people were healthy and athletic looking.
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Not all, open topic. I was just posting links to confirm the story.
Since their plan was to walk the trail with other people, neither of them were prepared for the outdoors. But I do agree about the plants, and water, even though both had no idea what was safe and what wasn't.
I can't remember exactly what the man had, but besides the matches, I think everything else was gone or too wet to be of use. John also got lost, so they pretty much were in a similar situation of not knowing which way they were headed.
But I agree that there was a lot of things they could have done to ease their panic.
oh everybody likes to act so smart but you'd never know what you'd do until in that situation. It seems to me like they DID try to come up with a plan (following the creek) even though it didn't work. They probably didn't eat food right away because they figured it was just going to be a matter of walking down to find civlization...it's not like a plane crashed and they were stranded on a remote island. And at the end of they day, THEY came out of the woods alive, not the Navy veteran that had a whole set up including maps and matches and all.
shareAnd you have to remember people that cellphones dont work everywhere, especially in the middle of the freaking ocean. . It's even stupider to say "you're going on a cruise in the middle of the ocean and you dont bring your cell phone?!"
Why the hell would you bring it? It's not going to work.
Unless of course you buy an expensive satellite phone, but then again if you're going on a short hike with a group of people would you really plop down the money for such a phone just in case?
Also I'd probably lose my *beep* too if I found out that an experienced and heavily prepared camper couldnt even find a way out of that exact spot. Its basically confirming that you're going to die. . Sure the tent would be nice to sleep in but the tent isnt going to sprout wings and fly you home.
The basis of most modern horror movies is that individuals MUST leave their cell phones behind. And if they do not leave their phones behind, some magical force needs to make the cell phones inoperable. I truly doubt you question this logic when watching a movie, yet in real life you go into spasms.
All I am saying is that if leaving your cell phone behind was this big of a deal, watching most modern horror/thriller movies would be near impossible for you.
Every episode is like the game Jenga.
-Tour group leaves without them (take one block)
-Leave their phones on the bus (take another block)
-Tell the group leader or ask where it is what they were looking for (another block)
-At least stay on a trail (another block)
By now the Jenga tower has collapsed and you lose. Game over and your stuck to deal with the problem.
The point of the show is, people get into a lif and death situation, being unprepared and not expecting anything out of the ordinary to occur, and then zingo - all of a sudden they are faced with the possiblity of death. Of course they make mistakes to get themselves there in the first place, and along the way. We all make all sorts of mistakes every single day - even the smartest of us - but these errors don't usually result in dire consequences. We miss a buss, we take the next one. What kind of a show would it be if people did not make these mistakes?
BRANDON AND GINA WENT FOR A HIKE IN THE RUGGED WILDERNESS!!!!
FORTUNATELY FOR THEM, BRANDON HAS HIS CELL PHONE, AND THEY NEVER WANDERED FAR FROM THE PICK-UP SITE!!!!
THEY RETURNED TO THEIR HOTEL WITHOUT INCIDENT!!!!
Groan! Is THIS the show you want to see?
Come on. These people weren't so stupid. What plants should one eat when one is stranded in the forest? Personally, I have no clue. They are all just weeds to me - would not want to compound my problems by eating something poisonous.
I have acutally taken the VERY SAME cable car (or one close to it) in Palm Desert Ca. Middle of summer. Could not believe there was snow on the ground at the top. Did not have proper clothing on for snow - shorts and tee! Walked around a little - did NOT go looking for a waterfall, and took the cable car back down again. Nothing sinister happened, but change 1 or two facts and the outcome may have been very very different!
I watched this episode last night, and just returning home from a tour group, I have a very pressing question about the tour guide that left the couple on the mountain. Was there ever a lawsuit filed against them? I couldnt believe the guide actually "assumed" they took a cab back to their hotel!!! How negligent! Our tour guide never left without the entire group in tow.
If anyone knows what happened to this tour company please post. Thanks so much!
I couldnt believe the guide actually "assumed" they took a cab back to their hotel!!! How negligent!
The cell phone thing irritated me. You see that again and again in these episodes. Why wouldn't you take your cell phone? There are plenty of times you don't need your cell phone, but while hiking is definitely not one of them. Plus, how long did they look for that frickin' waterfall? How did they get so turned around? When you thought the waterfall was right around the corner and it wasn't wouldn't you just turn around? Why keep going?
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I know!?? I know I NEVER let my cell phone leave my side when I'm away from home, they were in the mountains so it's possible they wouldn't get reception anyway but still!!!
And also who the heck is dumb enough to leave the trail when the guide TOLD them not to? Especially if you don't know the area and could easily get lost, I mean the guy was probably trying to be romantic and stuff but if it were me I say better safe than sorry.
I don't care if they were up on a mountain, lost in the woods, stranded on an island, etc. You never leave your cell phone behind. That's one of the stupidest things people who wind up on this show do. It's easy to say you won't have service but you never know where you might find it. There was another episode where a plane crashed up in the mountains and one of the guys hiked through waist-deep snow and found a good enough signal that he was able to call for help. If you leave it behind, you most definitely won't have service. I take my phone with me when I check the mail.
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I take my phone with me when I trek regularly and it almost never works in the wilderness.
When i'm in the city I leave it behind all the time. I remember when we did not have to be in constant contact and really liked that time better.
But if death is a possibility, you'll definitely want to have it just in case it is one of the seldom times it works in the wilderness. In the episode this was the situation. If you don't want to be in constant contact, just don't answer or make calls.
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