[pct-l] Death on the PCT / John Joseph Donovan

[Tortoise]

As I recall from the accounts, John had stopped and made camp. He still 
had food and supplies including matches. He could have stayed in his 
camp to wait out the storm. But for some reason he left camp and started 
hiking to ???.

To me an important lesson from this affair is that if you are lost in 
bad weather and camped, stay put in camp until better weather. Then 
signal for help as soon as you can get to someplace where others may see 
you.

Even if you are just lost, really lost, stay put. Staying put makes it 
easier for people to find you.

At least long enough for STOPA.  Sit, think, options, plan, action.

We don't know what John Donovan was thinking nor why he left camp. 
Possibly hypothermia.

Tortoise

Because truth matters"



Don Billings wrote:
> Paul,
>
> I agree that turning back would have been the prudent thing to do in John's case. From what I read, though, he routinely 
> hiked miles in the snow to and from work in his home state so he may have simply had too much confidence in his ability.
>
> Nobody knows for sure what went wrong or WHEN it went wrong, but I suspect he realized he made a mistake and then
> attempted to head for safety. Being without a compass and gps in the dark and in a snow storm could have been his downfall. 
> Rather than being the most dangerous gear in his pack, he could have used the backtrack feature to perhaps find his previous 
> location.
>
> In any case, his hiking without compass nor gps was a mistake. I even read that the maps he had were of poor quality but I'm 
> not sure what maps were used. He was a poor man all of his life and scrimped on everything. So, if he had photocopied maps, 
> that too may have been his downfall. When you read of his life, and his low income (he didn't even have $$ for a phone at his 
> apartment)....  you have to cut him some slack. He finally found something he could do on his income/retirement that he
> liked but he still had those lifelong habits of frugality..... but the one thing, in my mind, that nobody should cheap out on
> is safety gear.
>
> The thing that struck me heavily was that after having a hard life (parents gone by age 10, etc), he stated to friends that his
> lifelong fear in life was to die alone. So, imagine how he felt... in the snow, injured, without food, nobody knowing where he was,
> no S&R initiated, and without the proper gear. The story just tugs at my compassion.
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Paul Mitchell <bluebrain at bluebrain.ca>
> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Sent: Mon, January 25, 2010 1:00:42 PM
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Death on the PCT / John Joseph Donovan
>
> With all due respect to the late Mr. Donovan, I'd chime in to say that much
> more valuable than a compass and GPS in his situation would have been a bit
> of caution and sense.  John took on the San Jacinto stretch with ultra-light
> gear, 3 feet of snow on the ground and foreknowledge that a storm was
> blowing in that night.  The other hikers who last met him had the sense to
> descent to Idyllwild to shelter from the inbound snowstorm, yet John decided
> to press on through serious snow into a high altitude snow storm.  
>
> If a compass and GPS gave you the confidence to enter a mountain range under
> those conditions, than they just might be the most dangerous gear in your
> pack.
>
> - P178
>
> "This year the Idyllwild area has had its highest snow fall in 40 years, and
> the area John was last seen in had approximately 3 ft. of snow and the
> weather report, (which John knew about) for that night was that a storm was
> coming in. Other PCT hikers came into Idyllwild for shelter from the storm."
>
> http://www.rmru.org/missions/2005/2005-017.html
>
>
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