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

Mon Jan 25 20:09:56 CST 2010

Or how 'bout maybe it's not a good idea to hike alone up into the mountains with minimal summer gear, very little food, and knowing well that there is weather coming, and there probably wont be anyone around.  
On Jan 25, 2010, at 5:49 PM, Don Billings wrote:

> I did some serious reading on the event and from what I read, nobody knew what happened because the last people to see him
> were headed down to shelter and merely advised him to do likewise as he continued onward.
> 
> When he was found, his notes said that he had "taken a fall" and was unable to climb out. It sounded as if he set camp after that.
> 
> As for having food, he wasn't prepared at all. He ate his final crackers while camped. He had no food provisions to last him. In fact, that
> was one of the sad aspects of the story. He celebrated his 60th birthday.... alone..... eating his last crackers.
> 
> He didn't start hiking out, either. They found his body about 150 feet from his camp site and his notes indicated he was going for water. 
> Someone else posted that the "water" was Hidden Creek. See pdf map file link below.
> 
> He did have matches left which were used by the (lost) couple who stumbled across his camp. But maybe he died before he could use them. 
> i.e. heavy wind / snow. The matches were found by the couple inside his backpack buried within/within/within bags.
> 
> The sad part was that nobody knew where he was and his contacts back East did not realize a problem for about 10 days... and he was dead by
> then. They only realized he was in trouble when he failed to show up for resupply and upon checking by phone with the post office. So, he was stuck
> and he knew nobody was looking for him.
> 
> One person theorized that he saw the lights of Palm Springs below and attempted to bushwhack downward. His fall may have actually broken a hip or a leg so 
> that he couldn't walk. They did the usual autopsy but I didn't see any news item that reported after that aspect of the investigation. It would have been
> revealing to read that, yes, he had a severe broken bone which precluded him from helping himself.
> 
> The link I'm posting here shows the area where the (lost) couple began their own 4 day survival episode. They intended to merely hike a 1.5 mile tourist loop
> which is directly outside of the Palm Springs Aerial Tram and then intentionally went off trail. So, you can see where they started... and they stumbled
> across Donovan's camp on their second day of being lost. 
> 
> www.parks.ca.gov/pages/636/files/mtsanjacintospmap.pdf
> 
> Even the (lost) couple were in trouble despite attempting a common self rescue tactic of following a creek down hill. They were blocked, as was Donovan, at a steep "gorge." 
> 
> I think that there are lessons to be learned from this story, too. Thats one reason I posted it. When I was young, I never used to think about the risks of doing something solo... until I found myself in scary situations. :)  Now, I wish I could hike solo, but its just safer not to. Just like scuba diving... it better to not be alone.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Tortoise <Tortoise73 at charter.net>
> To: Pct-l at backcountry.net
> Sent: Mon, January 25, 2010 4:06:50 PM
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Death on the PCT / John Joseph Donovan
> 
> 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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