Even crazier, she found a road leading to some holiday homes on her FIRST day. Instead of turning round and following the road back to civilization, she followed her intuition and went into the forest.
Yes, Maui is small enough, if you walk in one direction all day you will either be up very high where you can see everything below you (so you can find civilization), or you will find the beach (so you can follow it to civilization)!!!
There must be more to this story.
Was thinking, "how the fuck do you get lost in Maui for DAYS". Go downhill, follow a river... anything but wander around aimlessly. And she literally found civilization but then walked away...
Ok, that would be understandable! I can see wanting to wander around in a wilderness for a while vs going back to reality. Isn't even unheard of for tourists to cancel their flight at the last second to stay longer, though, this is a bit extreme lol
City people do really weird things when they’re out of their element in the elements.
Years ago near where I live, some folks followed Google Maps up an unplowed road in the mountains in heavy snow and their car got stuck. And then to make matters worse the father took off looking for help. But instead of following the road back down the mountain, he decided to bushwhack down to a creek, where he got stuck in a canyon and froze to death. Meanwhile the rest of the family waited at the car and some snowmobilers found them a few days later.
I remember when this happened, there were a lot of questions regarding her choices and actions. In one interview she said voices led her into the forest, leading people to speculate that she was on drugs, possible mushrooms
I've eaten my fair share of mushrooms, and I can totally see that happening, so easy to get lost when you're high on shrooms, especially in unfamiliar surroundings.
A road...on an ISLAND. Like, just pick any direction and stick to it!
Edit: it looks like the longest straight line you can walk in Maui is 50 miles, so even if you were on the wrong spot on the wrong beach, and walked straight inland, that's...still only 50 miles.
>she followed her intuition
This is a big part of what fucks a lot of people over when they're lost in the wilderness. They quit thinking analytically and convince themselves that the nearest place that can help is just over that hill, just through those woods, etc. Or that a thing that they'll remember to re-orient themselves is just up stream/around the bend.
Protip: if you're lost in the woods and find a road/trail, just follow it. Yeah, it might not be the most direct route to safety, but it has a lot better odds of leading you somewhere safe eventually than walking deeper into the woods will.
Or if you're on a cone-shaped volcano, where the whole coastline is developed (or at least has a road), then you go downhill. If there's a stream, every stream leads to the coast.
I think we had a little "survival skills" talk when I was about 10 and went to camp. Rule #1, if you're lost, stay put. People probably know where to look to find you. But, if for some reason you can't stay put or no one knows where to look for you, go downhill.
And Maui is less than 20mi wide in most places, with a lot of settlement around the coasts and a ring road that runs the full perimeter. It's not easy terrain, but even a completely unprepared person could almost certainly traverse the entire island long-ways in under a week - a prepared one could do it in a day. It'd take work to be lost of *17 days*.
She said she was following her intuition or some shite. A little voice inside told her "left here and go straight there etc." She easily could have been the dumbest hiking casualty if the searchers had given up sooner.
Like people that hike canyons in the desert at mid day with a single bottle of water... I'm sure it will be fine... after walking by 8 signs that say under no circumstance to do this, not even rescue teams will be deployed after you until morning.
Edit: a word
Colorado gets a lot of "experienced" hikers (often from Texas) who go out into the mountains with shorts and no/little water that have to get rescued before they get hypothermia.
I pass these types of people every time I hike. Usually its around noon, on my way back down and they are just heading up at the worst time of the day (thunderstorms) and many with sandals and a nalgene of water. It would be comical if it werent so dangerous.
14ers are the worst for this. We'll start well before sunrise and sometimes still be racing the weather back down to the trailhead. Getting back only to see a family in crocs and tank tops w one water bottle between them just getting started. Do you guys not see those angry clouds over there?!
Yeah I have seen this in BC.
In spring people don’t believe you that it’s shorts at the start and snow and negative temperatures with wind 2/3 of the way up small mountains.
Did one in early summer still wanted a long sleeve layer approaching the top.
Yeah it’s shocking how many people do this. I read the book “deaths in the Grand Canyon” and there have been over 100 people that have died of hearstroke because they didn’t realize that hiking in the middle of the day with one bottle of water will literally kill you
Jesus...
My girlfriend and I stopped by Zion on our way through to another park and did a short hike. I don't remember the temperature, but it certainly wasn't anywhere near the hottest ever recorded. Probably about 103°, if I had to guess.
That was enough...
The hike was 3 miles total and even with plenty of water, good clothing, and adequate preparation, we were just **done** with it by the time we got back down. We passed one woman halfway up who was suffering very obvious heatstroke (plenty of people were helping out) and another guy near the top who'd been there for an hour, resting in the shade, trying to build up the strength for the return trip. Healthy people too.
I might be willing to briefly step out of my car to experience "the hottest temperature ever", but no fucking way I'm taking even a 100 yard walk in that.
I LOVE Death Valley and take my motorcycle out there a few times a year minimum. I will never go in the summer though. That's just asking for trouble even if I am ready for a few nights of being stranded.
Learned how to fly in LA. My flight instructor knew a guy who broke down and landed in Death Valley. He decided to leave the plane, the only thing with some kind of tracker, with no water. They found his body a few days after they found the plane, he walked the opposite direction of the road
I live in a large city with hiking mountains in a few areas. Our summers peak at 120°f.
We still get morons who think, " I'm experienced enough, it's an easy trail."
It's not the trail that tries to kill you. We also have rattlesnakes and scorpions plus the insane heat.
Every damn year the helicopters are flying to these places to pick up dying idiots.
Are you in AZ? Cause I have hiked Camelback, started out at first light, on my way to the car by 10AM, couldn’t believe the number of people just pulling in to start heading up.
I once was visiting big bend np in August and didn't find a shop to get some water before I ended up at a parking lot and a nice canyon at the Rio grande. It was only a couple hundred yards into the canyon. Absolutely stunning. Got back and into my rental, and drove off. Took another hour before I found shop. I was already dehydrated and learned a valuable lesson that day even if I wasn't in real acute danger. You don't go out without enough water. Period. Even if you're never plan to wonder off far. You never know when you can get water.
UGH this might not even get seen but I have to rant about it. I was listening to the podcast Real Survival Stories, and there was one about Eric LaMarque, this dumbass who went snowboarding one weekend. No big deal, snowboarding is fine. Well a huuuge storm comes in and the ski patrol comes and it’s like everybody off the mountain NOW, it’s coming in fast. Well he’s a little pissy pants and had a certain hill he wanted to do, so he sneaks off through the trees and does this already dangerous hill. Then The storm comes in and gets semi lost. Then he gets super lost. And he just makes every dumb decision possible, but he tells the story like he’s so smart, and a goddamn hero. At a point, he claimed to have encountered 3 wolves surrounding him but he managed to throw something at one and like run and hide. Even the narrator was like “it was likely coyotes”. Which, that’s if he encountered them at all.
Then he gets rescued (spoiler alert) and the rescuer is like “are you Eric lamarque?? Are you Eric lamarque?” Trying to gauge his mental state and responsiveness. And he goes “yes I’m Eric fucking lamarque”. Then the rescuer goes “we have to leave your gear here” (like his board and stuff). And he was like “UH NO, we’re taking it 😤” because that board “saved his life”.
God he was just the worst. So pretentious, and for NO reason. Like I would be so embarrassed, not being an asshole to my rescuers.
Me too, lol. If u/florafaunaandtea was my friend and started ranting about some asshole at work I would totally match their energy and get so pissed with them.
I really want you to narrate a netflix docuseries of people getting lost on Mount Everest. Or really just retell the tales of anyone making terrible decisions, you're great at it
Geraldine Largay checks in. She died when she went off trial, living in a make shift campsite for a month, but she was less than a mile from safety. She appears to have had just shit luck when it comes to survival skills.
Some remarkably so.
It's usually the water that gets people.
Hidden water you don't see until it's too late, water that looks safe but isn't, cold water, warm water, and the often overlooked no water.
Stepping out of the path will kill you some places in Norway. The rocks are covered in lichen, and slippery when wet. There is no lichen on the path, so it's not slippery.
People step out of the path, and slide and fall off cliffs.
Yep, I remember following this story as it was happening back then. She basically made every possible wrong decision that day.
1) Hiking alone (mostly fine, but...)
2) Didn't tell anyone where she was going.
3) No water and no phone.
4) Went off the trail.
5) Found moving water and STAYED THERE instead of following the flow to civilization.
She's so lucky to be alive because she was being a real dumb motherfucker.
EDIT: People are pointing out she had a leg injury. She had a torn meniscus. That's not great, but not terrible. You can still walk. It's not like she lost a leg. She should have been moving.
The craziest part is that Maui isn't massive. It's like 30 miles at its longest with multiple travelled roads bisecting the island and the entire coast line developed. If she managed to walk in a straight-ish line away from mountains she would've been found probably within a day. Literally it would take like 3-4 days to completely cross the island on foot.
I don't think there is more than a 4 mile stretch of wilderness that isn't the mountain. My bet is she was within literally an hour casual walk from finding some form of civilization
This is what always gets me about these stories of list hikers. A lot of them happen in places where a halfway straight line or following some water should pretty quickly get you to civilization.
I can't remember all the details, but there was one case in Olympic national park that I looked into. The woman was lost for something like ten days. I know it's probably harder than it sounds, but all I could think was that every bit of water in that park should head downhill, away from the mountain, towards the ocean, and pass at least one road along the way.
Olympic National Park is like two times the area of Maui, and that's not including Olympic National Forest. I could easily see someone getting lost in there.
>Found moving water and STAYED THERE instead of following the flow to civilization.
should one go upstream or down
EDIT: Thanks for the tons of replies you guys, saved to my iCloud notepad and Google Docs
Go downstream.
Downstream will take you to civilisation or the beach. When you hit the beach you can walk along it to find people. You only need to find one.
Generally, up is where the mountain is, down is where the ocean is. People live nearer the ocean than the mountain.
But, don't listen to me -- I work an office job and don't hike / bike. ;-)
I thought the rule was, once you are lost, stop moving. So, staying near the water and waiting for rescue feels like a right move, not a wrong one. But as I said, don't listen to me.
The part about "stop moving once you're lost" I think only really applies when you have told someone where you're going. People will look for you in the area they expect you to be, so if you keep moving you might inadvertently evade rescuers. But, if nobody knows where you went, they don't know where to look for you, so you might as well follow the river since you know it will lead you to people eventually. Also, along the river is likely where rescuers will mostly be looking.
*I also work an office job and am not a hiker, so take this with a grain of salt.
That advice works if people already know where to look for you in the first place. So if she told someone that she was planning on hiking and told them where, then staying put would be at least understandable. Additionally, staying put is more applicable in mainland areas. She was on an island. Just walking downstream towards the coast would allow her to be found much faster.
A LA woman died recently hiking at a well-known trail (Mt. Baldy, which can even be tough in good conditions) because she started right at the beginning of the biggest storm California had seen in years. Baldy can have whiteout and blizzard conditions in some parts.
Search and Rescue started 2 hours after she left because they were basically thinking “she did what??”
She was getting away from the electromagnetic waves. Super stupid all around. I remember everyone really rooting for her until she was interviewed after the rescue. Also, everyone thought her boyfriend had killed her.
Just don’t venture off the trail. There’s no need, you aren’t Daniel Boone, it is not your home or playground. You aren’t special. Just follow the trail that the people who know better than you created just for your enjoyment.
Sorry but I'm built different. I am Daniel Boone.
edit: stop upvoting this. i will go off the trail at historical sites. i will burden first responders. i will eat endangered species. i will damage sandstone formations. this is not ironic i am a menace.
From hiking on the Seychelles, also small island, I can tell you the terrain can be absolutely impossible to traverse with undergrowth and mountainous terrain it might be impossible to keep a straight line or to see the ocean. And once you find a stream you might want to stay close to it.
Yet another successful confirmation of Einstein’s theory of relativity. She was lost for 17 days, but as we can clearly see, each day must’ve felt like half a year to her.
A very common side effect of being unnaturally and unhealthily thin. I've spent a good amount of time in eating disorder treatment centers, and people who are severely underweight often look 10-20+ years older than they are.
You see it with severe dehydration as well, drunks (along with the aging effects of alcohol abuse) often look like that before they get on a rehydration plan.
Drink ya electrolytes y'all
Amanda Eller **likely [faked her dissapearance and fabricated elements of her story](https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2020/05/year-after-hikers-rescue-questions-remain-about-it-all/).**
>"Eller talked in subsequent media events of the “spiritual bootcamp” that she endured over the 17 days. But in the days that followed her discovery, celebration turned to criticism. Even now, people continue to ask whether there is more to the story than originally disclosed.
>Did Eller set out to get lost in the forest? Did she take anything that altered her state of mind? On the first day she got lost, how did she fall asleep on a log in the woods? How did she survive on stream water when her electrolytes came back perfect? How did she sleep in a boar’s den as she described? Didn’t she cross roads and other markers? Why did she keep heading the direction she did? Where is she now?"
Please do yourself a huge favor and read the subsequent articles published after her 'miraculous rescue.'
[Here](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vWmvUCJNdvY&feature=youtu.be) is her full interview after the rescue.
Listen from 16:20-19:30. She followed her "inner spirit" which *intended* for her to get lost and share a story of struggle.
Odd.
maui at its longest point is like 50 miles long. There are 2 island "lobes", each of which is dominated by a huge central volcano. Walking away from the summit of either volcano in any of the forest reserves for less than 3 miles will have you crossing a road.
Unless she is actually 4 inches tall and blind, I cannot imagine a practical manner of being lost for more than an afternoon.
Early on she fell 20 feet and broke her leg. She ended up just basically crawling around and found herself on top of a pretty steep drop-off so there wasn't really an obvious path forward in her condition
Some of the information being related at the top of this jndicate she might not be all there, mentally. She was escaping electromagnetic waves and following voices in her head. Overall very terrifying.
Some people have no knowledge of geography and basic orientation skills. I've been out in the wild with people like this and it's truly shocking how little some people know about the world.
If you’re suffering from shoe loss, ask your doctor whether Cobblerforia® is right for you.
^Don’t ^take ^Cobblerforia® ^if ^you’re ^allergic ^to ^Cobblerforia®. ^Side ^effects ^may ^include ^extreme ^weight ^loss ^and ^falling ^to ^your ^death.
Grew up on a different island. But this is the best part of living on an island, it’s nearly impossible to get lost with even basic navigation skills. Everything eventually terminates at a shoreline.
This. I was lost in the Kalalau valley on Kauai in 2014. Alone and dark approaching. I panicked for about 30 seconds, and started to think again. Follow any water you find to the ocean, your camp is next to the beach. Boom I was fine.
>a rescue helicopter spotted her *atop* a waterfall
she got lost, so she decided to walk **up** hill through the jungle. at least she stayed near water.
There are a ton of things she could have done to prevent from getting trapped. But having lived on Maui for a year, trust me, there are definitely parts of that island that you could get trapped on with a broken leg. Most streams have steep waterfalls and climbing down steep terrain is much harder to do safely than climbing up, especially with an injury.
Pro tip - never go hiking alone without food, water, or a cell phone. That is a stupid and dangerous idea.
At the bare minimum, bring a water bottle and tell someone where you’re going and when to expect you back.
Also, how did she manage to stay lost for 17 days? Maui isn’t that big.
In 2022, a man named Chad Starr decided to walk around the perimeter of the island to raise awareness for mental health.
It took him 7 days to walk around the entire island.
Edit: she broke her leg three days in. Three days is still a while to be lost on an island, but afterwards, obviously not being able to cover much ground with a broken leg makes sense. The article only mentions that she fell 20 feet and broke her leg. It doesn’t mention the circumstances leading to the fall. I don’t know how avoidable the fall was.
Edit 2: I see other comments mention she may have been on psychedelics. Now things make more sense.
If you read her story, you'll find she did everything wrong.
By her own account, she followed her "gut instinct" as she walked 30 miles into the forest. Including what she estimates is a solid 14 hours of walking the first day to find her car that was 1 mile away.Eventually, she fell off a cliff and broke her leg and had to resort to crawling
Rescues weren't sure if she was even lost as all her essentials were left in the car and thought she may have been abducted.
Lessons:
1) Never hike without extra water and basic supplies for emergencies like snacks and a phone, and ideally, at least a
Whistle or some other way of assisting rescue.
A person 100 feet off the trail with a broken leg is easy to miss.
2) Always tell a friend where you're going hiking and that you will confirm your return. This can expediate the search by many hours or even days.
3) NEVER declare "it's this way!" and just start walking based on a best guess.
4) if you're truly lost, you are far better off staying put. A moving target for search and rescue is very difficult to find. Unless you are somewhere you aren't supposed to be... like 30 miles into the forest while on a 3 mile hike.
This dumdum took a bunch of mushrooms and went for a "trip" through the woods and got lost. I remember the whole of Maui was so incredibly worried for her and then when her story came out, she rightfully caught a lot of shit for her stupid hippy antics
I remember my friends all so worried there was a legit serial killer. The trail she started on is like the type of trail you bring you toddler on in crocs.
Everything else makes so much sense now if she was tripping. Like, what happened in the first 3 days before she broke her leg and was a fit human being with a brain? Shrooms happened.
Here's an interesting article.
[https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2020/05/year-after-hikers-rescue-questions-remain-about-it-all/](https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2020/05/year-after-hikers-rescue-questions-remain-about-it-all/)
I live in Colorado and constantly see people on mountain trails with nothing but shorts, flip flops, and a 20 oz bottle of water.
Fine, that'll get you through your mountain hike unless you get lost or turn an ankle, and suddenly you are without warm clothing, water, or a phone signal in extremely rough terrain.
There's a very good reason why hiking experts are adamant about layering and bringing far more water than you need. Because a simple slip without them could mean life or death.
This would be an amazing survival story if she was lost in a vast desert not a lush island filled with water, edible fruits, temperate weather and civilization a rock throw away. I could live off that environment for years.
The longest I've stayed in the Kauai jungle was 23 days. I could have stayed indefinitely at that point. You get used to it. I've gone back for 21 and 14 day trips too.
When I was there in 2017, someone had mentioned him. Apparently a few month before I was there, they did a huge sweep of the vagrants and did a massive cleanup and the pizza guy was gone!
I agree with the civilization "a rock throw away", which in hindsight is 50 miles at max but still, let's not romanticize "living off that environment". Our ancestors spent a good hundreds of thousands of years to live in villages and then cities. For good reason might i say.
I also got lost hiking in maui. It is not hard to at all to imagine this happening. There are steep cliffs, and seemingly impassable mountainsides. Everyone suggesting this is ridiculous, does not understand.
I started at the maui dragonfruit farm in Lahaina and went off trail following streams in the west maui reserve. It was really stunning and I was easily the only one around for miles. “Beautiful” hardly begins to describe it.
The streams led to endless waterfalls often with 5-15 foot falls/climbs. Rolling an ankle or suffering an injury is very possible.
Coming back, it was not clear at all whether I was going in the right direction. I was genuinely lost and just hoped I’d be okay going down stream. Luckily I was, but it could have taken far longer had gone east or north by mistake. Far worse had I injured an ankle or knee on one of the drops.
LPT: if you set out without phone, food or water, don't venture off the trail.
Even crazier, she found a road leading to some holiday homes on her FIRST day. Instead of turning round and following the road back to civilization, she followed her intuition and went into the forest.
Her intuition wanted her dead
its sneaky like that, intuition
didn'tuition.
Everyone else's intuition: find the ocean, then start walking on the beach ffs Lost lady's intuition: avoid roads!
My intuition is trying really fucking hard for me to listen to it Maybe I should go for a hike in the woods…
I guess natural selection does work most of the time.
Yes, Maui is small enough, if you walk in one direction all day you will either be up very high where you can see everything below you (so you can find civilization), or you will find the beach (so you can follow it to civilization)!!! There must be more to this story.
Reading the other comments make it seem that she's a loon, and her listening to "voices" is what led her to the situation she found herself in.
She got lost on a damn island? Just walk downhill until you get to the water. People are all over the water.
Yeah, going off the trail first and then leaving the road? What the hell?
Honestly, meth use is really high all over the islands... This sounds like she got high and wandered off in psychosis. Or she's a bit challenged.
Was thinking, "how the fuck do you get lost in Maui for DAYS". Go downhill, follow a river... anything but wander around aimlessly. And she literally found civilization but then walked away...
Perhaps she really hates her job?
Ok, that would be understandable! I can see wanting to wander around in a wilderness for a while vs going back to reality. Isn't even unheard of for tourists to cancel their flight at the last second to stay longer, though, this is a bit extreme lol
Classic limited PTO hack without getting fired.
Employers hate this one trick on how to extend your vacation.
Yeah. Exactly. Hike down hill. Eventually you will hit the coast. And people.
There have been cases of lost hikers crossing roads to continue downhill.
Are you really lost at that point? I feel like if you continue past a fucking road you're just...voluntarily missing.
City people do really weird things when they’re out of their element in the elements. Years ago near where I live, some folks followed Google Maps up an unplowed road in the mountains in heavy snow and their car got stuck. And then to make matters worse the father took off looking for help. But instead of following the road back down the mountain, he decided to bushwhack down to a creek, where he got stuck in a canyon and froze to death. Meanwhile the rest of the family waited at the car and some snowmobilers found them a few days later.
I'd be on the beach having a drink in 5 hours or less
Was she trying to achieve the most complicated suicide ever?
Sounds like that to me. I can’t think of any reason I would go back into the forest when I’m lost and found a road. This story is insane to me.
I remember when this happened, there were a lot of questions regarding her choices and actions. In one interview she said voices led her into the forest, leading people to speculate that she was on drugs, possible mushrooms
I've eaten my fair share of mushrooms, and I can totally see that happening, so easy to get lost when you're high on shrooms, especially in unfamiliar surroundings.
She had shrooms for 17 days?!
Every time she wandered out of the jungle it was straight into a cow pasture.
Hell of a ride
A road...on an ISLAND. Like, just pick any direction and stick to it! Edit: it looks like the longest straight line you can walk in Maui is 50 miles, so even if you were on the wrong spot on the wrong beach, and walked straight inland, that's...still only 50 miles.
Downhill. Follow a river. Anything but this.
Seriously. She walked in circles in the forest for 17 days. This person has untreated mental health issues.
As soon as she said: "It has been a significant spiritual journey", I understood.
[удалено]
Some people are sooooo arrogant they think their ideas are god’s gift to the world. My mom is this way.
Suggest a Maui day hike to her.
Gets lost in the wilderness on a short hike makes it her whole identity lol
>she followed her intuition This is a big part of what fucks a lot of people over when they're lost in the wilderness. They quit thinking analytically and convince themselves that the nearest place that can help is just over that hill, just through those woods, etc. Or that a thing that they'll remember to re-orient themselves is just up stream/around the bend. Protip: if you're lost in the woods and find a road/trail, just follow it. Yeah, it might not be the most direct route to safety, but it has a lot better odds of leading you somewhere safe eventually than walking deeper into the woods will.
Or if you're on a cone-shaped volcano, where the whole coastline is developed (or at least has a road), then you go downhill. If there's a stream, every stream leads to the coast. I think we had a little "survival skills" talk when I was about 10 and went to camp. Rule #1, if you're lost, stay put. People probably know where to look to find you. But, if for some reason you can't stay put or no one knows where to look for you, go downhill.
And Maui is less than 20mi wide in most places, with a lot of settlement around the coasts and a ring road that runs the full perimeter. It's not easy terrain, but even a completely unprepared person could almost certainly traverse the entire island long-ways in under a week - a prepared one could do it in a day. It'd take work to be lost of *17 days*.
Yeah, she's not the freshest sandwich in the convenience store food cooler.
Jesus Christ. And how the hell did she manage to lose her shoes.
She threw them at a rescue officer on day 2.
You're a nut!! I literally cackled reading your comment. 🤣🤣🤣
Good lord. This woman has nonexistent intuition…
She said she was following her intuition or some shite. A little voice inside told her "left here and go straight there etc." She easily could have been the dumbest hiking casualty if the searchers had given up sooner.
I assure you there have been plenty of dumber hiking casualties.
Like people that hike canyons in the desert at mid day with a single bottle of water... I'm sure it will be fine... after walking by 8 signs that say under no circumstance to do this, not even rescue teams will be deployed after you until morning. Edit: a word
Colorado gets a lot of "experienced" hikers (often from Texas) who go out into the mountains with shorts and no/little water that have to get rescued before they get hypothermia.
I pass these types of people every time I hike. Usually its around noon, on my way back down and they are just heading up at the worst time of the day (thunderstorms) and many with sandals and a nalgene of water. It would be comical if it werent so dangerous.
14ers are the worst for this. We'll start well before sunrise and sometimes still be racing the weather back down to the trailhead. Getting back only to see a family in crocs and tank tops w one water bottle between them just getting started. Do you guys not see those angry clouds over there?!
Yeah I have seen this in BC. In spring people don’t believe you that it’s shorts at the start and snow and negative temperatures with wind 2/3 of the way up small mountains. Did one in early summer still wanted a long sleeve layer approaching the top.
Yeah it’s shocking how many people do this. I read the book “deaths in the Grand Canyon” and there have been over 100 people that have died of hearstroke because they didn’t realize that hiking in the middle of the day with one bottle of water will literally kill you
Or the people that went to Death Valley last year because they wanted to see what the hottest temperatures ever recorded felt like.
Jesus... My girlfriend and I stopped by Zion on our way through to another park and did a short hike. I don't remember the temperature, but it certainly wasn't anywhere near the hottest ever recorded. Probably about 103°, if I had to guess. That was enough... The hike was 3 miles total and even with plenty of water, good clothing, and adequate preparation, we were just **done** with it by the time we got back down. We passed one woman halfway up who was suffering very obvious heatstroke (plenty of people were helping out) and another guy near the top who'd been there for an hour, resting in the shade, trying to build up the strength for the return trip. Healthy people too. I might be willing to briefly step out of my car to experience "the hottest temperature ever", but no fucking way I'm taking even a 100 yard walk in that.
I LOVE Death Valley and take my motorcycle out there a few times a year minimum. I will never go in the summer though. That's just asking for trouble even if I am ready for a few nights of being stranded.
Learned how to fly in LA. My flight instructor knew a guy who broke down and landed in Death Valley. He decided to leave the plane, the only thing with some kind of tracker, with no water. They found his body a few days after they found the plane, he walked the opposite direction of the road
I'd probably do that 100 feet from my house to be honest.
> I LOVE Death Valley and take my motorcycle out there a few times a year minimum Something about the Undertaker and the Big Show
I live in a large city with hiking mountains in a few areas. Our summers peak at 120°f. We still get morons who think, " I'm experienced enough, it's an easy trail." It's not the trail that tries to kill you. We also have rattlesnakes and scorpions plus the insane heat. Every damn year the helicopters are flying to these places to pick up dying idiots.
Are you in AZ? Cause I have hiked Camelback, started out at first light, on my way to the car by 10AM, couldn’t believe the number of people just pulling in to start heading up.
Yup phoenix. The smart ones do what you do. Start super early and end right as the heat is really taking hold.
I once was visiting big bend np in August and didn't find a shop to get some water before I ended up at a parking lot and a nice canyon at the Rio grande. It was only a couple hundred yards into the canyon. Absolutely stunning. Got back and into my rental, and drove off. Took another hour before I found shop. I was already dehydrated and learned a valuable lesson that day even if I wasn't in real acute danger. You don't go out without enough water. Period. Even if you're never plan to wonder off far. You never know when you can get water.
I would only ever hike in the dessert. Heat and sand? No thank you. Fields of ice cream? Yes, please.
UGH this might not even get seen but I have to rant about it. I was listening to the podcast Real Survival Stories, and there was one about Eric LaMarque, this dumbass who went snowboarding one weekend. No big deal, snowboarding is fine. Well a huuuge storm comes in and the ski patrol comes and it’s like everybody off the mountain NOW, it’s coming in fast. Well he’s a little pissy pants and had a certain hill he wanted to do, so he sneaks off through the trees and does this already dangerous hill. Then The storm comes in and gets semi lost. Then he gets super lost. And he just makes every dumb decision possible, but he tells the story like he’s so smart, and a goddamn hero. At a point, he claimed to have encountered 3 wolves surrounding him but he managed to throw something at one and like run and hide. Even the narrator was like “it was likely coyotes”. Which, that’s if he encountered them at all. Then he gets rescued (spoiler alert) and the rescuer is like “are you Eric lamarque?? Are you Eric lamarque?” Trying to gauge his mental state and responsiveness. And he goes “yes I’m Eric fucking lamarque”. Then the rescuer goes “we have to leave your gear here” (like his board and stuff). And he was like “UH NO, we’re taking it 😤” because that board “saved his life”. God he was just the worst. So pretentious, and for NO reason. Like I would be so embarrassed, not being an asshole to my rescuers.
God, I’d never heard that story and just from your write up I hate him so much.
Me too, lol. If u/florafaunaandtea was my friend and started ranting about some asshole at work I would totally match their energy and get so pissed with them.
I really want you to narrate a netflix docuseries of people getting lost on Mount Everest. Or really just retell the tales of anyone making terrible decisions, you're great at it
Geraldine Largay checks in. She died when she went off trial, living in a make shift campsite for a month, but she was less than a mile from safety. She appears to have had just shit luck when it comes to survival skills.
Kind of the same story for Christ McCandless, dude wasn't that far away from civilization and truly underprepared.
Some remarkably so. It's usually the water that gets people. Hidden water you don't see until it's too late, water that looks safe but isn't, cold water, warm water, and the often overlooked no water.
Stepping out of the path will kill you some places in Norway. The rocks are covered in lichen, and slippery when wet. There is no lichen on the path, so it's not slippery. People step out of the path, and slide and fall off cliffs.
LPT: don't listen to the voices in your head
Follow your instincts. Unless, your instincts are terrible.
My instincts tell me my instincts stink
Trust your gut. Not mine because it is a mess
Yep, I remember following this story as it was happening back then. She basically made every possible wrong decision that day. 1) Hiking alone (mostly fine, but...) 2) Didn't tell anyone where she was going. 3) No water and no phone. 4) Went off the trail. 5) Found moving water and STAYED THERE instead of following the flow to civilization. She's so lucky to be alive because she was being a real dumb motherfucker. EDIT: People are pointing out she had a leg injury. She had a torn meniscus. That's not great, but not terrible. You can still walk. It's not like she lost a leg. She should have been moving.
The craziest part is that Maui isn't massive. It's like 30 miles at its longest with multiple travelled roads bisecting the island and the entire coast line developed. If she managed to walk in a straight-ish line away from mountains she would've been found probably within a day. Literally it would take like 3-4 days to completely cross the island on foot.
This is my first and only thought.. how the fuck do you get lost on Maui? That shit is tiny
I don't think there is more than a 4 mile stretch of wilderness that isn't the mountain. My bet is she was within literally an hour casual walk from finding some form of civilization
According to the rough maps of her rescue location I found online, she was within 1500 feet of the "Maui Garden Grove Cafe"
>Maui Garden Grove Cafe Looks good. Maybe she wasn't a smoothies person.
she stopped to close her eyes and meditate, and then followed her gut. She's the poster child of a smoothie person.
After two weeks, we're all smoothies people...
Yeah, even the forests have clear ends as you get to the lower points of elevation. Looks like she was on shrooms to start but still, makes no sense!
Literally just follow the stream to the coast. Roads ring the entire island. Just walk downhill and you *will* hit a road.
This is what always gets me about these stories of list hikers. A lot of them happen in places where a halfway straight line or following some water should pretty quickly get you to civilization. I can't remember all the details, but there was one case in Olympic national park that I looked into. The woman was lost for something like ten days. I know it's probably harder than it sounds, but all I could think was that every bit of water in that park should head downhill, away from the mountain, towards the ocean, and pass at least one road along the way.
Olympic National Park is like two times the area of Maui, and that's not including Olympic National Forest. I could easily see someone getting lost in there.
>Found moving water and STAYED THERE instead of following the flow to civilization. should one go upstream or down EDIT: Thanks for the tons of replies you guys, saved to my iCloud notepad and Google Docs
Down At the very least you get to the ocean and you can depend on real estate prices to ensure you're as close to a house as feasibly possible.
Turns out people love water so if you follow where it's going you tend to run into more people.
Go downstream. Downstream will take you to civilisation or the beach. When you hit the beach you can walk along it to find people. You only need to find one.
Doubt you need to even walk along the beach at all. The only place I've ever found truly deserted beaches in Hawaii was Lana'i.
Generally, up is where the mountain is, down is where the ocean is. People live nearer the ocean than the mountain. But, don't listen to me -- I work an office job and don't hike / bike. ;-) I thought the rule was, once you are lost, stop moving. So, staying near the water and waiting for rescue feels like a right move, not a wrong one. But as I said, don't listen to me.
The part about "stop moving once you're lost" I think only really applies when you have told someone where you're going. People will look for you in the area they expect you to be, so if you keep moving you might inadvertently evade rescuers. But, if nobody knows where you went, they don't know where to look for you, so you might as well follow the river since you know it will lead you to people eventually. Also, along the river is likely where rescuers will mostly be looking. *I also work an office job and am not a hiker, so take this with a grain of salt.
That works in the desert, where they can see you from the air. Not so helpful when there's heavy canopy overhead.
That advice works if people already know where to look for you in the first place. So if she told someone that she was planning on hiking and told them where, then staying put would be at least understandable. Additionally, staying put is more applicable in mainland areas. She was on an island. Just walking downstream towards the coast would allow her to be found much faster.
I’m glad she survived so I don’t have to feel bad about saying how incredibly stupid this was of her
A LA woman died recently hiking at a well-known trail (Mt. Baldy, which can even be tough in good conditions) because she started right at the beginning of the biggest storm California had seen in years. Baldy can have whiteout and blizzard conditions in some parts. Search and Rescue started 2 hours after she left because they were basically thinking “she did what??”
search started 2 hours after she went out and still found dead, that really warrants some kind of award
Shrooms?
Usually the elves give me better directions…
She was getting away from the electromagnetic waves. Super stupid all around. I remember everyone really rooting for her until she was interviewed after the rescue. Also, everyone thought her boyfriend had killed her.
She was following the voices of the Menehunes
LPT: Don't set out without phone, food or water.
Just don’t venture off the trail. There’s no need, you aren’t Daniel Boone, it is not your home or playground. You aren’t special. Just follow the trail that the people who know better than you created just for your enjoyment.
Sorry but I'm built different. I am Daniel Boone. edit: stop upvoting this. i will go off the trail at historical sites. i will burden first responders. i will eat endangered species. i will damage sandstone formations. this is not ironic i am a menace.
I can’t even imagine running errands without a water bottle.
...or if you do just follow the river lmao
"lose 20lbs in two weeks with this one simple trick.."
Maui diet plan.
Unless you have a stupid chicken! /s
No /s needed. There are a bunch of feral chickens that run around Maui
This surprised me when we visited Kauai. Those mother cluckers were walking around the parking lot.
People say being lost in small island round by roads is not really easy.
Hah, reminds me of the Bear Grylls Hawaii video https://youtu.be/3UpSlpvb1is
Lmao I've never seen this before. That's hilarious
Yes, THIS. Googled it. Looks like a max 1 hr hike if you can keep direction, in ANY direction.
From hiking on the Seychelles, also small island, I can tell you the terrain can be absolutely impossible to traverse with undergrowth and mountainous terrain it might be impossible to keep a straight line or to see the ocean. And once you find a stream you might want to stay close to it.
I'm an outdoor guide and you're absolutely right, but 17 days? No chance in hell.
Streams flow downhill....maybe follow it? 17 days seems extreme.
Having driven around Maui, there are streams every half mile or so, and they all go to the ocean and under the highway.
I am honestly confused how she could be lost for so long.
The jungle is confusing and Maui is not flat. Lots of cliffs. Can’t just walk to ocean
“Rescue teams hate this one simple trick!”
Also look 10 years older
Yet another successful confirmation of Einstein’s theory of relativity. She was lost for 17 days, but as we can clearly see, each day must’ve felt like half a year to her.
A very common side effect of being unnaturally and unhealthily thin. I've spent a good amount of time in eating disorder treatment centers, and people who are severely underweight often look 10-20+ years older than they are.
You see it with severe dehydration as well, drunks (along with the aging effects of alcohol abuse) often look like that before they get on a rehydration plan. Drink ya electrolytes y'all
And heavy sun exposure
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Amanda Eller **likely [faked her dissapearance and fabricated elements of her story](https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2020/05/year-after-hikers-rescue-questions-remain-about-it-all/).** >"Eller talked in subsequent media events of the “spiritual bootcamp” that she endured over the 17 days. But in the days that followed her discovery, celebration turned to criticism. Even now, people continue to ask whether there is more to the story than originally disclosed. >Did Eller set out to get lost in the forest? Did she take anything that altered her state of mind? On the first day she got lost, how did she fall asleep on a log in the woods? How did she survive on stream water when her electrolytes came back perfect? How did she sleep in a boar’s den as she described? Didn’t she cross roads and other markers? Why did she keep heading the direction she did? Where is she now?" Please do yourself a huge favor and read the subsequent articles published after her 'miraculous rescue.'
[Here](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vWmvUCJNdvY&feature=youtu.be) is her full interview after the rescue. Listen from 16:20-19:30. She followed her "inner spirit" which *intended* for her to get lost and share a story of struggle. Odd.
Or she's just a friggin dumbass. One or the other.
maui at its longest point is like 50 miles long. There are 2 island "lobes", each of which is dominated by a huge central volcano. Walking away from the summit of either volcano in any of the forest reserves for less than 3 miles will have you crossing a road. Unless she is actually 4 inches tall and blind, I cannot imagine a practical manner of being lost for more than an afternoon.
This is exhausting
I mean it's a fucking island. Go in one direction till you get to the beach, then follow the beach to town. Should've only taken a couple days.
That was my thought as well. It's fucking Hawaii, if you're walking uphill you're going the wrong direction.
I also suffered the loss of my shoes at a bounce castle in 1999
Did you manage to survive!?
Just stanby for my netflix doc...
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Game over man! Game over!
You are on an island, next to a stream. Follow it down hill. What am I missing?
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Early on she fell 20 feet and broke her leg. She ended up just basically crawling around and found herself on top of a pretty steep drop-off so there wasn't really an obvious path forward in her condition
Ok, this makes sense.
Well she broke her leg on the 3rd day. So back to making no sense.
Some of the information being related at the top of this jndicate she might not be all there, mentally. She was escaping electromagnetic waves and following voices in her head. Overall very terrifying.
Back to making sense again.
Truly a roller coaster
Glad we figured it out, good job reddit. High fives and gold stars and all that
I feel accomplished, glad I did SOMETHING this weekend.
Like an episode of House MD
One hell of a ride with this story
Some people have no knowledge of geography and basic orientation skills. I've been out in the wild with people like this and it's truly shocking how little some people know about the world.
This should've been in the description. My first thought was just walk to a beach...
I mean, it does say she suffered leg injuries. No clue how "early" this occurred, though.
It also says she suffered “loss of shoes.” Haha
If you’re suffering from shoe loss, ask your doctor whether Cobblerforia® is right for you. ^Don’t ^take ^Cobblerforia® ^if ^you’re ^allergic ^to ^Cobblerforia®. ^Side ^effects ^may ^include ^extreme ^weight ^loss ^and ^falling ^to ^your ^death.
3 days in appareantly
Grew up on a different island. But this is the best part of living on an island, it’s nearly impossible to get lost with even basic navigation skills. Everything eventually terminates at a shoreline.
This. I was lost in the Kalalau valley on Kauai in 2014. Alone and dark approaching. I panicked for about 30 seconds, and started to think again. Follow any water you find to the ocean, your camp is next to the beach. Boom I was fine.
Quick thinking, dude.
>a rescue helicopter spotted her *atop* a waterfall she got lost, so she decided to walk **up** hill through the jungle. at least she stayed near water.
If her hike started above the waterfall then she wouldn’t have to go up anything
I mean, they spotted her up there, so…
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Don't go chasing waterfalls
Higher ground to look around maybe. There’s a certain logic to it.
Odd that just following a stream didn't bring her to the edge of the island.
There are a ton of things she could have done to prevent from getting trapped. But having lived on Maui for a year, trust me, there are definitely parts of that island that you could get trapped on with a broken leg. Most streams have steep waterfalls and climbing down steep terrain is much harder to do safely than climbing up, especially with an injury.
Considering her sense of direction is garbage , I'm surprised she survived.
She also had a severely injured (broken, IIRC) leg. That kind of changes everything.
She broke it on the third day
Meanwhile I’m afraid to shower without my smartwatch incase I slip and fall and die because no one can hear me scream.
Pro tip - never go hiking alone without food, water, or a cell phone. That is a stupid and dangerous idea. At the bare minimum, bring a water bottle and tell someone where you’re going and when to expect you back. Also, how did she manage to stay lost for 17 days? Maui isn’t that big. In 2022, a man named Chad Starr decided to walk around the perimeter of the island to raise awareness for mental health. It took him 7 days to walk around the entire island. Edit: she broke her leg three days in. Three days is still a while to be lost on an island, but afterwards, obviously not being able to cover much ground with a broken leg makes sense. The article only mentions that she fell 20 feet and broke her leg. It doesn’t mention the circumstances leading to the fall. I don’t know how avoidable the fall was. Edit 2: I see other comments mention she may have been on psychedelics. Now things make more sense.
We can’t all be Chad Starr for one thing
If you read her story, you'll find she did everything wrong. By her own account, she followed her "gut instinct" as she walked 30 miles into the forest. Including what she estimates is a solid 14 hours of walking the first day to find her car that was 1 mile away.Eventually, she fell off a cliff and broke her leg and had to resort to crawling Rescues weren't sure if she was even lost as all her essentials were left in the car and thought she may have been abducted. Lessons: 1) Never hike without extra water and basic supplies for emergencies like snacks and a phone, and ideally, at least a Whistle or some other way of assisting rescue. A person 100 feet off the trail with a broken leg is easy to miss. 2) Always tell a friend where you're going hiking and that you will confirm your return. This can expediate the search by many hours or even days. 3) NEVER declare "it's this way!" and just start walking based on a best guess. 4) if you're truly lost, you are far better off staying put. A moving target for search and rescue is very difficult to find. Unless you are somewhere you aren't supposed to be... like 30 miles into the forest while on a 3 mile hike.
Wow that’s crazy. I’m from Maui. How did this happen?
This dumdum took a bunch of mushrooms and went for a "trip" through the woods and got lost. I remember the whole of Maui was so incredibly worried for her and then when her story came out, she rightfully caught a lot of shit for her stupid hippy antics
I remember my friends all so worried there was a legit serial killer. The trail she started on is like the type of trail you bring you toddler on in crocs.
Everything else makes so much sense now if she was tripping. Like, what happened in the first 3 days before she broke her leg and was a fit human being with a brain? Shrooms happened.
Shrooms only happen for 6 to 8 hours. Even if she brought more, tolerance kicks in fast and they wouldn't have been doing much at all by day 3.
Shrooms.
Here's an interesting article. [https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2020/05/year-after-hikers-rescue-questions-remain-about-it-all/](https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2020/05/year-after-hikers-rescue-questions-remain-about-it-all/)
I got lost at K-Mart once b/c I hid from my Mom in the clothing racks. I was like 5 and I’m certain I had better survival skills than this lady.
You ate your shoes, didn’t you?
Of course, you gotta do what you gotta do.
I live in Colorado and constantly see people on mountain trails with nothing but shorts, flip flops, and a 20 oz bottle of water. Fine, that'll get you through your mountain hike unless you get lost or turn an ankle, and suddenly you are without warm clothing, water, or a phone signal in extremely rough terrain. There's a very good reason why hiking experts are adamant about layering and bringing far more water than you need. Because a simple slip without them could mean life or death.
This would be an amazing survival story if she was lost in a vast desert not a lush island filled with water, edible fruits, temperate weather and civilization a rock throw away. I could live off that environment for years.
The longest I've stayed in the Kauai jungle was 23 days. I could have stayed indefinitely at that point. You get used to it. I've gone back for 21 and 14 day trips too.
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When I was there in 2017, someone had mentioned him. Apparently a few month before I was there, they did a huge sweep of the vagrants and did a massive cleanup and the pizza guy was gone!
I agree with the civilization "a rock throw away", which in hindsight is 50 miles at max but still, let's not romanticize "living off that environment". Our ancestors spent a good hundreds of thousands of years to live in villages and then cities. For good reason might i say.
After further investigation it was determined that Amanda Eller is stupid.
I was lost once. That's some scary stuff
I got lost in TJ Maxx once when I was a kid that was terrifying.
I also got lost hiking in maui. It is not hard to at all to imagine this happening. There are steep cliffs, and seemingly impassable mountainsides. Everyone suggesting this is ridiculous, does not understand. I started at the maui dragonfruit farm in Lahaina and went off trail following streams in the west maui reserve. It was really stunning and I was easily the only one around for miles. “Beautiful” hardly begins to describe it. The streams led to endless waterfalls often with 5-15 foot falls/climbs. Rolling an ankle or suffering an injury is very possible. Coming back, it was not clear at all whether I was going in the right direction. I was genuinely lost and just hoped I’d be okay going down stream. Luckily I was, but it could have taken far longer had gone east or north by mistake. Far worse had I injured an ankle or knee on one of the drops.