Gahh...still an idiot.

Remember that guy that cut his own arm off when it was trapped under a rock while hiking? Yeah, he's stupid.

I'm in Search and Rescue and rule number one for ANY outdoors adventure (and heck, it's a good rule for life in general--who knows when you'll need an alibi) is tell someone where you will be going--the more exact the directions the better and a close second is don't go alone. Half of our training is in SAR theory and figuring out how individuals react in certain situations. Did you know that Alzheimer's patients will walk in a straight line until they reach a barrier in which  case they will follow said barrier until they can no longer walk anymore? A certain 80 year old man was out in the wilderness for 3 days and when he was found he thought he'd only been gone for 45 minutes and was fine, just dehydrated. Still we could judge where was the best place to put teams out to find people. Children are equally as easy to find--they will walk around in circles until someone finds them--they also "bounce" and can survive situations that older people wouldn't be able to.

"Professional" hikers are annoying. Granted, some people just get turned around and have no idea how to get out by themselves. That is perfectly fine. Someone in our organization actually did just this (although out of state, so at least it wasn't his friends going out to find him). There was a blind guy who missed his turn off and ended up just making camp until he was found. These are the REAL professionals--the ones who you can count on to have been lost for a week and will come out tired, hungry, dehydrated, but will be back to normal after a night in the hospital. The blind guy was actually out there for 3 weeks including the time before he got "misplaced" because he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. Amateur hikers are just as good as the  real professionals--they stay on trails and don't do stupid stuff (like walk OFF the trails). Even if they fall off a mountain, at least we know which trail they were on which considerably shrinks the search area.

But those who think they know what they are doing are the one's we get most frustrated with. They are the ones who "follow their nose down a "shortcut"", do something they know they aren't ready for without preparing for the risks (such as bringing along someone who can bail them out) or making the most noobish mistake of going out for an adventure without telling anyone where they are going. Sigh. I most can't believe that he wouldn't change anything after getting stuck and having to cut off his arm--not even telling anyone where he was going so that he might have been found 3 days sooner. I shall have to read his book and if it doesn't start out with saying what he did wrong I will probably have to carry it along in my pack as a source of dry flint for my fire in case I ever get lost.

***Edit 3/31/2011:
I can't believe he got a movie deal out of this and that it made it to the Oscar nods. I really don't care to watch it, but as my newest goal is to watch every movie that got an Oscar nomination and/or Win (best picture category only) I unfortunately must. This is one case where I won't feel the least bit guilty pirating.