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Another tale of survival in the Nevada wilds

Sydde

Sydde

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Canadian woman found alive in Nevada wilderness

Rita, 56, and Albert Chretien, 59, were on their way to a trade show in Las Vegas when their 2000 Chevrolet Astro became stuck in mud on a logging road in Elko County, northeastern Nevada. They were last seen March 19 buying items at a gas station in Baker City, Ore.

On March 22, Albert Chretien set out on foot for help, with a GPS. He told his wife he was walking to a state highway to try to find help. He hasn't been seen since.

Hunters found Rita in the van on Friday afternoon — seven weeks after the couple went missing. Rita was conscious and able to speak when she was found. She is in what is described as fair condition at a hospital in Idaho.

Rita survived by eating what little trail mix and other food she had, then kept herself alive eating melted snow, her son Raymond Chretien told the Oregonian newspaper.
​

How long would you last? Seven weeks is not exactly a really long time, but I imagine most of us would be suffering pretty badly by that point.
 
I've been to Vegas and when I was there I went out to the canyons, we got almost as far where they filmed the old tv show bonanza. It's harsh out there, I guess I could survive if I knew where I was and had a gps. And snake supposedly taste like chicken so, I'm good for a couple days (mabye). Lol
 
GFLPraxis said:
Terrible story. But...they were stuck in the middle of the road? Did nobody use it for seven weeks?
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The story did say logging road, not public highway. If the area it leads to was already completely logged, there's a good chance no one else would go there for several weeks.
 
that sounds odd to me. how can you survive for 7 weeks on trail mix and melted snow?
she should have run out of food after a few days and there is no way you can make it for 6 weeks with absolutely nothing to eat.

also what happened to her husband? after two/three days of walking he should be at a larger road unless he left the logging road and went off into the wilderness. but that is unlikely esp. since he had a GPS.

something sounds not right to me.
 
andiwm2003 said:
something sounds not right to me.
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Nevada is a pretty unforgiving place. You have to go there to see how wild most of it is, with great long distances between traveled roads. In March, at that elevation, it does get quite cold (she was eating snow to stave off dehydration). I could see how a 59 year old man could stumble or something. One little mistake is all it takes. If it becomes too much of a struggle to get back up, you just go into hypothermia and freeze to death.
 
Crazy story. But one of the things I really love about America is how wild and remote it is. There's hardly any place in Europe where you can look all around and not see a road or a house (and probably a city).
 
(marc) said:
Crazy story. But one of the things I really love about America is how wild and remote it is. There's hardly any place in Europe where you can look all around and not see a road or a house (and probably a city).
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Well, maybe. There's certainly very little to get lost in here in the UK. I live near one of the last great wildernesses of the country, the moors, yet you really can't get lost up there. I've walked for days at a time up there and from every hill you could see a village or road.

Scotlands a lot more wild, as are the various mountainous regions of Europe like the ones in eastern Europe. My grandparents have a place up there and it really is the arse end of nowhere, but in the best possible way.

But I do like that America is so vast. I'd love to take the backroads through it someday.
 
(marc) said:
Crazy story. But one of the things I really love about America is how wild and remote it is. There's hardly any place in Europe where you can look all around and not see a road or a house (and probably a city).
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If you want wild and remote, try the mountains of British Columbia, Canada, or any of the northern 3 territories, or northern Ontario or Quebec.

In the 1950s a commercial airliner, with passengers, disappeared on approach to Vancouver. They searched for weeks for it, and never found it.

In the last 10 or 15 years a hiker finally stumbled on it ... climbed the ridge it had fallen against, and made cell phone call to report it ... he was so close, he could clearly see the city from the ridge. The mountains are so wild there, it had lain nearly within sight of the city for 40 or 50 years.

Unfortunately, the Vancouver Sun hasn't archived their papers back that far so I can't provide the link.
 
From the pictures I have seen on the local news station website, calling it a road is a bit of a stretch, more like a 4 wheel drive trail. Im betting the only time that road gets any sort of real traffic at all is during hunting season. That area is probably some of the most remote country you can think of in the lower 48.
 
snberk103 said:
If you want wild and remote, try the mountains of British Columbia, Canada, or any of the northern 3 territories, or northern Ontario or Quebec.
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From what I have heard, when you get north of about 55 or so, you can go for hundreds of miles without ever seeing a fence.
 
Sydde said:
How long would you last? Seven weeks is not exactly a really long time, but I imagine most of us would be suffering pretty badly by that point.
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Not a long time? 😕 Seven weeks sounds like a considerable amount of time. If you were stuck in the middle of nowhere like this woman, seven weeks would feel like torture.
 
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