NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Navigation - a state of mind?
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2016 Jun 1, 07:52 +0100
By contrast, there was a news item the other day about a hiker, Geraldine Largay, who survived at least 26 days in the wilderness after getting lost on the trail in July 2013, but then died of starvation and exposure in her tent less than a mile from the trail through the Appalachians.
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2016 Jun 1, 07:52 +0100
Daniel Boone, a famous frontiersman and legendary early American explorer who helped blaze a trail through Cumberland Gap, a notch in the Appalachian Mountains, is quoted as saying, “I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks”
Her body was found more than two years later in October 2015.
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According to Doyle, Largay’s ordeal is also a reminder of how technology can be both a blessing and a curse. The recent report noted that Largay attempted to get to higher ground to increase her cellphone’s reception, but was unsuccessful. “I would like to see what role the cell phone played in this incident. If she did not have a cell phone, or any hope that people would know where she was, would she have tried harder to get out?” he asked.
arren Doyle
, an instructor who helped Largay when she and her husband were contemplating a 3,500 km hike through 14 US states
, put her death
down to over-reliance on technology and missing medication
“Here is a person who had been doing 16 miles a day with a full pack,” he said.
“She had the physical ability. The only way I could see it is that her mind was just not working properly…if she was in her right mind, this would never have happened.”According to Doyle, Largay’s ordeal is also a reminder of how technology can be both a blessing and a curse. The recent report noted that Largay attempted to get to higher ground to increase her cellphone’s reception, but was unsuccessful. “I would like to see what role the cell phone played in this incident. If she did not have a cell phone, or any hope that people would know where she was, would she have tried harder to get out?” he asked.
Largay may have not been taking prescribed anti-anxiety medication, which could have made her more prone to panic attacks.
Largay also had a SPOT beacon — a GPS device that sends an emergency message to a satellite when activated — but left it in the lean-to before she departed on her last hike.
Largay also had a SPOT beacon — a GPS device that sends an emergency message to a satellite when activated — but left it in the lean-to before she departed on her last hike.
Geoffrey Kolbe
