A Jeep back in the Tellico Mountains hit a tree and overturned 15 miles from the nearest paved road. A 21 y.o. girl got out and left her b/f for dead. Some campers found the girl, picked her up and took her to a spot where cell phones could get out and called 911. When the campers returned to the scene the boy was nowhere to be found. We went in with 3 4-wheelers and one 6X6 to the scene and started searching, the helo all the way from Raleigh with FLIR was 5 minutes out and the SAR dogs from Asheville were 15 minutes out when we found him wandering around hypothermic but otherwise relatively unharmed. We didn't think this guy had a snowball's chance in hell. It's 22 degrees out and he was out more than 12 hours when we found him. The moral of the story is that no matter how big of a dumbass you are, we will mobilize heaven and earth to come and hunt you down.

11/17/2007 2:35:33 AM

11/17/2007 2:36:20 AM

my wife's co-worker was found after 3 days stranded in the North Cascades after a freak snowstorm surprised her during a day hike. she wasnt prepared to overnight and its pretty rugged and isolated country in north-central Washington.

she survived on drinking melted snow for three days. found weak and dehydrated, minor frostbite, but otherwise okay. wild shit. what saved her was she dropped notes every so often describing what her next route was going to be.

anyhow... good work beardawg and the rest of yall.

11/17/2007 2:44:50 AM

Quote :

"The moral of the story is that no matter how big of a dumbass you are, we will mobilize heaven and earth to come and hunt you down. "

this are very true

11/17/2007 3:03:10 AM

this is

good to know

11/17/2007 3:04:46 AM

A good piece of advice would be to stay with the wreckage... especially if you have no light, no protective clothing, no communication, are not familiar with the area and are 40 miles from the nearest town...

He would've been rescued about 11 hours earlier.

11/17/2007 3:21:30 AM

my bs troop got a sar team sent when it went orienteering. we werent rallly that lost

11/17/2007 3:22:37 AM

an even better tip is not to have a gf that leaves you for dead when you're actually unhurt and just unconscious

11/17/2007 3:24:37 AM

She lost it.. poor girl. She peed on herself in the Jeep and had virtually no memory of what happened. It was easy to think that was funny until I looked into her eyes when she ran up to us as we came out of the woods... she was a sobbing shaking wreck and I felt so sorry for her and so glad we were able to come trough.

Actually, she was his fiance'. They're to be married a week from tomorrow and she invited the whole squad.

11/17/2007 3:43:49 AM

if i were the groom, i would raise my eyebrow at her during the vows ceremony

11/17/2007 8:00:00 AM

were they up in the tellico OHV park/ trail system? what dept. are you with? I used to be on a VFD up near there.





[Edited on November 17, 2007 at 8:15 AM. Reason : ..]

11/17/2007 8:14:43 AM

He needs to dump her ass.

11/17/2007 8:30:38 AM

Just got back from my first SARs

11/17/2007 10:01:35 AM

11/17/2007 10:05:01 AM

yeah of course she doesn't remember, that's what she'll tell her future husband at least

i mean how do you leave the person you're gonna marry, the 'love of your life' for dead? especially when he wasnt dead which means she didn't even check for pulse or breathing or anything before she deserted him

or else it was intentional

[Edited on November 17, 2007 at 10:08 AM. Reason : ]

11/17/2007 10:07:24 AM

She may have taken a hard hit to the head and could have been really confused and messed up when she first got out of the Jeep.

So, they were 4-wheel driving?

[Edited on November 17, 2007 at 10:18 AM. Reason : ]

11/17/2007 10:16:07 AM

Yeah, I was knocked unconscious in a really bad car accident when I was a teenager and I cannot even describe how disoriented and confused I was when I started to come to. Nothing made any sense to me, I didn't know who I was or what was going on around me, and things didn't start making sense to me for a good hour or more. Nearly 10 years later, I still do not remember several days leading up to the accident.

[Edited on November 17, 2007 at 10:22 AM. Reason : .]

11/17/2007 10:21:17 AM

Quote :

"She may have taken a hard hit to the head and could have been really confused and messed up when she first got out of the Jeep."

The windshield was spider-webbed where she was riding and I suspect shock as well... despite the fact that she was only out in the elements for 30 minutes to an hour she was more hypothermic than he was and MUCH more disoriented.

I'd imagine it's a pretty traumatic thing to be in a wreck literally in the middle of nowhere and believe your fiance' is dead with no way to call for help. She pissed herself when the wreck happened and still managed to walk out with a destroyed knee and not even know it.

11/17/2007 11:15:09 AM

Yep, that'd be the aforementioned shock. Was she hot enough to solicit sexual favors from in return for finding her fiance?

11/17/2007 2:18:26 PM

In another situation... she was definitely a cutie.

11/17/2007 2:40:40 PM

a blow to the head can cause you to be terribly confused. a few months ago I fell off my mule and hit my head on the ground. I don't remember catching him or taking off the saddle. I walked around in the field till I found my hat and that's how I knew where I fell. Most of it eventually came back though. that was a very, very strange feeling.

11/17/2007 2:46:27 PM

i got the shit beat out of me once, with a broadside blow to the jaw. i lost my memory for 30 minutes.

i just followed around some people who talked like they knew me. turned out they were my friends, so i was okay.

11/17/2007 2:55:13 PM

the one time i got in a wreck (as a passenger, like the girl in this story) i hit my head against the side of the passenger's window and was totally confused as shit for the next 15 or so minutes. seconds after the crash, the car was completely smashed to shit and smoking, and we were in someone's front yard, but i was so confused i just looked over at the driver and was like, DUDE, are you gonna get the fuck out of this yard or what? COME ON, drive!!

so yeah, it happens

[Edited on November 17, 2007 at 3:05 PM. Reason : .]

11/17/2007 3:05:36 PM

Now imagine that 40 miles from the nearest town with no cell reception...

11/17/2007 3:09:32 PM

i've been farther from cell reception/civilization than that

(avid backpacker)

11/17/2007 3:12:09 PM

Where do you backpack? I've never really been into it but I live right here at the AT and the Tsali trail... and if I'm gonna be doing much SAR stuff I should prolly get more into it.

11/17/2007 3:14:01 PM

well, being from NC, mainly in the smokies and pisgah.

but i've been as far as glacier national park out in montana

11/17/2007 3:15:14 PM

and boy are my arms tired?

11/17/2007 3:17:34 PM

Two ppl went missing in Pisgah two weeks ago. The woman was found dead the third time they searched the area. Her partner hasn't been fond, last I heard.

11/17/2007 3:24:04 PM

its always a bad idea to go up to tellico trails alone or in one vehicle anyways. mainly because its so remote.

11/17/2007 3:25:45 PM

yeah i saw that, old couple, right?

really not at all surprised whenever someone goes missing in pisgah. it can be VERY confusing if you're not prepared, dont know how to read a topo map/compass, and just dont have a lot of experience in general.

it's nothing like a national park. there are trails, but none that i've been on even had trailhead signs, and since it's a national forest, locals can hunt/fish/do whatever and so there are a myriad of random side trails, probably used by hunters, that can confuse you and put you on the wrong path.

the designated wilderness areas are even more rugged and are never maintained. straight wilderness, no doubt about it

[Edited on November 17, 2007 at 3:30 PM. Reason : /]

11/17/2007 3:29:13 PM

Yeah, and like I said this was seven miles away from and on the same river where I ran Baby Falls the day before... so it was definitely on my mind that this could have been me. I'm really glad that the response was so strong even though it was a cold Friday night when everyone would have liked to have been somewhere else.

11/17/2007 3:40:08 PM

Quote :

"when everyone would have liked to have been somewhere else"

i dont know man. i know i'd enjoy a nice SAR anytime, anywhere.

11/17/2007 5:07:13 PM

Yeah, but you get my point.

11/17/2007 5:12:09 PM

yeah i'm pickin' up what you're puttin' down

11/17/2007 5:24:36 PM

^^^^1337

11/17/2007 9:03:49 PM

Well done sir

11/17/2007 9:28:23 PM