Should I stay or should I go?
If you become lost, stuck or whatever, do you stay put or do you try to walk out to get help? This is a question many who become lost have to grapple with. During my years with Search & Rescue, we’d tell people to stay put. If you’re lost, where are you going? You’ll only make it harder for searchers to find you. On the majority of searches for lost individuals, we’d find the vehicle first and then have to track the lost person. If they’d stayed with the vehicle, they would’ve been found along - with the vehicle.
This question, to stay or go, is not as easy as it sounds. It depends on the particular situation. Are you lost or stuck? Do you know where help can be found or have no clue? Are you waiting out a storm on a dangerous cliff or other precarious place? Did you leave word as to where you were going and when you planned to return or did you go without telling anyone?
While working in South America I had no option, there was no Search & Rescue, so there was no room for error. I had to stay oriented and when I got stuck, I had to get myself out. Like the time it took me two days to get my truck back on the road after sliding off a side-hill.
If you told someone of your trip, got lost but have no clue where you are - Stay Put. A vehicle is much easier to find than a person. A vehicle can be tracked from a main road and is easier to spot from a helicopter or plane. If you’re hiking, chances are that the vehicle you used to reach the trailhead will be found first and you’ll be tracked from there. If you continue to walk, you just make the tracking that much farther.
It’s a harder decision to make if you didn’t tell anyone about your trip and no one knows you’re overdue or missing. Are you waiting out a storm, stuck in the snow, mud or on a lake or did you become lost while hiking? If you’re going to walk for help, have a destination/plan- don’t go just for the sake of going. If you followed the advice of forming the big picture and you know which way you need to go to get help, do you want to leave a vehicle that has resources that can be used for survival or do you need to go for help because no one will be looking for you?
As you can see, there are many factors and it’s difficult to give short and simple rules. I’ve found it best to use the Boy Scout acronym of- S. T. O. P; Stop, Think, Observe, Plan.
Your worst course of action is to panic and start running or trying to solve your situation too fast. When you realize you’re lost or whatever, STOP, sit down, don’t do anything for a few minutes. What has happened can’t be undone so what matters is what you do next.
THINK and make your actions deliberate after identifying what the options are. If it’s dark, stay put. It’s very easy to get deeper in trouble by trying to hike out in the dark. If in a storm, wait it out, especially if in a boat on the water. Better to spend a night safely tied up in a cove than to try and cross a large basin, racing to beat a storm and then get caught in big waves that can sink your boat.
OBSERVE what is around you and what resources you have to survive. Are you in a place where searchers can spot you? Can you make yourself visible?
PLAN and don’t do anything without one. Energy and resources are too valuable to squander on actions that aren’t productive in keeping you alive and getting you rescued. You need to prioritize your actions- what’s most important at the time and in the circumstance? Is a shelter to get out of a snowstorm or rain your first need or is it finding water in the summer heat? Is it keeping warm or staying cool?
Should you stay or should you go? Your decision might have life or death consequences.
