A man in Unalaska decided to head into the woods for a hike while he was very drunk. Shortly thereafter he realized he’d become quite lost, so he dialed 911 and reported to the dispatcher that he had gone drunken hiking and was now lost. Police officers found him on a hillside and strongly advised that he not hike in the dark while drunk anymore. Oh yeah? Sounds like someone forgot to remind those officers that this is America, where last time I still checked, we were free to hike drunk in the dark.

via Outdoor Pressroom

The LA Sheriff’s Department created a few new YouTube stars when they released this three-minute video of a rescue of some stranded hikers. The group was stuck clinging to a cliff while the helicopter lowered someone to grab them. I wonder what the rescuer yelled to the woman when he got to her, “HEY. YOU GOT CASH OR DO WE HAVE TO BILL YOU LATER FOR THIS?” For a minute I thought the helicopter was just going to blow them all off the cliff to save the trouble of collecting them.

via Wend

Photo by John

A team of climbers in eastern Greenland had been unable to hike back to meet their helicopter ride out. Melting glacial streams had cut off their retreat. They’d run out of food, the batteries on their sat phone were dead, and their handhelds were too weak to call the coast. Fortunately they were able to get the attention of a helicopter ferrying a load of mineral prospectors around the mountains. They used a mirror, their bright tent and a rifle they were carrying to ward off polar bears. It’s nice when copper-prospecting geologists save you instead of slowly kill you and the earth.

My question here is, what did the helicopter pilot who was supposed to pick them up originally do? Did he go to the meeting point and wait, and when they didn’t show he assumed they’d gotten a ride from someone else and just not told him? Maybe he should have reported to the authorities that a handful of people were missing in remote Greenland.

A dog too exhausted to finish a hike in California spent the night in the wilderness with his owners and was rescued by a helicopter the next day.

When I heard about this story I thought, “You know, this should make me upset, but I actually like a lot of dogs more than I like people.” The couple who owned the 80-pound dog sat with it overnight on the trail, and they attempted to carry it out but couldn’t make it. No word on who’s paying for this rescue.

thanks Adventure Journal

It was a beautiful day, there was enough light to walk down, and they had plenty of water and warm clothes. It’s a wonder why the mountain rescue team didn’t tell them to “stay on the mountain if you’re tired” when they called and requested someone climb up to get them. They were told to meet on the summit, instead they walked down a gully and got lost. Finally fed up, the rescue crew walked the 20 minutes up the trail to assist the two hikers. It took them an hour to walk them back down.