Doofus Of The Day #1,119

 

Today's award goes to a Canadian lady "seeking spiritual insight through 'ego death' " in a Colorado wilderness trip.  The award is shared with the organization that arranged her trip, which (on the basis of the report) doesn't seem to have known what it was doing.

Searchers spent four days looking for the 53-year-old last month outside Norwood. Chase was deliberately fasting as part of the experience.

. . .

"I pushed Gina more on this, looking specifically for what the desired physiological response they were seeking was as opposed to their spiritual goal," [Sergeant] Donnellon wrote in the report. "Gina told me the act of fasting does not have the desired goal of hallucinating but to causes a person to crack a little bit. Gina told me when she fasted before her solo that she was, 'Hoping nature would speak back to me.'"

But by the time she was reported missing and searchers had started to gather for the mission, Chase had been without food and water for 36 hours, according to the report. 

. . .

Another sergeant with the sheriff's office, Lane Masters, was told by an Animas Valley Institute guide that communication with the campers would be difficult. The sergeant, as recounted in the report, asked the guide for the campers' general location. He intended to send his deputies out to those locations to instruct the other campers.

The guide, Masters wrote, "pulled out a handwritten note from one camper, and read it to me. The directions were ludicrously poor, such as 'Take a left at the small meadow and walk for a while.'"

As deputies tried to contact the other campers, Masters inquired about the gear Chase had with her. He was told green, a color recommended by the Animas Valley Institute, according to Chase's husband, so Chase could "be closer to nature."

"I pointed out how stupid this was from a safety perspective," Sgt. Masters wrote in the report, "as these colors were difficult to see in wooded terrain."

He added: "(The guide) then pointed at the map where they thought the subject may be. (The guide) pointed directly to our current location in the command area, a fact which I related to her. (The guide) commented 'Oh.' I pointed out to (the guide) that this was a serious problem, the relevance of which seemed to be lost on (the guide)."

. . .

Chase, expecting to be away 10 minutes, walked away from her camp only with a whistle, space blanket, matches, and a water bottle. Left behind were her tent, sleeping bag, inflatable sleeping pad, 12 liters of water and a three-day supply of emergency food, if needed, according to the report.

. . .

Chase blew her whistle at passing helicopters that she assumed were looking for her, but the searchers did not see her nor the shiny space blanket she was keeping in the trees ... There was also a meadow a short distance away, and investigators expressed dismay that Chase did not place her space blanket or other items in the open area where they could be seen from overhead.

There's more at the link.  It's worth reading in full for the unending series of accidents, mishaps, mistakes and stupidity that nearly killed the lady.  I think she might well be described as "an accident looking for a place to happen" - and she found one!

It boggles my mind how New Age, "woke", sanity-fluid individuals so often get themselves into life-threatening situations through complete and utter inability to ask the most basic questions, get the most basic training in the environment in question, and prepare themselves in even the most basic ways.  It's as if they have some sort of death wish.  Trouble is, those who have to rescue them end up exposed to the same dangers, and sometimes suffer the consequences.

I hope the lady, and the organization that organized the "adventure", are made to pay the entire cost of the rescue mission.  A solid hit to their joint and several pocketbooks might teach them something!

Peter