Chill
Diggin' It
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Deceased CO - 3 bodies found at remote campsite not far from Gold Creek CG in Gunnison NF; Jul 2023 (reported)
- Thread starter Twiglets
- Start date
Chill
Diggin' It
Mmmm. What conditions cause mummification?
I Am A Rock
Diggin' It
In a word...a name: Ötzi. Buried in an Austrian glacier 5,000 years ago.
Ötzi - Wikipedia
Rainforest
In the Groove
Getting packed with snow is one method. That’s the reason they keep finding bodies as glaciers melt; sometimes it’s,hikers who’ve fallen in crevasses.
Cliffed Out
Diggin' It
Yep, Ötzi. Cute guy.
Video on the Gunnison id’s. It hits home when you see the stepsister talking.
Video on the Gunnison id’s. It hits home when you see the stepsister talking.
Bodies found in remote campsite in Gunnison identified
CBS News Colorado's reporter Gabriela Vidal provides the full details about the bodies that were found in a remote campsite in Gunnison being identified.
www.cbsnews.com
I Am A Rock
Diggin' It
More and more backstory....Yep, Ötzi. Cute guy.
Video on the Gunnison id’s. It hits home when you see the stepsister talking.
Bodies found in remote campsite in Gunnison identified
CBS News Colorado's reporter Gabriela Vidal provides the full details about the bodies that were found in a remote campsite in Gunnison being identified.www.cbsnews.com
Their stepsister and her husband introduced them to a native elder to get some wisdom about outdoor skills:
Tommy [stepsister's husband] introduced the trio to an experienced Native American outdoorsman who had lived off the grid.
“Our elders showed us what and what not to do. Plants you can eat, and plants you can’t. Bark you can cook for pain medicine, how to set snare traps. He couldn’t convince them,” he said. “The best we could do was show them some survival skills but there’s only so much you can put into an hour of time and talk and you’re not going remember what someone told you.”
Still, the campers decided to jump in feet first and they chose a place that Native Americans knew to leave in winter.
‘Unnecessary deaths’: relatives mourn US family who died off the grid
Trevala Jara remembers her stepsister Becky Vance as a ‘caring and loving person’ who thought she was ‘saving’ her son and sister Christine Vance
Chill
Diggin' It
This case is so unusual for the motivation, the inept preparation, and the demographic. Usually, it seems like the people who try this are "disaffected young men" IME. For sure, there are all kinds of people living out there in the wilderness, but the Vance trip seems to have come on from a different set of reasons than any others I've read about.
Cliffed Out
Diggin' It
Mis-speculation #4. 2 dies from carbon monoxide poisoning from a live fire source in the tent.
I’m on the fence about this, but veer towards this did ‘t happen.
I haven’t seen a firm position from LE on whether they found a fire source in the tent.
It’s possible this happened , but I can’t visualize it. A regular fire wouldn’t work: it would have melted the tent. It also could easily get out of control and set the tent in flames. Tents are highly flammable: I imagine the cheaper ones are saturated with petroleum products to make them waterproof, and we’re likely looking at cheap here.
Then there's the chance they brought a stove. IMO this is very unlikely. Someone with fantasies of living off-grid doesn’t usually imagine they would need a stove; they’d rather “live off the land”. This means firewood. I also can’t see the trio lugging a lot of gas out there. Gas is heavy or comes in heavy containers. They didn’t bring enough food…doesn’t make sense they brought gas.
That’s my verdict: no flame in tent.
I’m on the fence about this, but veer towards this did ‘t happen.
I haven’t seen a firm position from LE on whether they found a fire source in the tent.
It’s possible this happened , but I can’t visualize it. A regular fire wouldn’t work: it would have melted the tent. It also could easily get out of control and set the tent in flames. Tents are highly flammable: I imagine the cheaper ones are saturated with petroleum products to make them waterproof, and we’re likely looking at cheap here.
Then there's the chance they brought a stove. IMO this is very unlikely. Someone with fantasies of living off-grid doesn’t usually imagine they would need a stove; they’d rather “live off the land”. This means firewood. I also can’t see the trio lugging a lot of gas out there. Gas is heavy or comes in heavy containers. They didn’t bring enough food…doesn’t make sense they brought gas.
That’s my verdict: no flame in tent.
Rainforest
In the Groove
I’m reading this, and thought maybe their fire went out in their firepit, and they ended up with no fire source at all. This would accelerate hypothermia.
LE says they had started to build a lean-to over the fire, but didn’t complete it. I wonder if the fire got doused by snow or rain, they had no additional source (maybe they had matches that got wet?), and they got too cold to continue building the lean-to.
Are We There Yet
For Real
Wow, that makes sense. It seems bizarre they never managed to complete a lean-to. With 3 people, it just wouldn’t take that long. Maybe a few days to drag downed logs or branches? They could have been building it, and then their fire went out, so what would be the point of continuing? They’d soon get very cold (even in summer), and if they got wet, too, they’d be done for. If their fire went out, and they weren’t prepared with gear or food, they’d be dead from hypothermia within a matter of hours.
Chill
Diggin' It
This could all have happened before a huge snowfall got them stuck there. If their fire went out, and they were out of matches, they couldn't have made it to town before freezing to death.
Family says they got there in August. I'm betting they died in October or November. If they survived into full snow season, they would have been able to get the attention a backcountry skier, if the situation got dire. So, I think not backcountry ski season yet.
Springer
Diggin' It
I'm not as definite as they "couldn't have made it to town". If their fire went out, they were out of matches, and too cold to think straight, they couldn't have made it to town. If they got going and didn't stop, maybe they'd have a chance at reaching town if rain or snow stopped.
IMO they were going to die of something or other. And I agree with October or November.
Naughty Pine
Hangin' Out
Hehe, this is the same as Mis-speculation #2?
There are a couple of ways to get carbon monoxide poisoning that wouldn’t involve having an open fire in the tent. They could have had a fire just outside the tent, and the off-gassing leaked in. Or, carbon monoxide could have been trapped in their half-finished lean-to from a campfire, which seems to have been intended to cover the fire. That wouldn’t explain how they got into the tent, however, if they were poisoned.
I wonder where the campfire was in relation to the tent?
Hates Ramen
Diggin' It
I want to know the titles of the books/articles they had. I mean, what were they planning to live on? Trap marmots (sorry, @One Fat Marmot , I know this is a sore point 
)? Eat juniper berries?
Also, I can go along with ^^^. If they were running out of food, they would have realized soon, unless there was some catastrophe. They could have planned to re-supply, and the snow, hypothermia came in, either with or without spare matches (which may have happened, too). Yes, on October-November decease-date. No way they avoided hypothermia until later in the winter, especially with starvation rations.
)? Eat juniper berries?Also, I can go along with ^^^. If they were running out of food, they would have realized soon, unless there was some catastrophe. They could have planned to re-supply, and the snow, hypothermia came in, either with or without spare matches (which may have happened, too). Yes, on October-November decease-date. No way they avoided hypothermia until later in the winter, especially with starvation rations.