Mother Walks 30 Miles to Save Her Family Stranded in the Snow Near the Grand Canyon

[jpak]

Source: ABC News

A mother said she walked 30 miles through the snow on Christmas Eve to get help for her family who was stranded in their car near the Grand Canyon.

Karen Klein, Eric Klein, and their 10-year-old son Isaac set out on a family trip to the Grand Canyon, using a GPS as their guide, when they wound up driving down a walking path and having their car get stuck in the mud.

Eric Klein had recently broken his back, so Karen Klein set out to seek help by flagging someone down on the main road or finding cell phone service, the family said in an interview with "Good Morning America" that aired today.

Karen Klein traversed approximately ten miles through three feet of snow when she noticed that the main highway had been closed. She then remembered another entrance to the park 14 miles away, and started walking in that direction, she told "GMA."

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/mother-walks-30-miles-save-family-stranded-snow/story?id=44406163

[Kali]

1. they were on the North Rim

which is CLOSED in winter.

[snooper2]

2. I think they still make these cool things called maps

Good on the mom and good thing she is in good shape...

[LisaM]

4. But if you don't have a compass, they can be useless.

I don't know if the sun was out, but on a cloudy winter day it might be impossible to gauge direction.

[mac56]

10. THIS

[Retrograde]

19. Maps can contain other useful information

The ones AAA publishes show that the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is closed in winter. They also advise to check local conditions before driving on unpaved roads. I use GPS and paper maps - if I'm off a main road the latter is generally more useful. Maps can continue to provide information even when you can't get a cell signal.

[awoke_in_2003]

24. When I go on trips...

I always have a map and compass in my car. At this year's company Christmas party, I won a Tom Tom with lifetime maps. It will be used as a supplement, not a replacement. Every one should know how to read a map. GPS is great, until the Chinese decide to knock out those satellites. The military would have a hard time functioning without them, and precision strikes would be very very difficult.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

27. GPS is great for up close detailed turn by turn but an atlas is a must have for cross country trips.

I got mine ridiculously cheap for like $5 bucks at Home Depot.

[awoke_in_2003]

31. One area I could see using both in conjunction...

is when you are taking trips to places you are not familiar with. Too many highways are becoming toll roads, and I believe the GPS units do a better job of keeping up with that.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

33. I find the atlas better for big picture planning...

We took a road trip to Arizona a couple years ago. My boyfriend thought I was crazy for insisting on having an atlas.

But we found ourselves constantly referring to it for general route guidance. Like northern route versus southern route to Arizona type planning.

Re: the Chinese knocking out the satellites. Once in a while we would get a screwy reading on the gps and I would say "we're at war!!!" The boyfriend now just rolls his eyes.

Yeah, gps is more up to date most of the time.

I prefer the little dash mounts like the Tom Tom. Not sure what brand our is - I think garmin. I've had it for 4 or 5 years. We had a Garmin that we paid close to $1000 bucks when they first came out. The thing was huge and sat on the dash held by a sandbag. Someone did us the favor of finally stealing it and we got a much better unit for $150 bucks. Progress!

The last two cars we've had had factory gps. I still prefer the dash mount - doesn't screw up my music. For some reason the Ford gps doesn't show current speed limit. I like to reference that going through towns and such.

The boyfriend has been using "ways" on the phone. It's cool because it announces police presence and road hazards. Pretty accurately from what I can tell. But I still prefer the gps unit for navigation - don't have to worry about cell service either.

[braddy]

3. The dad had recently broke his back, but he saved his son and wife by walking 15 miles and calling

for help with his cell phone, the wife is a marathoner and triathlete, but appears to have gotten off the roads and fortunately found a cabin, where the rescue team found her after her having wandered for 26 miles.

I wonder if she just got excited and decided to muscle it out (marathon style), with no real reason or plan, did she get off the road and go cross country in 3 foot snow and uneven terrain, even spending the night outside, lost?

This is a strange story with some unanswered questions about their competency.

[citood]

5. Not the first story I've seen, where reliance on GPS has caused issues

[CanonRay]

6. I believe some people died in Oregon a few winters ago

following the GPS up a closed road.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

17. I recall a similar, but not necessarily the same, incident.

I'm pretty sure that there was an incident that involved an entire family. That one happened nearer to the coast than this one. They were down near Bandon, I think. Anyway, here's this one.

Sheriff: Stranded Oregon Man Kept Diary as He Starved, Froze to Death

Published May 14, 2011 · Associated Press

PORTLAND, Oregon – When the body of Jerry William McDonald was discovered deep in the Oregon woods on a one-lane dirt road pockmarked with holes, the first hint of what led to his death was the Feb. 14 entry on his calendar: "Snowed in." ... It was a Valentine's Day that went unmarked on his otherwise-detailed log, a reused calendar from the 1970s in which he had crossed out bygone dates and filled in the current year.

McDonald noted that he drove his blue 1997 GMC truck into the remote foothills of the Cascade Range on Feb. 7 and made camp, then woke up one day to find himself in the middle of a fast and heavy snowstorm. ... If McDonald had been awake, said Linn County Sheriff Tim Mueller, he might have been able to see the flakes piling up, made plans to get out, deal with it.

McDonald's body was discovered Thursday by a U.S. Forest Service survey crew, about 60 miles east of the state capital of Salem. An autopsy conducted Friday showed he died of hypothermia and starvation, Mueller said.
....

He had plenty of cash: $5,000 was found with his body. But that didn't help him as the central Oregon winter storms kept dumping snow on the area, fast and hard and merciless, and the chains on his tires only left a series of holes in the ground that reflected his attempts to turn around the truck.

[MissB]

22. Kim family

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kim

The dad left the car to walk for help while the family stayed behind. Dad died.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

34. Yeah, that one was sad. A tragedy of small errors that could have easily gone the other way..

... with much better outcome.

[cstanleytech]

7. Aye, I was trying out apples navigation a few days ago and it tried to have me turn down

a few one way streets more than once.
Not issue usually except it was trying to have me go in the direction that would have been directly into oncoming traffic lol

[christx30]

29. I was driving from Texas to New Hampshire 10 years ago

using a very primitive GPS system. At one point it wanted to go off the highway into a very scary looking cornfield at 3am. I said no thanks, and had my wife take over navigation. She excelled in that and got us to where we were going without being murdered.

[cstanleytech]

32. I tried relying on my brother for a trip a few times, never again lol

He falls asleep way to easy when he is sitting in the passenger side.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

35. Ha. I can't, for the life of me, sleep in a car.

One time I thought I might sleep. We were on our way to Arizona, I turned the car over to the boyfriend after I drove the first leg out of Chicago. I was about to doze off and he hit the rumble strip. Woke me up and I never slept another wink the rest of the trip. It kinda fucks you over. I was nearly useless after I drove the first leg(s).

We take a yearly trip up to Michigan with a bunch of friends. Last year a friend of our friends needed a ride so we offered. He's a fun guy, happy go lucky, silly - so we thought he would be good company. The fucker slept six hours up and six hours back! Every minute! Dead weight!

[enough]

8. It was the father who saved them all. He managed to walk 15 miles to where

he got cell reception and called 911. Responders came and found them all.

[Mosby]

9. the national media was kind of slow with this story

They became lost last Thursday and were rescued Saturday.

[bluedigger]

11. One good reason they were alone out there may be that everyone else checked the weather.

[janx]

13. Exactly! n/t

[Hassin Bin Sober]

36. Ha! That's what I said going over Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado in November.

We took the souther route from Chicago to Phoenix a couple years ago. On the way back we stopped at the Grand Canyon for literally 1 hour. Rather than head back south out of the way to Flaggstaff we decided to take the northern route back through Colorado.

Big mistake. The roads weren't bad at all but when we got to the pass it was empty. There was some ice present and trucks had to have chains. I said "gee, this isn't bad at least there is no traffic. Probably because smart people aren't up here"

White knuckle driving all night. Deer mating season too. Deer smeared all over the roads all the way home. We got passed by an ambulance and then drove past the car on the side of the road with the windshield caved in.

[Ohioblue22]

12. Apparently in the wrong direction 7

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. I agree with those who say that relying solely on GPS

and not ever bothering with paper maps is completely dumb.

But more to the point, how totally stupid to be driving to the closed North Rim of the Grand Canyon in winter. Shows a remarkable degree if idiocy.

[LisaM]

15. Yes, it is stupid and arrogant, IMHO.

Especially if one member of the family has a broken back.

[LanternWaste]

16. Almost as idiotic as pretending we have all relevant information.

"how totally stupid to be driving to the closed North Rim of the Grand Canyon in winter..."

Almost as idiotic as pretending we have all relevant information. However, we rationalize the latter, thus allowing ourselves the fictional pretense of cleverness at the expense of others... always a win/win for the self-absorbed!.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

21. I'm going to make a wild guess and say that there may well have

been signs saying that the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is closed for the season.

I'm also going to arrogantly express astonishment that someone would set out there without bothering to see what was open, since chances are they were going to need a room for the night.

These days, with so much information so readily available to us, there really and truly is no excuse. I'd say the self-absorbed ones were the couple who drove off to the GC without bothering to check out the most basic of information.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Generator]

23. Hey general knowledge

Grand Canyon 7 thousand feet-snow winter bad. I know that. Been there once in summer. Or a one minute google-Grand Canyon in December.

[LisaM]

25. Apparently, they didn't do that.

"I didn't think I would be out that long," Klein told NBC News, adding that in retrospect, she and her husband should have done a better job at planning.

"As far as places being closed, we just didn't realize that these roads were closed and these visitor centers were closed," Klein said. "We didn't investigate that deeply."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/las-vegas-woman-who-walked-26-miles-snowy-grand-canyon-n700371

[Nac Mac Feegle]

26. I know this area

I wonder how they got past the gate at Jacob Lake. It almost looks like they tried to get around it by taking a Forest Service road, and got stuck. It sounds like she hiked to the North Rim Entrance, and broke in there. The husband hiked to the North, and got cell reception, possibly from the Jacob Lake area, or from along Highway 89A, it sounds like.

Do we have a Darwin Award attempt from another dumbass tourist, trying to 'blame it on the GPS', or is there a real issue here?

The South rim is around 7000 feet, and there has been a storm system that came through all last week in the area. The North Rim is 1500 feet higher than the South Rim, and there is a spot on the road from Jacob Lake where you get to around 9500 feet. They're VERY lucky that their bodies weren't found by hikers next March or April.

If the woman had followed the main road (67) North, she could have gotten to Kaibab Lodge, where there should be people this time of year, or at least phone lines.

The news articles are missing a lot of pertinent information here.

[yardwork]

28. I wonder if they deliberately drove into a closed area looking for adventure.

Deliberate or not, their parenting seems irresponsible to me.

[bullwinkle428]

30. Park was closed! The moose out front should've told them!!

[madokie]

18. I had to walk though a few hundred feet of 16 inch snow

and I was totally fucked when I got to the house. I couldn't imagine walking 30 miles

[LisaL]

20. Strange that is the angle abc is going with, considering that if you read the story, she didn't

manage to actually get help for her family. She walked, she found the cabin and collapsed in the cabin. Father is the one who managed to call for help and got them all rescued.