Just wondering


While I wholeheartedly agree that walking off into the mountains with no sense of direction, and having to traverse high mountainous terrain, was a remarkably stupid idea, I wonder if they really would ultimately have fared any better if they had gone back on the road they came in on?

Could a person really survive an 80 mile walk through the desert, even traveling mostly at night over level terrain (although we don't really know how level it was because they didn't show the whole drive...there could have been lots of steep hills)? True, a healthy person with plenty of water to drink could walk 3+ miles/hour, but a couple days after you ran out of water, could you really survive an 80 mile hike?

I would think that once your water was gone and your bodily reserves began to wear down, your walking speed would slow WAY down, and it would be extraordinarily difficult to manage that walk.

Just wondering what others think?

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From what other posters have said, young people can walk long distances if their lives depend on it. Especially if they walk at night. And they probably wouldn't even need to walk the full distance before getting cell phone reception again. So they probably should have weighed their options more before choosing to go to the mountains. Idiots.

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They didn't have nearly enough water. In the desert while physically active, they would literally need a gallon each per day to even hope to avoid dehydration. And as you point out, physical activity... even walking... becomes almost impossible once dehydration sets in.

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Once a person gets dehydrated... even somebody young and physically fit... walking any distance becomes nearly impossible. They simply didn't have enough water. Yes, walking WAS their best hope, but really the best case was that that got to a place with a cell signal very quickly (i.e. within the first few hours of walking). After that, their water was going to run out (ANY exertion in the desert would require huge amounts of liquid to stay hydrated), and without WATER, even limited exertion becomes impossible and death will follow quickly.

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I totally agree with the above post.
Their chances of walking with the water they had was a lot greater than trying their luck thru freaking mountains.
As for as they know....even a 20 mile walk if that would've given them ONE BAR on cell to call for help

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obviously they would have---considering she went in a circle, and after she got the saline in her she immediately walked towards the road they came in on and ta da! there was a car. it showed they did all that for nothing. 2 guys died for nothing because she made a very wrong call. had they started walking immediately back the way they came, were careful with water and food and walked mostly at night using the camera for a flashlight, they would have made it towards cellphone range in probably a day and a half or 2 days. some people have walked ACROSS the desert, like an entire desert into another state and survived. look it up. the human body is an amazing thing. sometimes it cant survive hardly anything and sometimes it literally performs miracles. so many stories of things like that happening.

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