PCT thru-hiker's tale of survival in the Yosemite Backcountry

“At about 1,000 miles into my hike I was hiking alone in the Sierra Nevada Mountains when I came across a particularly treacherous river crossing. The flow was strong and the water was past my waist. As I was fording the river my footing gave way under a lose rock and I was swept into the current. I began rushing towards a waterfall and couldn’t swim out with my 60 lb pack on so I ditched the pack and was able to swim out of the river before I hit the waterfall and rocks.”

“The realization of being stranded in the middle of nowhere, alone, in snow covered mountains with nothing but the clothes I was wearing on my back quickly settled in. Given no one knew I was in trouble, and there was so much snow this year there was no trail to follow, the only way I would survive was by backtracking my own footprints in the snow for 15 miles to try and get to a remote shelter I stayed at the night before, where I could wait and hope for the slim chance someone would come by in the next few days.”

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10209213008348797


Based on him being about 1,000 mile up the PCT, I suspect it was Cascade Creek that he was trying to ford when he lost his footing and and was swept away.

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Leave No Trace

And here's a story of another backpacker on the PCT who got scrapped up and injured while crossing Rancheria Creek, she was ahead of the backpacker of the first story (who lost his backpack while trying to ford the creek).

https://www.facebook.com/anya.ivanova.12/posts/10154721613198105

Reading her account of her mishap, maybe Marcus (the one who lost his backpack) might have also been trying to cross Rancheria Creek (and not Cascade Creek as I speculated in my first post).

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Leave No Trace

A Fresno Bee article about the two PCT-thru hikers and the general conditions of hiking up in the High Sierra while the rivers and creeks are running at very high levels.

“Clement [owner of the Vermilion Valley Resort] also spoke to the father of a thru-hiker with little wilderness experience that insisted his son would be OK because he was carrying the proper gear.

“Gear doesn’t count this year,” Clement warned. “It’s experience and skill and the ability to practice safety and good judgment.”

That advice applies not just to PCT hikers but those planning on hiking the 211-mile John Muir Trail (which overlaps the PCT for much of the High Sierra) in early summer or any number of shorter excursions into our national parks or wilderness areas.”

http://www.fresnobee.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/marek-warszawski/article156474574.html

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Leave No Trace