I thought I'd extend my baseball parable with reference to another hiker in the EV, who was found alive after several days in September 2021 and was in great shape.
The baseball bat....
Supposing you're a kid, and you've hit balls with your baseball bat a million times in your yard. You go out there in easy weather. Who wants to go sloshing around picking up balls in the mud, anyway? You pay attention to the fact of the neighbor's windows. Some other kid hit a ball through a neighbor's window one street over, and how could you forget?
So, you're playing out there, and you're really good at it. But your hand slips and wheeeeee! there goes the ball, sailing through your neighbor's window.
Oopsie! The kid might have to rake some leaves to make enough money to fix the window, but the neighbors might even find some leaves for him to rake for a buck or two. Maybe there's a woman who has experience in glass installation, and she'll do the fix for free if they young man pays for the pane.
This kind of thing happens. The human physique can go wild on us sometimes. Generally, everyone knows this and has scope for it.
No harm, no foul. The neighborhood might even enjoy how everyone came together and feel comforted that their own children are growing up in a caring place. Everyone gets on with life.
This is SAR at its best.
So, a year ago a young man went missing on a solo trip in the Quinault area that included the Enchanted Valley. His name was Jerren Fisher.
www.nps.gov
Initial story in Peninsula News, cited on Missing NPF. Note the terrible conditions.
Jerren Fisher
Follow up in the New Tribune, cited on Missing NPF:
Jerren Fisher was located in a ravine near Mt. Olson.
missingnpf.com
JF was found 4 days after the search began. He was in a ravine he couldn't get out of. He had all the experience, gear, and food to manage those 4 days, even though the weather turned VERY bad, as it often does in the Olympics. At least he had picked a usually safe time of year (September). SAR/NPS explicitly commended his preparation.
A helicopter had to get him out, but scratches and bruises. No harm, no foul. No trauma for survivors, or woulda coulda shoulda. So readily does life go on that there's VERY little media coverage.
I think everyone can agree that this is an excellent application for SAR resources. A human oopsie happened, because human oopsies happen. The young man otherwise was very together. The community rallied, and made a life/death difference. The helicopter pilot gets to be a hero (big risk here, too), and everyone goes home happy.
I hope this counterpoint adds perspective to the LM case.