Four days of unbearable horror: the story of rescue of tourists in the desert
New Zealand tourist Claire Nelson couldn’t even imagine that, going Hiking in the national Park of the United States Joshua tree, she will become the heroine of one of the horror stories of survival away from civilization.
Nothing boded trouble, until that moment, she slipped, she fell off a big boulder and injured his hip so that he was virtually immobilized. When this happened, she was alone under the scorching sun in the desert.
Claire is a kiwi, but recently lives in Toronto where she moved, having lived a little in London. When friends invited Claire to stay at their house, which is located at the Park, Joshua tree, and look after the cat for a few weeks until they will be out of town, she happily agreed.
Claire Nelson was in the Park and she really liked this wild area, reminiscent of a real wilderness with its trees and cactus, “as in the books of Dr. seuss”.
Early in the morning she went to the Park to make a six-hour Hiking. With him she took a few liters of water, Hiking sticks and sunblock.
“I feel like I am exactly where I most wanted to be,” Claire told Bi-bi-si.
At 8:30 am Claire talked to the staff of the information center of the Park, specifying the details of the route. They told her that this route is not very difficult and the trail is in excellent condition.
Claire was on the trail of about three kilometers, but then I realized that it can’t find the token with a mark of distance traveled, which should be on the trail.
She decided to make a stop and relax on one of the huge boulders, and at the same time to deal with the route.
“It all happened in that moment, when I tried to get off the rock. I climbed pretty high, and it was so slippery that I immediately flew down,” says Claire.
I knew that nothing I can do to slow down. Everything was in slow motion. In my head was just: no, no, no…Claire Plannability horror
“I fell under the sound of loud crunch, and I had the whole body. My first thought was: it is bad.”
Claire fell on his left side, breaking the pelvic bone. She tried to stand, but was unable to move. She had tried to call emergency services, but the phone was out of range of the cellular network.
“I could never imagine themselves in this situation — not because I considered myself a seasoned traveler — just seemed to me that such an extreme scenario cannot happen in real life — at least to me. I quite often go Hiking, and I felt that I adequately assess the situation and danger, but then I realized how stupid I was,” says Claire.
“I thought: I can’t believe I’m here alone, nobody knows where I am. I am injured, and I have no way to call someone for help. It was a moment of complete and unbearable horror,” admits Claire.
To stay alive
“I panicked,” says Claire. But then she quickly switched to the solution of urgent issues: she had to deal with the pain, shelter from the sun and keep as much water as possible to survive.
I just realised: the only thing I can control is how much I can stretch.Claire Nelson
Claire took some aspirin, which she had in her pocket to reduce the pain in the broken hip.
With a stick for trekking and plastic bags she’s built himself some sort of shelter from the sun. When the water the next day over, she started to drink their own urine to survive.
UPDATE:
Injured hiker was found alive this evening by RCSD and JOSAR teams and transported by CHP to Chiriacco Summit to…
Published by Joshua Tree National Park may 25, 2018,
“After I fell off the rock, I filmed a short video to explain what happened to me when I find it. I haven’t watched them. Not sure if I want to watch them,” says Claire.
“In my head constantly spinning any thoughts, and it helped me not to give up. For example, I thought: I want to see this person. I want something from the food another try. I want to come back again. And the idea that my family would find my dead body in the desert was unacceptable, I couldn’t do that to them,” says traveler.
Claire Nelson has been in the desert for four days and three nights.
She said that time went faster, she divided the day into several “parts”: the first half of the day she tried to scream and call for help, in the afternoon she had to hide from the sun, not to get heat stroke.
Fortunately, she didn’t annoy any snakes or coyotes.
“I saw just how dangerously Kestrels circling above me, feeling the closeness of death,” says Claire.