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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHawaii: Rescued Hiker Woman Broke Her Leg, Ate Moths & Wild Fruit To Survive
A 35-year-old Maui woman missing for 17 days was found alive on Friday, just as hopes were starting to dwindle. Amanda Eller, a yoga teacher survived in dense forest, a friend said, by sleeping in a boars den, covered in ferns, and eating wild fruit and one occasion two moths. Eller was reported missing on 9 May by her boyfriend, Ben Konkol, when she did not return home for dinner the previous evening. Thousands of volunteers, police, firefighters and search dogs combed thick forest around the trailhead parking lot where her car was found. The search also involved free divers, rapellers, cavers, swift water rescue teams, hunters, cadaver dogs, drones, all-terrain vehicles and helicopters.
We were beginning to lose hope, Amandas father John Eller said on Friday evening at Maui Memorial Medical Center, where his daughter was brought to recuperate. When I got the call at first I thought they were joking, I almost just couldnt believe it. The terrain here is unbelievable. In those woods its so easy to get disoriented, to get lost. Amanda told friends and family that after realizing she was lost she tried to get back to her car. That effort took two days.
After that, she gave up looking for the car and started looking for water, said Katie York, a childhood friend who flew in from Maryland to join searchers in the vast forest for more than a week and a half. On the third day, York said, Eller slipped and fell 20ft, breaking her leg and tearing the meniscus in her knee. After that, Eller focused on finding water to drink and food to forage. On day four a flash flood washed away her shoes, leaving her feet bare. The cold was what she said was the worst, said York. She slept in a boar den and covered herself with ferns and anything she could get her hands on. The main thing she wanted was for the rains to hold off so that she wouldnt be cold and drinking muddy water.
In the area of north Maui where Eller was found, nighttime temperatures can drop to into the low 60sF (15C), with humidity into the low 80s and frequent rains. She was wearing only a thin white tank top, a sports bra and a pair of yoga pants. For sustenance, Eller drank water from a stream she was following. For food, she ate wild strawberry guavas and, on Friday, two moths that landed on her.
York said: She said every morning shed wake up and say, Todays the day Im going to get out of this. And every night shed go to bed upset that it hadnt happened.
Eller was spotted by searchers in a helicopter around 3.30pm local time, about seven miles as the crow flies from the Makawao Forest Reserve trailhead. ..
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/25/woman-found-alive--two-weeks-in-hawaii-forest-park-amanda-eller
The Hawaii forest area where Eller was found.
appalachiablue
(41,182 posts)Flanked by her rescuers, an emotional Amanda phones her family to let them know she's been found.
Cha
(297,809 posts)certainot
(9,090 posts)appalachiablue
(41,182 posts)Cha
(297,809 posts)appalachiablue
(41,182 posts)Cha
(297,809 posts)I was lost for a few hours in cane fields on Kauai back in the '90s.. I know how easy it is to get disoriented.
What an adventure for Amanda.. so happy she
she persevered, through her days and nights. lost in mind boggling Maui forest.. broken leg and all!
appalachiablue
(41,182 posts)is a real challenge. Amanda gets major credit for keeping strong and focused, esp. with that leg- ouch.
She stayed CALM and used her Brain/Intelligence, humans' key advantage.
___________
These 2 'survivor' films are 1st rate, both set in Alaska wilderness where plane crash victims face dangerous elements.
In 'The Edge,' Anthony Hopkins tells Baldwin that most people lost in those circumstances stop using their brain, and give up *FROM SHAME. As in how did they get themselves into the predicament; I remember and often pass this along.
Never in wilderness, I was lost a couple times when young (and dumb!) at night, in Rio and Paris. After a good amt. of time we made our way home luckily but it was a bit scary esp. Rio.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,914 posts)by themselves.
I gather she didn't have a cell phone? Well, maybe the terrain was such that a cell phone didn't work, but why in fuck do people go off by themselves? Use a little common sense, people.
Beringia
(4,316 posts)PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,914 posts)or more there's a better chance of one of them being able enough to hike out and get help. Plus, as noted, she left her phone in her car.
appalachiablue
(41,182 posts)strength, fortitude and intelligence. In the photo above with 2 rescuers, she's calling her family on one of their phones.
And not a tourist, Amanda lives on Maui and has contacts in NC.
More_Cowbell
(2,191 posts)I've seen from other stories. It's hard to imagine she would have had a signal to call, but maybe while her battery lasted they could've tried to get her position.
appalachiablue
(41,182 posts)PoiBoy
(1,542 posts)...because she didn't think she would be gone that long... and yes, I don't think she'll ever leave her phone behind ever again...
I also wouldn't think that she would have gotten a signal that deep down the gulch where she was found, but the rescuer's picture shows her talking to her family on what looks like a regular cell phone.
mountain grammy
(26,659 posts)Bantamfancier
(366 posts)She took no precautions to ensure her safety.
No way of communicating, either cell phone, whistle, or means to make a fire.
If she fell down the cliff that tells me she was moving way too fast for the terrain.
She panicked and paid the price.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,496 posts)People are too damn proud to ask for wisdom from experienced older folk before taking on risky adventures. All knowledge now appears to come only from smart phones.
When we did a lot of trekking in central Tennessee in the 60s looking for caves, we always carried USGS topo maps, a compass, tablets to treat creek water, a plastic rain jacket, matches, a pocket knife and some bare-bones canned food in a small back pack. In reality, quite compact and it's cheap insurance.
appalachiablue
(41,182 posts)like you wrote. I just read she was also a physical therapist, planned a 3 mile hike; left phone and wallet in the car.
Not good at all, even if she was a local and in shape..
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