What to Do if Lost in the Desert

Video Transcript

"Hi. I'm Mike Meyers with Zion Wilderness Survival School, I don't know why I can't get that right, for Expert Village. We talked earlier about being prepared for any sort of a wilderness outing. But no matter what you do, it doesn't mean that you can't get yourself into difficulty. You can't get lost. It happens all the time. So, the key thing is what are you gong to do once you realize that you are lost. You've, you've walked up onto this hill. You look around. You have no idea where you are or reasonably no idea. First thing I recommend is sit down. Find a nice shady spot, a nice rock. Get your water bottle out. Take a swig. If you have some snacks, maybe even eat some snacks. Calm yourself down. Don't allow yourself to get panicked and just taking off in some direction hoping that's going to be the right way to go. Sit down. Think. Think about your predicament. Look at the weather, at your location. Hopefully, before you ever left, you told somebody where you were going and when you expected to be back. And that person is somebody who's responsible enough they're going to call the rangers or the police or somebody and tell them that you're lost, that you never came back like you said you would. If you've done that, then the smartest thing probably is to stay right where you are. Because you're probably close to where you should be. If you start wandering about looking for your way out, you could make it even worse. And, if a search pattern develops, and they're out looking for you, and you start wandering around, you might leave one area and go into an are they've already searched. Now, they're searching the area that you left. And, you get yourself into sort of a ridiculous pattern. If you happen to hear somebody in the area, maybe a helicopter flies over, one of the items you should have in your, in your pack is that emergency signaling mirror. Another item you might use, remember that solar blanket, notice that it's very shiny. It's large. You can lay that down on the ground. Even if you put it over yourself to keep the sun off of you, it's still reflecting. So, it's a signaling device. Find a nice, open, flat area, the best you can. If you can use rocks, put boulders together or logs or a combination of both to spell out the letter "X", better yet is three Xs. Groups of three is a SOS technique. Sometimes you can use brush, anything that's going to stand out on the landscape. You need to use something that's significantly different colored than what you're standing on. Otherwise, it's just going to blend in. Stay put. Look for somewhere where you can hunker down. Get out of the sun. Get out of the rain. Get out of the wind. But, try to put your signaling devices out in the open where people are going to see them. And, again, don't panic. Inventory your gear. That's the last thing that I tell people. Sit down and lay all your gear out in front of you kind of like we did in a previous episode. And, ask yourself, "What do I have? What am I going to need? And, what can I do with what I've brought with me?" "