(The Globe and Mail) - Rita Chretien had been in her Chevy Astro van for seven weeks, stuck in a gully on the side of a wilderness road, when Chad Herman, his wife Whitnie and his father-in-law Troy Sill stumbled upon her.
They were on their all-terrain vehicles hunting for elk antlers. As they approached, they did not know what to make of what they saw. The van was deep in a ditch alongside a rocky road on a 5,000-foot mountain in Nevada where you would never expect to see vehicles in winter. Blankets were draped over the windows. Messages were taped to the front windshield including one that simply said "stuck."
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Ms. Chretien told them that her husband, Albert, had gone in search of help after they slid off the road into the gully and she was afraid he was dead. Ms. Chretien said she had been stuck there since March 19.
Mr. Herman was confused. "I actually thought, when she said March 19, my mind jumped to April 19, because I did not even think anyone could live that long," he said in an interview. His wife pointed out that Mr. Chretien had said March, not April.
In an incredible tale of survival that has drawn international attention, Ms. Chretien, 56, had spent 49 days in the wilderness, sustained for six weeks only on water and melted snow.
Inspired by her strength and endurance, rescue teams went out Monday with renewed vigour to search for her husband – on horseback, on foot, by air and with all-terrain vehicles. Some searchers tried to follow the path that Mr. Chretien, 59, may have taken, using a GPS of similar make and model to that which Mr. Chretien used when he left the vehicle.
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Dave Goertzen, a friend of Mr. Chretien’s for four decades, said Mr. Chretien bought a GPS – a Magellan – shortly before the couple left Penticton. They discussed the purchase, and Mr. Goertzen warned his friend not to use the device in rural areas, where it couldn't reliably distinguish between well-paved and rougher roads.
“I told him I didn’t trust them in the country, but they were great for city,” Mr. Goertzen said. “I use GPS, and I don't like them in the country because they tell you the shortest route, but they don’t tell you what the roads are like.”
Ms. Chretien told her three rescuers that they were trying to take a shortcut, following instructions from their GPS. "She said, we made a couple of bad decisions," Ms. Herman said.
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