It had been 17 days since anyone had seen Amanda Eller. Her car was spotted near a trailhead in a vast forest reserve in Hawaii, and thousands of search volunteers were scouring the jungles and streams nearby. On Friday afternoon, less than an hour after her family announced a $50,000 reward for information, rescuers found Ms. Eller with a broken leg, sunburns and scrapes, and a torn meniscus in her knee. She was malnourished and dirty. But alive [...]
Temperatures in the area can dip down to the low 60s, with high humidity, cool mist and frequent rain. Ms. Eller had been wearing a thin tank top and capri-length yoga pants. She had left her water bottle, cellphone and wallet in her car, leading many to believe that she had been abducted, or worse. But Ms. Eller said she had not taken those things because she had planned to be gone only a short time.
On the third day, as police officers and firefighters began to search for her, Ms. Eller abandoned hopes of finding the trailhead and started looking for water instead. Things only got worse. She fell 20 feet off a steep cliff, fracturing her leg and tearing the meniscus in her knee, according to her friend Katie York. The next day, she lost her shoes in a flash flood. She moved much more slowly after that. “The whole time I was going deeper into the jungle, even though I thought I was going back where I came from,” Ms. Eller said.
At night Ms. Eller covered herself in ferns, leaves and whatever else she could find on the ground. Some nights she slept in the mud. She spent one night in the den of a wild boar. She ate whatever she could salvage, including wild strawberry guavas, plants she could not identify and moths that landed on her body [...]
Meanwhile, an army of volunteers turned seemingly every stone looking for her. They rappelled into ravines, searched caves, free-dove into pools and navigated fast-moving streams looking for Ms. Eller. Others killed aggressive wild boars and checked their intestines for human remains. At least one volunteer was attacked by a boar. On Day 17, Ms. Eller was near a stream searching for “some plant to eat for dinner and some place to sleep that wasn’t directly in the mud” when she saw a helicopter. She said she had seen and heard multiple helicopters fly above her during her ordeal, according to her friend Ms. York, but none had spotted her. This one did.
They had those two women on a sailboat who were allegedly stranded who were pretty obviously liars, though it wasn't covered that way. Waiting to look for water until day three doesn't make sense. But the injuries are real so maybe she just got the timing wrong.
One of the downsides of the Internet is that it allows like-minded people to form communities, and sometimes those communities are stupid.
I agree the whole thing sounds very fishy. Seventeen days in Hawaiian wilderness is pretty much seventeen days too long; the lava is really like razor blades, the topography is extreme, the sun, etc. But she did have water and she did have fruit, and they say the injuries are very real, so perhaps she is just a very fortunate person. I have decided to hold judgment, but I don't think you're crazy to be asking WTF?
Flash floods are also no joke:
"That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy.
It is our job to see that it stays there." - George Orwell
If you follow the link on the Appalachian Trail woman, she just left the trail to go to the bathroom. How far? Just far enough, and she was probably focused more on executing the bidness than she was on leaving breadcrumbs to get back on the trail. A little confusion on which way to go afterward, and she kept getting further away.
That's my theory with this woman. She had to go-right-now and darted off the trail and into the jungle forest far enough so no one could see her. From there she incrementally screwed herself over by trying to self-rescue, going deeper into the abyss.
Same thing can happen with skiers that decide to do a little out of boundary skiing. Next thing you know, they are on the wrong side of the mountain and it's getting dark, and they get an impromptu camping event.
Makawao Forest Reserve; it's on the outer slopes of Haleakalā National Park.
"That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy.
It is our job to see that it stays there." - George Orwell
As she started her journey into the forest that day, Eller recalled, she said a “voice” guided her through the woods, taking her deeper into the reserve. “I don’t really know what happened,” she said. “All I can say is that I got out of my car, it’s like, you know, I have a strong sense of internal guidance, whatever you want to call that, a voice, spirit — everybody has a different name for it, heart.” “My heart was telling me, ‘Walk down this path, go left,’ Great. ‘Go right.’ It was so strong,” she continued. “I’m like, great, this is so strong that obviously when I turn around and go back to my car it will be just as strong when I go back, but it wasn’t.”
At one point, Eller said she was able to keep warm by seeking shelter inside the den of a wild boar. “This is the Chinese New Year, this is the year of the boar, I’m a boar,” she explained to reporters. “So I’m like finding myself sleeping in a boar’s home. And they were like trailblazing for me.”
1. This is exactly what I would expect a yoga teacher to say.
2. Her inner voice is an asshole.
3. This statement can probably be used to get her under the care of Nurse Ratched.
"Liberalism is arbitrarily selective in its choice of whose dignity to champion." Adrian Vermeule
“War is the remedy our enemies have chosen. Other simple remedies were within their choice. You know it and they know it, but they wanted war, and I say let us give them all they want.”
― William Tecumseh Sherman
looks like there are 10-11 vaginas in that room. enjoy
Females who wear heels emulate the gait patterns of wounded and/or compromised prey and thus inspire males to heights of predatorial chasse-a-tude. - Robb Wolf
As she started her journey into the forest that day, Eller recalled, she said a “voice” guided her through the woods, taking her deeper into the reserve.
“THE POWER OF SHAPE COMPELS YOU”
She probably stumbled onto a camp/backwoods arms day sesh by the local hardmen, invite only, and they made her count reps until she went insane.
"That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy.
It is our job to see that it stays there." - George Orwell
