My intro to SAR, back when I was in college, involved some Boy Scouts who were not quite so fortunate. They attempted to climb Mt Wrightson (9400 ft (just south of Tucson, AZ) in the face of an epic mid-November storm that left six inches of snow in Tucson (2500 ft).

Their disappearance triggered an epic, and inept, search effort that involved untrained volunteers, and eventually boots on the ground from Fort Huachuca. We had lots of occasions to display "mental toughness" or something similar. To this day I remember getting an absolutely fire kindled, and then thawing my companion's frost-nipped toes on my tummy as we slept fitfully.

The sister of one of the survivors, Cathy Hufault, wrote "Death Clouds on Mt. Baldy" which details the whole sad story. Even as a participant, I learned things from that book that I had not known. The one positive outcome was the development of competent volunteers who today provide capable assistance to those in trouble.

The vast majority of victims that I have dealt with were inexperienced in the environment in which they were struggling. Without knowledge and decent information, how can anyone make good decisions?

Ppine, you will be interested to know that riders from the Pinal County Horse Posse were heavily involved. Years later, our group was involved in a search for one of the major participants, then in his 90s, after he had strayed from his assisted living facility.