Message in a bottle gets climbers rescued (Amazing)

The Oregonian ^ | January 16, 2008 | STUART TOMLINSON

[Squidpup]

"A chance encounter with a plastic bottle early Tuesday helped two lost climbers find their way off the lower flanks of Mount Hood after a night spent huddled in a hastily built snow cave.

The bottle, apparently left by someone playing an adventure game, held map coordinates giving their precise location. And the two Portland men spotted it just as searchers called their cell phones -- which they mistakenly believed had stopped working for good the night before. "

[jdm]

[martin_fierro]

[raybbr]

So, what saved them? The GPS on the cell phone or the coordinates from the bottle?

[aroundabout]

"The bottle, apparently left by someone playing an adventure game, held map coordinates giving their precise location. And the two Portland men spotted it just as searchers called their cell phones --"

Oh Friedrich, Freidrich Nietzsche, what was that you were saying about God?

[Maven]

Woohoo for geocaching!

It's a really great hobby.

Maven

[pbear8]

Love that graphic !!

[Captain Rhino]

Coordinates from the bottle saved them. Their cellphone didn't have the GPS feature. Using both, they were able to tell their rescuers EXACTLY where they were.

"If we had had a GPS (and a map), we probably would have been a lot better off," Pitts said.

[VRWCmember]

I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle.

[Who dat?]

There was a DVD at the movie rental place called “Touching the Void” that was pretty good. I mean, if you’re interested in that type of thing...

[org.whodat]

So, what saved them? The GPS on the cell phone or the coordinates from the bottle?

Don't know but you can rule out smarts. A smart person would not have been up there.

[SengirV]

I wonder if it was left by these adventurers - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ekugPKqFw

[InvisibleChurch]

they’ve been given a gift ... i hope they take advantage of it

[Former MSM Viewer]

I’m calling The Police

[Squidpup]

agreed - a very cold sobering slap in the face

[Ender Wiggin]

LARP to the rescue!

[raybbr]

Coordinates from the bottle saved them. Their cellphone didn't have the GPS feature. Using both, they were able to tell their rescuers EXACTLY where they were.

I doubt very much that their cell phones don't have GPS on a 911 call. I don't think they even sell them without it anymore.

The GPS he's referring to is a seperate unit the climbers can rent or borrow.

My question still hasnt' been answered.

[HairOfTheDog]

The sport is Geocaching (Geocaching - The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site)... And it's great fun. We did some of it this last summer.

This appears to be the cache: View Cache Details

The guy who placed the cache is apparently part of PNW Search and Rescue... I hope he's not attracting his own rescues ;~)

[HairOfTheDog]

The cache was a container that had in it a logbook with it’s exact latitude and longitude printed on it. They were able to relay this information to rescuers via the cell phone.

[Iron Munro]

"...you can rule out smarts."

There it is.

"They had neither a GPS unit nor a mountain locator unit, which Rollins said was a mistake. He also said they should have carried a shovel for avalanche rescue or building a snow cave and they erred by misjudging the time they'd have before bad weather rolled in".