They were lost in the wild and on the verge of death. This is how they survived

<p>Thousands of search and rescue missions are conducted in the US each year. Who lives, who dies, and why?</p><p>The night is pitch black, and I cannot see a thing. I stumble out from the trees, hands stretched out like antennas. The sagebrush and rocks snag my feet, and I fall. My stomach drops. My heart skips a beat. My palms are scratched.</p><p>I am trying to find my campsite, a mile from the Idaho backcountry hot spring where I have just been soaking in. By the time I crawled out of the pool, night had fallen, and I could not find my headlamp or my lighter.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/ng-interactive/2025/sep/30/wilderness-survival-search-rescue">Continue reading...</a>