Anonymous 10-3-10 English Period 3

Lost In the Wild

On day three of being lost in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park, Killip awakens from his sleep on the mountainside of Terra Tomah Mountain. He is badly injured with a limited amount of food left from his pack and is closer to having hypothermia. Killip is too exhausted to go on, but he is still persevering to get back to the car. As the storm passes, Killip begins to climb Terra Tomah Mountain to see where he is at. Killip tries not to render to exhaustion and reaches near the top of the mountain where he examines the area he is in. He then looks at his map and using his surrounding learns where he is at. After that he climbs back down slowly and begins to move in a path he thinks will lead him back to the car. As he travels back to the car, hours pass and the temperature is getting colder. Clouds are coming in and another much larger storm is brewing. Meanwhile, after two days of waiting, John York is very worried and decides to head back to the car and contact the Park’s rangers for help to find his friend Killip. York tries to placate himself and explains to rangers the situation. York recapitulates the last place where he separated from Killip and they begin to make a search for him. Rangers then quickly go and search the areas on foot where Killip could be, but unfortunately they are not in sight of Killip. The rangers search for hours and find no trace of Killip. As the storm comes closer, the rangers begin to return. Although the area is dense with forest trees York takes a helicopter with the rangers to see if they can find Killip before the storm comes in. As they search for Killip, Killip continues to travel in a path where he tries to retake his steps back to the car. His travel is long and tedious, but manages to go back a few areas where he had come from. For once in his travel, Killip felt confident and traveled diligently. As he climbed a few high spots he noticed the storm was near and could see it was going to be very strong. In spite of his injuries, Killip traveled quickly and had very few brakes to rest. He began to grow tired and when he was climbing over a steep ridge, he had lost grip on a slippery rock and nearly fell. He was too tired and too heavy to hold on, so he had to let go of his pack and move on. Up ahead he saw the drainage where he had climbed down of from Mount Ida. Killip knew he was close, but he had no supplies, he was exhausted, and he wondered what had happened to York. He wondered if the car was still even there. A few hours pass and it’s almost dark out. The storm is setting in with heavy rain, wind, hail, and lighting. York and the rangers in the helicopter return to the outpost and Killip decides to take shelter between a few boulders. Killip was shivering and wet. His body temperature was dropping by the second and he knew he had to gain heat or he would die. Since the area was vast with dense forests, he went against his firefighter oath for survival and quickly collected wood so that he could make a fire, using the knowledge

he learned from survival training from the military, he lit a fire by making sparks between two different types of stones. Killip also put on a raincoat he made out one of the garbage bags he had in his pack that he kept in his pocket. Killip then fell asleep surviving the night hoping he will make it. The next day Killip woke up hungry and thirsty, but had no choice but to continue and climb over Mount Ida. Fortunately the storm was over, but back at the ranger outpost, the rangers don’t believe that Killip wouldn’t have survived after the storm. York on the other hand still believed that Killip was still alive so he asked if hey could at least check through the helicopter one more time. The rangers could see that York was determined to find his lost friend so they went one last time through the helicopter. They perused the area and they were nearing Mount Ida. Killip who was climbing Mount Ida heard the helicopter and saw that his only hope was to climb to the top before the helicopter passed. He climbed as quickly as he could, using up all of his energy. His heart was pounding and he could hear the helicopter come closer. Killip knows that if the helicopter doesn’t spot him then he won’t have the chance to be rescued. As he finally reached the top, the helicopter was passing by him. He waved his arms wanting them to see him, but he was not spotted and they passed by him. Killip couldn’t believe it. He felt as if he were a pariah who was ostracized from everything. York felt that he was to blame for losing his friend, but at that moment Killip screamed as hard as he could and collapsed from exhaustion. York barely hearing it through the sounds of the helicopters propellers was able to hear him. York had the rangers go back and they found Killip on top of Mount Ida collapsed on the ground. He was rescued and was taken to the hospital. After being nearly four whole days in the wilderness remote area of Colorado National Park, Killip had managed to survive. In the beginning of Killip’s journey in the wilderness, he has pack that would help him survive in the wilderness at least a week, survival training he learned in the military, and outdoor experience from the Parker Fire Protection District. Even with all this Killip had a hard time to survive due to bad mistakes in navigation and other bad decisions he made, but in the end was luckily rescued. Through this interview and many others, Laurence Gonzales learns that surviving in the desert doesn’t mean you have to have many supplies and skills, but good logic. Gonzales learns that it’s usually based on the decisions they make, such as what to do or what path to take in the wild, which determines their fate. He also learns that in order to survive you must defeat the enemy within you by having confidence in yourself and to work diligently. In conclusion he understands that to survive in the wild is a difficult thing to achieve, but can be managed by making the right decisions on what is best to do, to be confident, and persevere.