"But Hey had training in search and rescue, so he struck up a conversation with Montgomery and asked a few important questions. Among them, he recalled: "Mate, have you got a backpack?" Montgomery's story was a long one. It touched down in places such as Vietnam and Alaska and ended with a helicopter ride to safety for Montgomery and a sober but ultimately uplifting lesson in wilderness survival rules for Troop 26."
"Montgomery was highly experienced in wilderness survival and a former scoutmaster himself. But on this trek he had lost his pack and was at the mercy of the elements ever since, hungry, dehydrated and shivering under a bed of needles. He was having trouble walking when Troop 26 arrived."
A Boy Scout troop encountered Douglas Montgomery, 78, lightly dressed and carrying no water at the edge of a trail in the Emigrant Wilderness. The troop included nine boys and five adults on a six-night trek that began Aug. 2; they found Montgomery on day four while ascending from their campsite near Long Lake. Montgomery, a former scoutmaster with experience in Vietnam and Alaska, had lost his pack and had been hungry, dehydrated and shivering under a bed of needles. He was having trouble walking when the troop arrived. The Scouts and a Scoutmaster with search-and-rescue training assisted him, and Montgomery was later evacuated by helicopter. The incident reinforced wilderness survival rules for the troop and prompted Montgomery to acknowledge he had risked too much.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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