[HN Gopher] Missing hiker found after man using computer at home...
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Missing hiker found after man using computer at home pinpoints his
location
Author : danso
Score : 38 points
Date : 2021-04-15 12:05 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nbclosangeles.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nbclosangeles.com)
| dbt00 wrote:
| High stakes geoguessr. Happy to have one of these stories with a
| happy ending.
| hesk wrote:
| At first I thought the headline referred to Bill Ewasko who has
| been missing in Joshua Park since 2010 [1].
|
| I came across that story after somebody on HN posted about the
| Death Valley Germans [2]. A couple of hours well-spent.
|
| [1]
| https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/22/magazine/voya...
| [2] https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-
| hu...
| supernova87a wrote:
| I remember reading about that Bill Ewasko case back when it
| became newsworthy. On reflecting now, and hearing about other
| stories, I tend to think the guy was abducted / killed by
| someone in the wilderness, given the weirdness about his cell
| phone signals, etc. and him never having been found. There's a
| lot of shady shit that goes on in the desert, even in a place
| like Joshua Tree.
|
| Anyway, aside from that, I am perpetually in awe / fascinated
| by how we as human beings long to solve a puzzle, no matter how
| distant or unfamiliar (or insignificant) another person is to
| us. There are stories about townspeople keeping a stranger's
| death alive for decades until solving it. It's almost like a
| mysterious death is as important, if not more important in a
| collective consciousness, as lots of people dying from
| something that is well known or not "interesting"...
| oh_sigh wrote:
| Why would that person turn on the phone 3 days later for a
| brief moment while they're still near the park, and then turn
| it off forever?
|
| It seems more likely that he just fell down an old mine shaft
| or into a pit of some kind. Maybe his phone couldn't get
| service but because of some temporary atmospheric condition
| it was able to ping the tower.
| fred_is_fred wrote:
| It's far easier to die alone and probably injured and never
| be found in the wilderness than people think, especially in
| mountainous desert terrain.
| axiosgunnar wrote:
| Heartwarming story!
|
| On a related note, have there been any attempts on developing AI
| models that can pinpoint an (approximate?) location, given a
| photo?
| curiousllama wrote:
| I sure hope not jfc
| xnx wrote:
| Yes: https://www.technologyreview.com/2016/02/24/161885/google-
| un...
| curiousllama wrote:
| I was hoping to get a summary of how the guy guessed!
|
| "Well, by the angle of the sun he had to be in an n-mile radius
| of his car. In that area, there are only 4 cliffs with sufficient
| height to be in that photo with wildfire burn areas in between.
| And the plants had to be of the genus whateverae due to the shape
| of their spikes, and those _obviosuly_ only grow on the north
| face of sedimentary rocks... so it had to be X"
| ed25519FUUU wrote:
| > _" I have a very weird hobby, which is I love taking a look
| at photos and figuring out where they're taken."_
|
| Sometimes you have the right person in the right place at the
| right time. I'm also really interested in learning more about
| how this person pinpointed the hiker.
| mparlane wrote:
| Twitter thread here is the person explaining their method:
|
| https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382375691233103874
| disabled wrote:
| I am glad that this story has a happy ending.
|
| But, as this poster stated (see comment tree here:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24065803) there is no reason
| to be going into wilderness in 2020 (or 2021) without a Personal
| Locator Beacon (PLB). You get them, of course, at a place like
| REI.
|
| As another poster said "They should be considered as basic and as
| necessary as a life vest, seat belt, or bike helmet. You should
| not be backpacking on the Appalachian trail without one." See
| this comment tree: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24065435
|
| There are also variants of PLBs (which are not as robust) called
| satellite communicators. The Garmin Inreach series and Zotero
| devices are quite popular satellite communicators.
|
| Even when exercising outside and not in the wilderness, I carry a
| Garmin Inreach Mini (which works with my Garmin watch) in case of
| a medical emergency. I have health conditions and it virtually
| guarantees that emergency services gets my GPS coordinates. Of
| course, I take other safety precautions to avoid an emergency in
| the first place.
| kevinpet wrote:
| I'm confused. If you are talking about wilderness, I maybe
| agree. But then you talk about the AT.
|
| If you are hiking on marked trails, you don't need to go drop
| $200 on electronics before you should feel safe going for a
| walk in the woods. You don't even need hiking boots, SPF 50
| wicking t-shirts, or merino wool underwear.
| qzw wrote:
| People wonder off the marked trails, get disoriented, go
| further away from the trails. Next thing you know they're
| missing for days. The problem is that the more inexperienced
| someone is, the more likely such a scenario is to happen.
| ghaff wrote:
| I just really have a lot of trouble with that comment. I
| originally downvoted--but then I didn't--but I just have
| trouble the concept that I must always take active measures to
| have people rescue me just really bothers me.
|
| I'd probably consider a PLB if I were soloing in a remote area
| but I doubt if I would on the AT in general. And certainly
| don't have (or would consider) in routine local outside areas.
| disabled wrote:
| If hiking on a trail even on the outskirts, EMS can have
| trouble locating you. I am from the Pacific Northwest, and I
| am quite hardy. You carry one so that you can be located in
| an emergency.
| ghaff wrote:
| I'm sure it's just a difference in philosophy and, perhaps,
| age. And, yes, I've done a lot of hiking in the PNW
| although I don't live there. Just not something I'm
| interested in generally.
| verall wrote:
| The parent comment explains what a PLB is an how to get to
| them.
|
| If you're experienced enough to judge the risks yourself,
| it's just advice. Noone requires you to take a PLB, water
| bottle, or buddy, but all would raise your chance of survival
| in an emergency.
| ghaff wrote:
| The parent wrote "there is no reason to be going into
| wilderness in 2020 (or 2021)." The implication was that it
| was irresponsible to do otherwise.
|
| I agree with your comment generally though. If you are
| experienced enough to make choices you can do so. Including
| doing solo activities. (Though I might draw the line at
| things like not taking water which are bad practices in
| many circumstances.)
| [deleted]
| iamthepieman wrote:
| If you don't have a PLB, the least you should be doing is
| telling someone close to you where you are going to be parking,
| how long you expect to be out, when you plan to return and what
| your expected route is. If any of that information changes then
| try to update your contact person before you commit to a
| different route.
|
| Go over what to do (for both you and your POC) if you don't
| report in within a certain time after your expected return.
| perrohunter wrote:
| I thik if you are a hiker you should bring a regular map and a
| compass just in case this ever happens to you.
| SkittyDog wrote:
| When you're traveling off trail, it's not enough to simply have
| a map & compass... You need to learn how to interpret a
| topographic map, and recognize the terrain around you. That
| takes time & effort.
|
| It's a very useful skill, and worth learning if you're going
| outdoors. But it's not as simple as looking at road maps and
| reading street signs.
|
| Coincidentally, there is a great Sierra Club program in Los
| Angeles & Orange County that teaches off-trail navigation
| (among other skills)... It's called the Wilderness Travel
| Course, and it's great fun. I believe the Mountaineers in the
| PNW also teach those skills as part of their leadership
| program.
| starpilot wrote:
| The hiker texted a photo. Even better, since he had a smartphone,
| he could text his GPS coordinates from an app like Gaia. Not sure
| if there's a way to get lat/long from Apple or Google Maps.
| rantwasp wrote:
| yeah. that was the part that i was confused about. why not take
| a screenshot of the compass app
| [deleted]
| m3kw9 wrote:
| A twist to how he came to conclusion: "Coincidentally, Kuo tracks
| wildfires using satellite images. A hobby that certainly came in
| handy."
| c-slice wrote:
| Someone attempted to recreate the method using shadows to verify
| the image.
| https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382371967618097157?s=21
| dandelany wrote:
| Actually, I believe that's Ben Kuo, the person named in the
| article who identified the location originally, recreating his
| own work.
| jedberg wrote:
| I'm super confused why he didn't just send his GPS cords. If he
| had enough reception to send a text with a photo, he should have
| been able to get GPS, right? At the very least the tower he was
| connected to should have given his approximate location, right?
| carabiner wrote:
| More info from Reddit:
| https://www.reddit.com/r/socalhiking/comments/mqtxrg/video_o...
|
| He had GPS coords in photos turned off. He sent the photo
| before he got lost, then his phone died, then he realized his
| predicament. Yeah, hikers who know WTF they are doing generally
| don't end up in the news like this. This is distressingly
| common on the 10,000+ ft peaks near Los Angeles, like these
| folks: https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/hikers-
| survival-san....
| wooptoo wrote:
| What 3 words is also well known and used by emergency services
| in the UK for example.
| kaiju0 wrote:
| Even worse the gps coordinates should have been in the picture
| meta data
| jedberg wrote:
| Possibly. Sometimes that gets stripped out when you try to
| send it. But yes, in theory it may have been in the photo's
| metadata too.
| LeonM wrote:
| Most messaging apps and other social media platforms strip
| the metadata for privacy reasons.
| 8128js8121 wrote:
| true but not quite. They strip it. Store the original and
| the meta data in their own database (because data on people
| is what gives them value) then they serve the stripped down
| quality one.
| gamblor956 wrote:
| The picture was sent before he went missing. It wasn't an SOS,
| he was simply sending a picture to his friend.
|
| From the TFA: _" The hiker, 46-year-old Rene Compean, sent a
| photo to a friend before becoming lost"_
| neolog wrote:
| I don't know how to get my gps coords on my phone.
| voisin wrote:
| Me neither. Should be found in General settings on iPhone,
| rather than via Google Maps (seems to be the only way, from
| what I can tell?)
| Someone wrote:
| Open Maps, long click your location to drop a marker. The
| "marked location" panel shows your coordinates. Drag it
| towards the top of the screen to see it
| js2 wrote:
| Use the built-in Compass app.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| The compass app has your coordinates. You can also share
| your current location with other iMessage users (maybe SMS
| users, not sure) if you have location sharing enabled, it
| can be enabled to send your coordinates to other people (I
| think the options are permanent, 24 hours, and 1 hour).
| eseymour wrote:
| On iOS, you can scroll up on your photo when looking at it
| in Photos, and it should show you a location if it's
| available.
| [deleted]
| paxys wrote:
| Most messaging apps (iMessage, Whatsapp, maybe others) have a
| "send my current location" option.
| renewiltord wrote:
| I use Google Location Sharing to continuously share my location
| with a few friends. It's quite nice. Makes planning easier. Also,
| maybe it'll help with this stuff haha.
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(page generated 2021-04-15 23:01 UTC)