Albert & Rita Chretien, Penticton, BC missing WA St(Rita alive/Al Found Deceased

[grace-land]

http://elkodaily.com/travel/local/technology-can-lead-drivers-astray-in-rural-areas/article_39b93002-306c-11e2-857d-0019bb2963f4.html

Technology can lead drivers astray in rural areas
November 17, 2012 6:00 am

ELKO — The shaky video footage bumps up a trail through thick trees and foliage tinted gold by the fall season. Two men briskly lead Elko County Sheriff’s deputies up a curving trail in the video. One of the men, Rodney Thompson, has a gun slung over his shoulder as he ducks under trees. The other man, Jay Doke, follows closely behind, stepping carefully around fallen pines and scaling the hilly parts of the trail.

The men, clad in light gray sweatshirts and camo print pants, point out to the sheriff’s deputies behind the camera where they first spotted a backpack. Then a glove burrowed in the dirt. And finally, a skeleton comes into view in the footage, resting face-down on the ground in a grove of brush and pine.

The body in the video taken by the Elko County Sheriff’s Department on the east slope of Merritt Mountain on Sept. 30 is Albert Chrétien, lost more than a year and a half ago when he and his wife followed a GPS shortcut away from major highways and onto a snowy dirt road where their two-wheel drive Astro van got stuck in mud.

Civilization was 10 miles away. The Chrétiens didn’t have winter gear, nor much food or water. They didn’t tell anyone where they would be. They didn’t have paper maps.

Chrétien, 59, died from exposure when he hiked out to find help, in nearly 10-foot snow drifts. If he’d scaled only 500 more yards up a ragged peak, he may have seen the lights of Mountain City. He never made it.

His wife, Rita Chrétien, was rescued seven weeks later on May 6, close to starvation when hunters stumbled upon her van.
 ::snipping2::
When the Chrétiens became stranded, they were traveling through northern Elko County from their home in British Columbia to a trade show in Las Vegas.

“They were in Boise and wanted to go to Jackpot, so they typed it into their new GPS and instead of going Highway 93, it took them across Meadow Creek Road,” said Elko County Sheriff’s Detective Jim Carpenter. “They just plugged it in and blindly went.”

Rita Chrétien later described to members of the First Church of the Nazarene in Twin Falls, Idaho, how they got lost because they were “foolishly following a GPS without a lot of experience.”
 ::snipping2::
Chrétien’s GPS unit didn’t tell him that the road he was on twisted through canyons and 11,000-foot mountains.

It was only by chance that anyone found Rita Chrétien before she starved, and it was only by chance that Thompson and Doke found Albert Chrétien’s body in September in such a remote area.

When they found Chretien’s remains, Thompson said they were relieved for his family.

“At first I had the cold chills when I saw the body,” Thompson said. “But then we both looked at each other and were glad that the family could have a real memorial for him.”

Thompson says he hopes no one else falls victim to the same circumstances, especially since there was so much Chrétien could have done to avoid the situation he was in.

Even on the day he died, Chrétien was following the trail of his GPS to try to make it to Mountain City for help.

“He fell victim to the circumstances,” one of the Elko County Sheriff’s deputies said after they found the body, “and it didn’t need to happen.”

[grace-land]

 

http://www.nelsonstar.com/news/203105511.html

Supporters come through for Nelson’s Our Daily Bread
Published: April 15, 2013 3:00 PM
Updated: April 15, 2013 3:59 PM

The Penticton woman who lost her husband but survived being stranded 49 days in the Nevada wilderness is among those who answered Our Daily Bread’s recent call for help.

When the story of the local soup kitchen’s financial struggles appeared in the Star in early March it had been almost two years since Rita Chretien and her husband set out on a road trip to Las Vegas for a trade show.

The couple attracted attention world wide as they became lost along a scenic route, their van stuck in the mud far off the main roads.

“Many people all over Canada and the USA and even Africa, prayed for us when we went missing,” said Chretien in a letter written to Pastor Jim Reimer at the Kootenay Christian Fellowship. “I want to give back something to others in need in other communities too because others cared for me and my family when we were in need of prayer, while we waited to hear news of Albert being found.”
 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nelsonstar.com/news/203105511.html

Supporters come through for Nelson’s Our Daily Bread
Published: April 15, 2013 3:00 PM
Updated: April 15, 2013 3:59 PM

The Penticton woman who lost her husband but survived being stranded 49 days in the Nevada wilderness is among those who answered Our Daily Bread’s recent call for help.

When the story of the local soup kitchen’s financial struggles appeared in the Star in early March it had been almost two years since Rita Chretien and her husband set out on a road trip to Las Vegas for a trade show.

The couple attracted attention world wide as they became lost along a scenic route, their van stuck in the mud far off the main roads.

“Many people all over Canada and the USA and even Africa, prayed for us when we went missing,” said Chretien in a letter written to Pastor Jim Reimer at the Kootenay Christian Fellowship. “I want to give back something to others in need in other communities too because others cared for me and my family when we were in need of prayer, while we waited to hear news of Albert being found.”
 ::snipping2::

It's so kind of Rita to give back and help others in need.   

[grace-land]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/why-survival-stories-like-the-bangladeshi-factory-rescue-are-so-captivating/article11872759/?cmpid=rss1

Why survival stories like the Bangladeshi factory rescue are so captivating 
Published Friday, May. 10 2013, 6:52 PM EDT
Last updated Friday, May. 10 2013, 6:52 PM EDT

 
Psychological resilience is now thought to be at the core of human responses to trauma, according to George Bonanno, a leading psychologist in the field. Somewhat controversially, he argues that resilience is the most common reaction for people experiencing extreme stressors.

So why are so many enthralled when cases of great resilience make headlines? Consider the white-knuckle tale of the Chilean miners’ rescue, or canyoneer Aron Ralston, who got the James Franco treatment in 127 Hours after amputating his own arm to escape a slot canyon.

Or Rita Chretien, who endured for seven weeks in the mountains of Nevada after the GPS system of her and her husband’s Chevy Astro van sent them down a dangerous back road. (Chretien survived by rationing trail mix and fish-oil pills, drinking melted snow – and praying.)

The stories arrest because we ask ourselves, could we do it?