Adversity builds character

[Bob Lanier]

BOULDER, Utah - A man died of thirst during a wilderness-survival exercise designed to test his physical and mental toughness, even though guides had water. They didn't offer him any because they did not want to spoil the character-building experience.

By Day 2 in the blazing Utah desert, Dave Buschow was in bad shape. Pale, wracked by cramps, his speech slurred, the 29-year-old New Jersey man was desperate for water and hallucinating so badly he mistook a tree for a person.

After going roughly 10 hours without a drink in the 100-degree heat, he finally dropped dead of thirst, face down in the dirt, less than 100 yards from the goal: a cave with a pool of water.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

This guy probably was ill going into this, or dehydrated when it started. The 'guides' obviously weren't trained to look for real signs of serious dehydration because it sounds like all the warning signs were there. Sad.


I remember "bonking" in Moab, Utah on a mountain bike in June a few years back. It was around 100 degrees and I had gotten over the flu a couple weeks earlier and still wasn't 100%. Both of my thighs froze up going up a hill and I literally fell off the bike sideways and couldn't move the ol' legs.

My buddy gave me some water and after about a half hour I was able to walk again. But we had a long ride scheduled the next day and I had to sit it out because I still felt like crap. Crampy, terrible headache. It took about a week before my system balanced itself back out. Being severely dehydrated is painful.

[CubanMustGo]

And of course the company involved says it wasn't their fault the guy died. GMAFB.