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I realize it is weeks after the fact, but I did promise an analysis of what went wrong with the Jason Pede misadventure through the mountains of Colorado in February.

To refresh your memories, Jason Pede took a so called “shortcut” through the mountains of central Colorado in early February.  He was trying to cut off over 200 miles of driving to get to Aspen, CO, to pick up an animal for delivery elsewhere in the country.  He used a route suggested by the GPS on his Verizon phone and confirmed by a local.  That route suggested that he take some mountain roads for the shortest distance to his destination.  That road nearly led to disaster.  Jason found himself trapped about seven miles off any paved highway for four days in snowpacked mountains northwest of Saguache, CO.  After he ran out of fuel on the fourth day of his ordeal, Jason saved himself by walking out of the woods on foot.  Fortunately, he suffered no injuries whatsoever.

Jason is blessed to be alive.  A series of events could have led to his death.  First of all, his phone GPS picked some bizarre route that took him off a paved highway and then would have brought him out of the mountains back onto that same highway.  Had Jason projected out his route before making that turn, he might have realized that.  Secondly, Jason did speak to a local rancher when he stopped at a convenience store in Saquache, CO, before heading up into the mountains.   The local told Jason that if he had four wheel drive, he could drive the suggested route.

 Armed with that endorsement, Jason took the suggested route.  It was a road that would have forced me to turn around after only a quarter of a mile.  Being a persistent and confident guy, Jason “hammered down” for nearly seven miles before the snow drifts were coming over the hood of his four wheel drive Lincoln Navigator.  As he tried to back out, he got off the road and stuck for four days.

During that time, Jason said he could hear truck drivers on I-70 (which was about 70 miles away),on his CB radio but he could not talk to them.  Later, we learned that the microphone on his CB radio was defective.  The second apparent technical problem was that Jason had not paid Verizon for a special service they provide that offers accurate phone tracking.  Because his phone didn’t have the appropriate software, the best Verizon could do was to report the last known contact with his cellphone within a hundred mile radius.  Law enforcement authorities told me that was not enough information for them to call out search and rescue teams to look for him.

In reviewing his situation, Jason mentioned that there should be an “emergency” button on his phone and on his laptop GPS system that sends out a coded emergency message.  Such a system could have led to a much faster rescue and possibly prevented a tragic death.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Hindsight is almost always 20-20.  First, let’s address the entire concept of going off a perfectly good paved road to get onto a snowpacked mountain road.  It just doesn’t make sense!  I have driven in the general area where Jason was and my GPS also suggested traveling along some mountain roads.  I am a big chicken…and when I saw the road the GPS was proposing I take, I chose not to go that way.  Even if I HAD gotten off the paved road, I would have turned around at the earliest opportunity after seeing the road that Jason took.

The idea of having some kind of “uplink” capability for his GPS or an emergency button on his cellphone is a good one, but there may be some technical challenges that we are unaware of.  It may take years to build in that type of capability in either his laptop GPS or his cell phone.  Here are a couple of practical things that might have made a difference.  First of all, if Jason had carried an extra microphone and had the presence of mind to change microphones, he might have been able to contact someone who could call for help. 

Secondly, if Jason had notified someone of his exact route, it would have made searching for him exponentially easier.  He was so far off the road in a completely unpredictable location that we never would have found him until it was much too late.  I propose that one should put their exact route into an email or Facebook message so that more than one person can see the route one plans to take.  There are some other possible solutions that I will suggest in the next couple of days.  Please tune in.