Victoria Grover – 5 nights in the Utah desert with a broken leg

(The Box-Death Hollow Wilderness, Utah)

Victoria Grover is a 59-year-old Physician assistant who has always held a fondness for the great outdoors, so one day in April of 2012 she decided to drive down to an area called the Box Death Hollow Wilderness in Utah to do some hiking.

She checked into a guest lodge and found an interesting map showing a trail through the region, and in the morning headed out to venture through the Utah wilderness. On her way out of the lodge, she asked the clerk if he could hold her supper until she got back that evening, which would be no later than 8 or 9 pm, to which he replied “Fine”. Apart from this clerk she didn’t tell a single other person she would be gone and told no one exactly where she planned to hike.

She drove down a road called Hell’s Backbone and made her way to the red rock cliffs of the Box-Death Hollow Wilderness. Victoria had attended a survival course in the area in 1972, and was so happy to be back, later giving the following statement during an interview:

“I don’t know if ecstasy is the right word, but I was just really, really happy, It had been so many years since I’d been there, and so many years since I’d been able to do anything like that. So I felt like I was flying down that trail. And I got down the trail. And then I, kind of, went up more into the hills, and I got higher up. I was so happy.”

Being too involved in her hike, Victoria didn’t notice it was getting dark until she was a considerable distance away from her car, and upon realizing her situation started to head back. Before long it was too dark to travel safely and after slipping within 3 feet of a cliff, she decided to stay put and wait until light.

That first night in the wilderness not only passed by without incident, but Victoria actually enjoyed it, later stating in an interview:

“And, of course, nobody’s made a fire out there in a million years, so there was lots of dead wood,” she says. “And I had a very nice fire and watched the stars, and listened to coyotes, and had a nice night. It got quite cold, but the fire was really good. And I kept it going all night.”

At first light Victoria set off for her car, walking in what she believed to be the safest route back. She began to walk down a series of small 4 to 5-foot ledges that led into a large bowl, something she believed to have been a waterfall many years ago. On each ledge, she would lower her gear first, then gently hop down and repeat this until she was at the last ledge.

On this one, she lowered her gear as normal, then hopped down only to lose her balance and landed hard on a slanted rock. The fall broke her lower left leg in several places, and since she was a physician’s assistant was well aware of the exact injury and just how serious it was.

She had now not only lost her ability to walk, but she couldn’t even stand up. At first, she didn’t panic, thinking that there would be people out looking for her, which is when she remembered she didn’t tell a single person where she would be hiking.

She made a splint for her leg out of a branch and began to make as much noise as she could. She shouted constantly in between sessions of banging rocks together to give her voice a rest, but by late afternoon she realised that no one was going to find her.

She managed to shuffle towards a stream and had no choice but to spend the night there, but without the ability to walk she couldn’t gather any firewood and the only thing she had to keep her warm was a cheap poncho. She spent the night with the poncho wrapped over her head so she could capture some of the warmth from her breath, but this only led to her having to shake it out every few minutes and turn it inside out each time to remove the condensation build-up.

The next morning she was sure that rescue would come soon, as she told the lodge she’d be back on Monday night, and today was Tuesday leading her to believe that a full-scale search operation must have started by now. Even though she didn’t tell anyone where she’d be, she was relying on the clerk to raise the alarm, the one she asked if he could save her supper for when she returned Monday night.

The day passed and no help came, and Victoria was forced to spend the next night by the stream, but this time shortly after dark it started to rain. Even though she was soaked and hungry, the thing she remembers the most about that night is the wonderful smell. She says how the flowers in the desert bloom at night, and only after it rains, and for about 2 hours the smell is incredible.

After dawn came on Thursday morning she told herself that today was the day she’d be rescued, but the day passed and even though she was making as much noise as possible all day, no one came. That was the first night her spirits were crushed, and she later claimed she spent the night very angry and began to shout and cry from frustration and fear. That night was the first time she told herself that she was going to die, one of the most important things not to tell yourself in a survival situation.

Victoria’s situation was made worse by her type 2 diabetes, and since she didn’t take any food with her she was now at a point where she hadn’t eaten anything for almost 4 whole days. She remembers not needing to pee for a long time, a bad sign which shows her kidneys may be failing, also she didn’t shiver during the nighttime cold, another serious sign and one of the factors that led her to believe she was going to die.

The next morning was going to be the last morning she would ever see, as her condition wouldn’t allow her to survive another night, but as she lay there next to that stream that kept her alive, the sound of a helicopter in the distance caught her attention.

She sat up and soon it came into view, quickly spotting the frantically waving Victoria lying next to a stream. She was picked up and taken straight to the hospital where she called her husband and thanked him for the effort everyone put in searching for her. This is when he replied, “No one’s been looking for you. No one even knew you were missing.”

It turns out that the clerk she asked if he could save her supper for her when she returned on Monday night finished his shift and then went on vacation for a few days, and didn’t tell anyone else at the lodge about the request. The alarm was only raised on Friday morning when the lodge realized she hadn’t checked out on the Thursday she planned to, and so alerted the authorities who found her almost right away.

While she was in the hospital getting surgery for her leg, reporters started to call, all of which she didn’t want to speak to initially, but after so many kept calling for so long, she eventually gave in and met a group of them to give an interview.

She had hoped the subject of her not telling anyone where she was going wouldn’t come up, but it came out in the end and she could only take responsibility for her own mistakes, though she did try and blame the clerk for not raising the alarm sooner. She said he should have raised the alarm when she didn’t return and during numerous interviews tried to pass the blame onto him.

Personally, I think the blame lays entirely with Victoria, as asking the guy at the desk to save you some supper isn’t quite the same as “I’m going hiking in this specific area, I should be back by 9 pm latest and if I’m not, something is wrong.”

She even stated in a TV interview that she didn’t tell anyone where she’d be, which leads us to one of the most important survival tips of all time, Tell someone where you’re going and when you’ll be back.