Lessons Learned from the Carrico Sisters Situation

This past Sunday there was an incredible sigh of relief across the nation as the two young Carrico sisters were found relatively safe and healthy after a massive search and rescue operation in California.

There were several things that came out of this event that should be of interest to the survival community:

• The girls had previously had some fundamental survival training through their local 4H Camp.
• Once they were interviewed, it was obvious that although the girls were only 8 and 5 years old, they were adventurous and knew how to take care of themselves rather well for kids their age.
• The search and rescue personnel that found them utilized some fundamental tracking tactics to help find the girls.

The list could easily go on, and it does in the following podcast that I recorded.   Please listen in, because I believe there are many wonderful lessons for all to learn from this.  I break the story down and dissect it for important details in four parts:

• The pre-event situation that led to them getting lost and how to avoid it.
• The search and rescue operation and the excellent work they did and how you can learn from it too, whether you are active SAR or not.
• Training opportunities and lessons learned from the situation.
• Follow-up opportunities of reflection and how to avoid similar pitfalls moving forward.

Please note (and I say this in the podcast as well) it is IMPOSSIBLE for any of us to have full information on this situation in such a short period of time.  As time moves on, more information may come out that helps us all (including myself) to better understand even more lessons to be learned. 

Craig Caudill is the Founder and Chief Instructor of Nature Reliance School. He specializes in teaching outdoor related topics to include, survival, tracking, nature awareness and more for private or public groups, and government agencies.  Craig is the author of three books, Extreme Wilderness Survival and Ultimate Wilderness Gear,  and Essential Wilderness Navigation (co-authored with Tracy Trimble) from Page Street Publishing, distributed by Macmillan Publishing as well as co-author of The Tiny Survival Guide.