*As her 28th birthday neared, Tiffany Slaton, an experienced outdoors enthusiast from Jeffersonville, Georgia, decided to take a three-day solo camping vacation around Shaver and Huntington lakes in Fresno County, California.
Unknown to Slaton, this would turn into a nightmare that lasted 3 weeks. By the time it was over, she had climbed to altitudes of 11,000 feet and endured 13 snowstorms along the way.
“The worst thing you can do in an emergency situation is panic,” Slaton said on May 16 in a press conference, alongside her parents and Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni. It was her first public speech after her rescue. The County Sheriff said her story is one “they would make movies about.”
She was finally found at Vermillion Valley Resort in a cabin more than 40 miles away!
Scroll to continue reading
Tiffany’s parents reported her missing on April 29 after they had not heard from her in nine days. A full-scale search to find Slaton was conducted from May 6 to May 10, canvassing 600 square miles with a helicopter hovering above.
She began her journey on April 20 with basic camping supplies, including an electric bike, two sleeping bags, and a tent. As far as she was concerned, she’d only be away for a few days. Soon after starting her trek, she fell off a cliff. A recent avalanche prevented her from getting back to the main road.
Tiffany lay unconscious for about two hours. When she regained her senses, she had to splint one of her legs and “pop the other knee back into place.” She then tried to call 911 five times without success. Moreover, she could not get her phone’s navigation system to work. She then asked her phone for the location of the nearest Starbucks. It gave a location that was 18 miles away. She decided it was closer than having to return to the park’s entrance.
Being an experienced outdoors person who could rely on her resourcefulness to survive in the wilderness, thanks to her skills as a high-level archer, her medical knowledge as a traveling dialysis technician, and her horticultural training, she managed to live through all the challenges she faced. She also jotted down in her journal every day in an effort to “keep sane.”
She ran out of food on the fifth day and started gathering leeks she knew to be native in the Sierra Nevada range, thanks to her foraging skills. Tiffany used manzanita and pine needles to make tea each day. She finally made it to a cabin after navigating the Kaiser Pass, a 9,000-foot peak buried under 10 to 12 feet of snow before it was plowed days earlier. She ended up in the Vermilion Valley and Lake Edison, where she was finally rescued after being found in a cabin by the resort owner on May 14 — the day before her 28th birthday.
On seeing the Vermilion Valley Resort cabin, she assumed she was experiencing a hallucination and “had somehow managed to make it to the North Pole.”
Fortunately, the resort owner, Christopher Gutierrez, had left the door unlocked. She opened it. In the cabin, she found “the best sleeping bag I had ever seen.”
Gutierrez later told authorities he left the cabin unlocked in case a stranded hiker like Tiffany would need shelter. Snowplows had cleared the roads, allowing Gutierrez access to his property to prepare it for the summer.
“If he hadn’t come that day, they would’ve found my body there.”
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: 5 Inmates Still Missing After Bold New Orleans Jailbreak at Orleans Parish Justice Center | VIDEO
We Publish Breaking News 24/7. Don’t Miss Out! Sign up for our Free daily newsletter HERE.
