They were lost in the wild and on the verge of death. This is how they survived

Thousands of search and rescue missions are conducted in the US each year. Who lives, who dies, and why?

The night is pitch black, and I cannot see a thing. I stumble out from the trees, hands stretched out like antennas. The sagebrush and rocks snag my feet, and I fall. My stomach drops. My heart skips a beat. My palms are scratched.

I am trying to find my campsite, a mile from the Idaho backcountry hot spring where I have just been soaking in. By the time I crawled out of the pool, night had fallen, and I could not find my headlamp or my lighter.