It could have been so much worse.
A majority of the fatalities result from not knowing when to STOP, sit it out, and summon assistance. Someone seriously underskilled (me) wandering around on a (normlly) pitched route would have a high percentage of being a 'recovery' rather than an assitance. The other scenario is that having ZERO rope skills, I would have had to have been short-hauled off that rock.
After reading the bio that Salty posted, I have to agree that *navigation error* seems unplausable, BUT, what I am certain about is that SAR is quite happy that Sandra had enough experience/skills to allow the predicament to resolve very easily.
