Ok. 11.7 miles. Still wonder why they did not go back instead of forging further and higher with light clothing? At least their car would have heat and it would have been a safer 28 miles back. Well yeah there were things going on mentally, so no point asking. ...
I wondered about that. I finally concluded it wasn't all that surprising. Here's why I thought that ...
Madruga was the driver. He was very proud of his car. For reasons we still can't specify with any certainty, he was driving up that road late at night in progressively poor conditions. There were any number of reasons why he should be feeling stressed, such as:
- He was in a driving situation he'd probably never experienced before.
- It was getting harder and harder to drive carefully and avoid damaging his prized car.
- As the driver, he probably felt responsible for his friends.
- They were already late getting home.
- He was one of the ones who'd been looking forward to the next day's tournament game with great enthusiasm.
- It was looking as if the next day's much-anticipated adventure might be in jeopardy.
- There was the chance he was going to be in trouble whenever they finally got home.
- They finally came to the place where Schons' stuck VW sat immediately ahead.
- Now that we know(?) the snow was 10" deep it means he was hearing dragging sounds from below, and ...
- His wheels started spinning - maybe for the first time.*
* There were signs the Mercury had spun its wheels at the point it stopped, though it wasn't stuck. No account mentions signs of slipping, fishtailing, or wheel-spinning prior to that. I suspect it either started spinning as he came to a stop or once he stopped and tried to get moving again.
This isn't a big surprise. One of the cardinal rules for driving in deep snow is to
never back off and lose your momentum. I suspect Madruga slowed when he saw Schons' car ahead, got a little spin going, and that was that ...
As I understand it, there was substantial snow (perhaps drifts) to either side of the road. Schons' car at least partially blocked the way forward. There didn't seem to be any place to turn around.
The idea of putting it in reverse and backing down the way he'd come under those conditions probably scared the hell out of him. I've been in situations like that, with one or more passengers and no room to maneuver. The most expedient way out is to deliberately power-slide in place to break traction and have the passengers (outside) turn the car around as if it were on a turntable. It requires faith, skill, and a certain measure of cavalier foolhardiness. No offense to Madruga's memory intended, but I seriously doubt he (along with the others) had any of those requisite assets on hand.
I can assure you attempting to back one's way out of such a situation is far more risky and daunting.
I wholly agree that their abandoning their vehicle was a baffling move. Schons was in worse shape, but he still had the good sense to shelter in his car with the engine running for heat until he ran out of gas.
The very fact they'd ridden to that stopping point indicates they were under the delusional impression the way forward was the way 'out' of what I believe they already realized was a predicament. Given that, I'm not that surprised they proceeded onward.
I am still baffled as to why they elected to leave their car and set out on foot. Leaving the car seems stranger to me than the direction they chose to walk.
It may be that some of Schons' account - crying for help and / or getting out of his car to yell and get their attention - was factual. If so, there's always the chance that either his calls for help and / or his probably frantic actions outside his car freaked the 'boys' out. I have little doubt they were already stressed out. It wouldn't have taken much to push them over into outright panic.
One can go even farther out on a speculative limb and consider there may have been a second vehicle that pulled up behind Madruga's car (per Schons' tentative two-vehicle story). That later party perhaps spoke with the 'boys' and backed away assuming Madruga would follow suit. He couldn't, so he didn't.
The Sno-Cat tracks led on, and they followed them all the way to Daniel Zink Campground.
Yes, this is all speculative. However, it's my current working hypothesis because it's the only storyline template that seems to accommodate the few reliable facts.
Desperately dogged action leading into a deadly dead end.