In viral video, males escape shut name with mountain wildfire by counting on GPS tech and mountain climbing expertise

A YouTube video shot by two hikers in Washington state over the weekend offers a gripping account of their brush with a wildfire and the measures they took to get down off a mountain safely.

The video by Steve Cooper, of Lyman, Wash., and Matt Bishop, of Snohomish, Wash., has been seen greater than 76,000 instances since being uploaded to Cooper’s “Path Least Taken” channel, the place he shares outside adventures.

The 2 hikers bumped into hassle throughout a Saturday hike to Baring Mountain, within the Central Cascades northeast of Seattle, as flames and smoke from the Bolt Creek hearth caught them abruptly.

“I debated about posting this video on-line. I used to be afraid about all of the criticism that I’d get,” Cooper says at the beginning of the video. “I’m posting this video as an academic instrument to attempt to level out all of the errors that we made which ended up placing our lives at risk.”

Regardless of taking the danger to go out for a hike on a smoky or “crimson flag” day, Cooper and Bishop turned to out there know-how and their mountain climbing expertise. With footage of intense flames and smoke blocking the trail they used to go up the mountain, they relied on GPS and a ability set known as “route discovering,” which permits hikers to soundly navigate mountain terrain.

“Hopefully you guys get to see this video, as a result of in any other case we didn’t make it,” Bishop mentioned at one level after Cooper says to the digital camera, “We’re trapped right here.” He later added, “We’re going to attempt to get out of right here earlier than we burn to demise.”

The lads hiked for hours and had a detailed name with a minimum of one scary fall close to a steep cliff. They had been in touch with authorities through 911, however couldn’t be rescued because of the harmful circumstances. In some views, Bishop might be seen carrying and checking his telephone as he makes his approach down.

In feedback on the video, many individuals praised the 2 hikers for remaining calm and discovering a secure approach out.

“Y’all had the brains and tech to handle to get all the way in which again to your car,” one individual wrote. “I hope, in some unspecified time in the future, for the advantage of hikers that you simply two make one other video discussing the know-how you had, your wayfinding expertise and the decision-making you used that obtained you each out alive,” one other commenter mentioned.

Cooper merely credited the pair’s dedication, and close to the top of the video the 2 seem exhausted and thirsty as they attain security.

“We wished to remain alive and make it again house to our households,” Cooper mentioned.