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I just saw some 3d topo maps of the area. It looks like if the car had made it another few hundred feet, he'd have been looking across a canyon at a lodge that was about 1.5 miles away, and known to walk down the road the direction he'd been driving, rather than trying to backtrack. The lodge was closed for the winter, but it was checked by rescue crews several times, and they likely would have all survived if they'd made it there.
FYI, it appears that James was following an old survival tip: find a stream and follow it downhill to civilization. Unfortunately in this case it wouldn't have worked. That tip is no longer really advised, because people who follow streams often end up having to get IN them at some point, and are more likely to succumb to hypothermia.
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