Sheriff (00:00): Well, good morning. Uh, thank you for being here today. We are here today to talk about an incredible story, a heroic story, uh, something that you may see on TV that they would make movies about. But this story involves a young lady named Tiffany Slayton who on her journey through the Sierra Nevadas here in Fresno County, it is truly an incredible story of perseverance, determination. And survival. Uh, this young lady from about April 14th, all the way through Easter was on her way up through the shaver and Huntington Lake areas. At one point, uh, she spoke with some people at Huntington Lake near the China Peak Landing and talked to some folks, and, uh, she was on her electric bike with all of her equipment, and there were some other individuals that did not have electric bikes. They commented on her electric bike, but this young lady made it up, uh, Kaiser Pass Road. All the way over the top of Kaiser Pass, which is a peak that's over 9000 ft high. She went all the way back on that road toward the high Sierra Ranger Station to an area where you call it the Y or the fork in the road where to left is Mono Hot Springs and Edison Lake or what we also refer to as Vermillion Valley, and to the right was to Florence Lake. She traversed this area. And uh following her uh GPS and some other things and lost cell phone service. At one point, she took a very significant fall off the side of a mountain. And had to actually give herself first aid and splint uh her leg due to this severe fall. And as we spoke to Tiffany about this just remarkable story, thinking of going over Kaiser Pass, and there is somewhere between 10 and 12 ft of snow, the road hadn't even been plowed yet at the time that she went over. It wasn't plowed until somewhere around Monday, the 1 12th or Tuesday, May 13th. And then, after crossing Edison Lake, uh, the lake's low right now, there's some, uh, what we call like little islands that cross the lake. She made it to the what we call sort of the north side of the lake and then continued hiking all the way back to an area near Golden Lake. And if you look on a map, Golden Lake is not far from Rock Creek Lake, and she was about anywhere from 0.5 mile to 1 mile from the Mono County, Inyo County line, but still in Fresno County. Hiking up peaks as high as 11,000 to 11,200 ft. Just an absolute remarkable story. Uh, her bike was left at a sign, uh, for the trailhead for Hopkins Lake. And so once the snow melts and we have an opportunity to get up there, we will be, uh, Attempting to retrieve her bike for her because that bike is what she said during her story is really what helped propel her on this journey and got her through the snow and, and kept her going. And then obviously, on May 14th, when the owner of the Vermillion Valley Resort was able to get in because the road had been plowed over Kaiser, he saw a pair of shoes outside of one of his cabins at Vermillion Valley Resort that he leaves open, which is at Edison Lake, and lo and behold, he observed Tiffany there, alive, uh, battered, bruised, obviously dehydrated, but she was, in fact, Remarkably and really, truly probably a miracle that she was alive and then we were able to respond and to my left today, we have Tiffany here. She's uh she's wearing sunglasses after being out in the snow for that long and the extreme sun, it did some possible damage to her eyes, so that's, that's why she's here wearing sunglasses. She's going to get up and talk in a minute and she's going to tell you about her story of perseverance, of determination, of not giving up, and just continuing the fight and just having that belief that she was going to be found or be rescued and eventually that day came. Thankfully, when the road was plowed and the owner of Vermillion Valley Resort came and saw Tiffany there at the resort. So at this point, I will go ahead and have Tiffany come up and she will share a little bit of her story as well.
Tiffany (4:30): Hello. Um, I didn't really come up with anything that's super planned for this. It's literally only been two days, um, but I will do my best to answer any questions that you may have. Um, when I started, I had pretty much fallen off of a cliff trying to go on vacation for the first time. Um, I may never do a real vacation longer than 3 days ever again. Um, when I fell off of this cliff, I was unconscious for about 2 hours and did indeed have to split, splint one of my legs and pop the other knee back into place. Um, from there I couldn't actually. Get back onto the road. The main road was blocked because of the avalanche that I've been in, and of course like a normal person, you're the first thing you're supposed to do is call 911 and I attempted that 45 times with no avail, um, and eventually got mad at my GPS and decided to ask, well, where's the nearest Starbucks? He was like, oh well, we can answer that question. It's 18 miles from here. Uh, you can't give me 911. You can't get me GPS, but you can get me a Starbucks. Um, yes, yes, we can. It's also a shorter distance than trying to find the entrance, and in doing so I ended up on this very long arduous journey that I journaled to try and keep saying. Um, and eventually managed to get to civilization. I Haven't really gone through all of the details. I ran out of a lot of food after 5 days, um, but I will do my best to answer any questions that you may have.
She fell off a cliff at the very beginning, dislocated a knee, popped it back into place, made a stint for one leg, and trekked as far as she claims in that condition? Through an avalanche and 13 snowstorms?
The bit about Starbucks sounds an awful lot like an indirect complaint about the injustices of large corporations and/or capitalism in general, expressed in such a way that I think she hopes to gain sympathy. It's little her vs big corporations.
Also, just about any modern phone she could ask "where's the nearest Starbucks?" has a GPS radio. She wouldn't stand to gain much from having a dedicated GPS navigation device over what she already had in her phone.
Now, having her location tracked via GPS doesn't help if she doesn't have the map data available, and if she can't connect to cell service then her phone wouldn't be able to fetch that map data. But that would be easy enough to prepare for: just download the map data for offline use. Both Apple Maps and Google Maps make it super easy to say "download anything within this square are of map".
Reporter (6:25): What did you eat? I mean, you were in the elements for how many days and what did you eat, and did you ever at any point think I'm not gonna make it?
Tiffany (6:35): Um, well, the worst thing that you can do in an emergency situation is panic. Um, I'm a traveling dialysis technician and an archery coach by trade. I didn't want to panic. In the 1st 5 days, I was still ready for my vacation. I had some of Fresno's best citrus, which is funny because I'm kind of allergic to it at that point at that point, but I did have food to begin with, but I'm a trained permaculturalist. Um, that means I'm very good at foraging and helping people not go to the grocery store in very rural areas, um, and the Sierras has a large selection of leeks that is hard to find in other places, um, in case you don't know what that is, it's sort of a green onion. And I managed to survive off of these leaks and boiling the snow melt for a very long period of time actually and I journaled it. I think I've been out maybe 20, 23 days on this.
She's a traveling dialysis technician, and a pre-Olympian archer, and an archery coach, and an archery judge, and a trained permaculturalist, and a nutritionist, and an "aspiring" medical student (at 28)?
And on the topic of "Fresno's best citrus", what does it mean to be "allergic to it at that point"? Did she develop an unfortunately timed allergy? Or did she discover in the three days since being rescued that she's no longer allergic? Really, why "at that point"?
And why pack something you're allergic to?
Reporter (7:38): And you slept outside, or did you have any cover at all?
Tiffany (7:41): At the beginning, um, I was coming to try and do a camping trip, so I had two sleeping bags and a basic tent. Uh, but at the end, after fighting nature for such a long time, I, I lost my tent, I lost my vestibule, uh, and I did eventually lose both sleeping bags, so I was outside with nothing but a lighter and a knife.
Why two sleeping bags? And how did she lose all of that? She made tea every day -- how did she manage to lug her cup around? If she had a pack, wouldn't she still have quite a few things along with that cup in the pack? Is "nothing but a lighter and a knife" hyperbole?
Reporter (8:32): Tiffany, the sheriff mentioned that you have something called ballerina syndrome. Is that accurate? And if so, what does that do in terms of making it difficult to hike?
Tiffany (8:40): Ah, so ballerina syndrome, uh, is, is a deb -- it's a syndrome that involves kind of what's known as a high arch. I'm unable to keep my feet... on -- I can -- can't keep my heels on the ground for more than 3 inches. And it kind of looks like this.
She was standing normally until someone asked, and then you see her lift up on her toes to demonstrate, and then she goes back to standing normally.
A quick Google search doesn't offer up much clues as to what she could be talking about here. I found something about an acquired mobility problem, but she's saying she was born with this "syndrome".
Reporter (9:01): Is that from dancing?
Tiffany (9:03): Not from dancing, I was born with this syndrome, and what it does is over time you end up not being able to keep your heels on the ground. So things like snow shoes are not something I can find because, well, stilettos are not exactly the best of athletic wear, um, but I tried my best to find what I could and found a pair of heels made out of leather.
So she tip-toed through the mountains with a leg-splint for three weeks? In leather heels, instead of hiking boots?
Reporter (9:26): Tiffany, how grateful are you of that man who, you know, left that door open for people just like you, people who needed it, how grateful are you?
Tiffany (9:33): I, I honestly do not think that without -- without Vermillion resort, I would not be here at that moment because that was the 13th heavy snowstorm I had been in and it was going to be the last one. If he hadn't have come that day, they would have found my body there.
Reporter (9:55): What injuries did you sustain?
Tiffany (9:58): Um, I've got into an avalanche and two landslides in the process. When I came into the hospital somehow because of the foraging, my blood work was perfect, um, but I did have a lot of micro cuts. I have a lot of burns, uh, but nothing that I don't think time will be able to heal.
Micro cuts? Burns? What?
Reporter (10:21): And you were able to be found just in time for your birthday, how does that feel for you, and do you have anything to celebrate? I mean, your parents are here?
Tiffany (10:29): Uh, that was actually my goal when I ended up on some of those mountains was I did not want to celebrate a birthday. Um, away from my family, so I had made it a point to try and find some sort of building before the 13th because the last things that I had for food in my bag was a Dunkaroo packet because it was the closest thing to a cake I had. It was 3 -- 3 cookies and a packet of icing. And a lovely lady had given me some elderberry syrup, and I really wanted to enjoy that on my birthday as hopefully part of a sandwich.
The question was about what she'd do to celebrate her birthday... but now we're talking about Dunkaroos, some elderberry syrup she got from a random lady she met along the way, and how she had hoped to make a sandwich. Okay... but what do you want to (or what are you going to) do for your birthday?
Reporter (11:12): I've seen shows like Survivor Man and things like that and, and generally think about somebody being a certain physical type -- I wouldn't necessarily look at you and say that's a person that can last 3 weeks, and yet here you are. To what do you attribute this ability to survive in the worst conditions?
Tiffany (11:26): Well, while it may not look like it, I am a pre-Olympian for archery and in the islands, I am number 2 in the world's islands for archery. Um, in an archery session for 2 hours, we walk the equivalent of 5 miles and lift the equivalent of 2 tons. So my body type is not necessarily going to look like a boxer's, but it is indeed an athlete's.
"World's islands"? What's that? There's The World islands in the UAE... but that isn't fully developed yet, so I highly doubt there's an established archery association there, and Google doesn't provide any ideas either.
Reporter (11:53): Did you see anything remarkable on your journey, anything that stood out to you that you remember? Like animals, any encounters with animals?
Tiffany (12:00): I did indeed see every type of animal or come across every track for animals that could possibly be found in the Sierras, including a sort of mountain goat that I have not yet identified because I haven't had a chance to look at the prints. It's only been day 3.
Every animal track? She knows every type of animal out there? But then she mistook a bighorn sheep for a mountain goat, that is, if she even actually saw the bighorn sheep. Why not just say "I saw a bunch?" Why say every? If I'm being interviewed for a software development position, I don't think my interviewer is going to be impressed if, when asked "which programming languages do you have experience with?", I answer "all of them", considering that there are over 8,000 programming languages in existence (per the Historical Encyclopedia of Programming Languages).
Just name a couple!
Reporter (12:17): Do you remember what day it was that your mind shifted of "I need to survive, and I need to keep going and not give up" -- do you remember what day it was?
Tiffany (12:26): Uh, day one, once you fall off of a cliff and your parents are in the back of your mind from different issues, uh, I necessarily would have said that I would rather -- (laughs) -- I can't say rather die because I didn't. I would rather live than have to deal with my parents seeing that I failed in such a dumb way.
Reporter (12:48): Do you have siblings?
Tiffany (12:49): I have 2 brothers, yes.
Reporter (12:52): What have your brother said about you?
Tiffany (12:55): Um, both of my brothers are military and that is not something that I wish to put on television. Um, they are not the adventurous type. We'll put it like that. Um, I don't believe that doing mountaineering is something in my brother's futures.
Military guys aren't adventurous?! And they said something about her so distasteful that she'd rather not share what they said on television? I'm confused.
Reporter (13:13): Will you ever do this again? Will you go alone on an excursion like this again?
Tiffany (13:18): If it was something that benefited my family like a television show called Alone, I may attempt it in order to benefit my family's economy, yeah.
A lot of people are claiming that she said she wants a TV show or book deal. To her credit, this sounds like her joking that she would only take another trip like this if she got such a deal, which is like me joking that I'd only run if a bigger dude is chasing after me... and he's armed. In other words: I really don't enjoy running, and she really doesn't like the idea of being out there again.
Reporter (13:28): Was it um, well, so what day did you actually start foraging and get off the roads? Did you leave your bike with the intention of coming back to it, or were you leaving it there to come back, you know, weeks or months later after you've gone?
Tiffany (13:41): So foraging is kind of, it's almost like going through the grocery store. Eventually you start -- boys check out chicks, foragers check out things that you could possibly eat in emergency situations. So at the beginning I had already started trying to supplement the things that I knew I wanted to eat, uh, with things that I had found in the environment. Uh, one of my favorite things to do because I am Bermudian American is part of the British culture is a lot of tea. Um, manzanita and pine needles is one of the most delicious herbal tinctures that I could probably come across, and it was very relaxing. Um, if it wasn't for the life or death situation, I probably would have really enjoyed that aspect.
The whole British/tea thing seems like an odd fixation.
Reporter (14:28): You made a fire to make tea every day?
Tiffany (14:31): Um, I did indeed make tea every day partially because of my Britishness, um, but the other reason is when you're unable to collect a lot of carbs, the next best thing that you can do is is to uh create a stockpile of micro minerals and vitamins so that you don't fall out.
Reporter (14:51): Did you, did you have survival gear with you to make a fire and things like that?
Tiffany (14:55): I had brought basic camping gear because this journey was only supposed to be a three-day vacation.
Reporter (15:01): What went through your mind when you stumbled upon that cabin? I mean, what were you feeling at that moment?
Tiffany (15:06): Uh, that was one of the heaviest snowstorms I had seen. I had actually gotten very lost at that point and didn't recognize that I was back at Edison Lake. I only saw white upon white in that storm, uh, it. It was a little bit weird, but when I first came across it, it was a pristine Christmas tree and a tiny house and it had markers like Santa's sleigh, and I could not understand. I actually thought I was losing my mind at that point that I had somehow managed to make it to the North Pole. So I was not necessarily sure what I had come across, but when the door opened and I saw the best sleeping bag I had ever seen in the world, I, I wasn't necessarily thinking, oh my goodness, I'm rescued. I thought "it's a dry bed."
Reporter (16:02): When you saw your parents in the first, for the first time when they arrived here in California, Did you do? What did you say? Tell me about that.
Tiffany (16:08): Uh, at, at yesterday on my birthday, which is when I got to see them, I was not necessarily at the point of rescue. Most people think that once you've managed to make it to civilization, that the journey is over. But recovery doesn't start happening until your body is fully capable of being able to digest and at that point I hadn't been able to digest anything. I could eat, I could drink, but nothing was, nothing was leaving my body, and it's one of the number one killers for people, um, is actually just trying to not have problems in the bathroom. So I was very happy to see them, but I was intensely nervous because I hadn't made that transition yet.
People without access to medical care can die from dysentery, but I've never heard of someone having a life threatening case of constipation while in modern civilization. Her enthusiasm was really curbed because she thought she might die from complications arising from constipation?
Reporter (16:55): So how are you feeling now? How are you feeling?
Tiffany (16:58): I'm doing much better. My digestive system has started functioning very well. Um, I'm hoping that I'll see progress very quickly. Um, my parents have told me that a lot of people have helped me to collect some funds for recovery, and I'm really looking forward to the recovery process.
Recovery from what? Constipation? Micro cuts, burns and snow blindness? Her "blood work is apparently better than before [she] even started", so... just how bad can things be?
Reporter (17:24): You're looking at your daughter with such pride, and I understand that. It's your only daughter and she's apparently a better survivalist than your sons.
Father (17:37): Well, we're not gonna say she's better. We'll say that they, we, we try to prepare them for whatever the adventure of life will, will send their way.
Reporter (17:50): Your journey must have been horrible waiting for that horrible phone call that you thought might happen. Did you think the call was going to come and it was going to be terrible news?
Father (17:58): Um, we're, we're more optimistic than that. Um, we know our children, we know their capabilities to, to be able to survive. Um, our children, we're, we've always been outdoor people, um. Let me rephrase that. My children and my wife are more outdoor people. Um, I would be more comfortable sitting inside an air conditioning in a, in a condo. However, we raised our kids to be outdoor camper type people. Um, Tiffany got the love of, of foraging and gardening and plants and bonsai-ing. From her mother and I, because that's what we do on our farm. We have a micro farm in Georgia. So that's where it started. Now my boys, They go to, they, they enjoy like most boys, they enjoy the military side of things, so they enjoy, you know, tearing stuff up and that's what they that's, that's who they are.
Reporter (19:04): Tell me a little bit about what was going through your mind when you Got the news Tiffany was fine.
Mother (19:11): Tiffany was fine? "Oh my God", I mean that's basically what I can say. I mean we were at, of all places, good Goodwill trying to get some clothes because we had heard it was really cold here and where we are it's really, it's really hot. So, he comes and he gets on the phone, he's like, "I heard Tiffany," and ran off, and I am just there crying and I'm trying to figure out, did he just say that and a woman walks past me and I just say, "can I hug you?" And I hugged her and I cried. It, it was the most joyous occasion I think any mother could have. I would think anybody that knew their daughter was missing in a mountain or wherever she was, you would love to have them back and that it just, it broke my heart. But it was the, the most joyous, um, thing that I could ever have experienced.
Pointing out they were at Goodwill feels really unnatural and calculated here.
Reporter (20:13): What was it like to see your daughter when you arrived?
Mother (20:17): Oh my God, I want, I had so many ideas. Jumping her and holding her, you know, you wanna just do all those things, but because um the moment was hers and she was going through some things herself, we didn't have that moment, but that, just to hold her, she was just, she wanted to hold us, she wanted to hold her mom and dad and I took it in and I'm just glad to to see her, to know that she's alive and, um, to smell her, you know.
Reporter (20:48): Was she in the hospital when you saw her?
Mother (20:49): No, she was somewhere else and we had placed her in a hotel just to keep her safe. Um, she was out of the hospital at the time.
Reporter (20:56): You must be so proud.
Mother (20:57): I am very proud. I mean, as a parent, we always say, you know, we're we have adult kids, we can't control them. They can do whatever they wanna do, um. But I'm very proud that she stood her own. I'm proud that she's back, but I will be prouder when she gets a GPS. So that'll be much better. We were talking about garments and different other things, but I wouldn't be much. She could do whatever she wants to do, but just get some kind of GPS, and then we can talk every day.
Father (21:28): We, we don't keep our kids locked down. This is not a Time for us to lock her in, back in twigs. Um, we'd love to have her back home, when she's home, but her adventure is far from over.
Reporter (21:43): So what's happening next, I know she was heading to medical school, is that correct?
Mother (21:47): That's completely up to her. We have no idea. We are standing back. We're like you guys. What you gonna do next, you know, but whatever she decides to do, whatever she decides to do, we will be next to her 100%.
Reporter (22:00): So y'all are going to head back to Georgia and just have some family time?
Father (22:03): Most certainly we will definitely be going back to Georgia, um, to our little, little town that we enjoy so much, Lakes County.
Reporter (22:10): All three of you are going back?
Father (22:12): Oh yeah, oh yes, even if, even if I have to tie her down, she's coming back home for, and, and I say that jokingly, but it's so that she has time to recuperate so that she can go back out and do another type of adventure
Mother (22:26): with GPS
Father (22:27): with GPS.
Reporter (22:28): What's this experience done for you guys and your belief for God?
Father (22:32): Oh my gosh.
Mother (22:34): Um, as far as God, we, we've always been people who believe in God. That, that's not gonna change. Um, community, I could tell you the community here and around the world, so many people got in contact with us, checking on us, just loving on us, and I just totally appreciate every single person who reached out to us. I love people. There's just, I don't care and I've said it so many times. I don't care where you're from, what you look like. I don't care if you're religious or not. People, there are good people everywhere and for whatever reason, and I'm gonna say God. But he always connects us to good people and so I'm gonna take it. I'm glad that he gives it to us up days, down days, bad days, good days. We're gonna all go through every single one of us are gonna go through a bad day, but that doesn't mean that there's not a ray of sunshine somewhere and everybody in the community around the world showed us the ray of sunshine when I couldn't see it at all. So I, I definitely want to thank them for that and I thank you for the prayers. And I'm just so grateful and I'm so thank you and the police department and everybody that helped, we were here and crying earlier. I just, I love every single one of these people that were out there helping to find Tiffany, and some here even doing it on their days off over time. This is just the best community of people that I have ever met, and I just wanna say I am grateful and thank you God for everything.
Reporter (24:14): So, Bobby, you mentioned that Tiffany called you and said "I'm sorry", and like any child, we're scared our parents are gonna get, are gonna be upset. Um, I mean at this point I feel like you can't, you can't be mad, but as a child it's like "uh, my dad's gonna be mad at me", what are you doing about that?
Father (24:33): So when I got the phone call. I really didn't, I didn't know who it was on the other line. Um, my, my daughter was in, my daughter is lost and we're trying to find her and I was already warned that, you know, maybe somebody will call and pretend to be her to try to get you, give you false hope or get the attention that that comes with that. Um, so I asked her. OK, so who is this? And she says, "It's me, dad. I'm sorry. I'm not dead." That was the best feeling. That was the best gift that I could have ever gotten. These kids that I have are, are the, my wife, they're the reason why I breathe and the possibility and the thought that she might not come home. Yeah, that, to hear her voice. Um, it was really tough, but it was the best toughness that I could have ever experienced. And yes, I guess a person could have been mad at that particular point, but You can't be mad at that. You can't be mad at that. And yes, I did go into, into the store and say, hey. I just spoke to Tiffany and yes, I ran off because at that particular moment I remembered that I need to call the sheriff department to let them know that I just spoke to my lost daughter.
Reporter (26:20): Can I just have a question for you, sheriff, if you don't mind? Um, y'all were on days searching for Tiffany. How close was she in, you know, relations to where she was found? Do y'all search -- where did that match up?
Sheriff (26:35): Well, that's, that's a good question because we had had sightings from different individuals and we'd obviously had some video from uh the China Peak landing, which is at Huntington Lake. Um, not really that close. Uh, Kaiser Pass was impassable. We had gone up there with some of our off-highway vehicles with tracks on them and couldn't make it. We had Eagle One fly uh into the Edison Lake area of Vermillion Valley Resort to check it out, but, uh, we were not really looking that that was not an area that You would have anticipated or expected someone to be, and that is what really makes this story so remarkable and as Fredrina said, and you know, their belief in God and the fact that it's a miracle, when she was getting a notification that the Starbucks off of the 395 highway in Inyo or Mono County was closer than even getting back to Huntington Lake. That just goes to show you how far out there she was. I mean, in this time of year with the snow and everything, which is not an area that you would anticipate anyone to be. As far as we know, people are not really even hiking the Pacific Crest, John Muir Trail in this area right now because of weather and because of snow. So, Just completely, uh, I mean truly a miracle that the road was plowed on Tuesday and that this individual that runs the Vermillion Valley resort got in there and was able to make contact with Tiffany on Wednesday. I mean, it's truly, you know, as she said in her story, there was 12 to 13 snowstorms, anywhere from 10 to 12 ft of snow at different points as you go through these high peaks. And for that to all come together on that day is, is just truly a, a miracle. This is you, you have to believe that, that God had a hand in saving Tiffany and getting her home and getting her here with us today.
Reporter (28:28): And is this something that your department has ever experienced before, this kind of miracle?
Sheriff (28:33): You know, not that I can think of after this many days, uh, that she was out there and we started our search on May 1st and then obviously on May 14th, on Wednesday is when she was located at Vermillion Valley Resort. When you think about the weather and you think about the altitude, the elements, and everything that she was in. And then obviously, if you can look at this on a map and going back to the Hopkins Lake trail and where we're gonna go recover her bike from where her bike was left. I mean, it's a very, very remote area. There's, there's no real roads in the area. There might be a few little forest service or logging roads here and there, but it truly is a story of survival and determination by Tiffany. There's no other way I can explain it. I've worked for the sheriff's office for almost 30 years. I've grown up here. I spent a lot of time up in that area. I would have never anticipated her in my wildest dreams being able to get back as far as she did, but now we know this is something that we will learn from in the future. Expect the unexpected.
Reporter (29:36): Can we have Sergeant Scott Weishaar real quick
Reporter (29:42): Scott has extensive background in search and rescue and he helped set up this mission, um. I figured you kind of put it in the context of how incredible this is.
Scott (29:52): Yeah, uh, she truly has an absolutely amazing story of survival. Um, and last, my last 15 years on search and rescue, we haven't. Experienced anything close to this. Um, as far as you talked about how close she was to our research area, uh, we use uh past missing person behavior. There's a lot of literature out there on what people typically do in certain situations. She was so far off the spectrum with that, that, that, it was, it was absolutely crazy. Um, the search areas we had, we have volunteers, and we had a lot of our neighboring counties coming in assisting. And uh after reviewing our tracks, we drove or walked over 4300, 4300 miles looking for and when you have a search area that's almost 700 square miles, it's It's hard to narrow down the exact, the exact location.
Reporter (30:59): What was your reaction when Christopher called you and said "hey, I have Tiffany"? I know you guys had just scaled back the search, so how was that feeling?
Scott (31:10): Uh, the happiest I felt in a long time, and I think our, our whole agency felt the same way. Everyone was texting each other, everyone was calling each other. Um, absolutely just an amazing feeling.
Reporter (31:26): Tiffany, I know you're still recuperating, and, you know, getting back to yourself, but, you know, what did you take away from this? Will you never forget this experience for the rest of your life?
Tiffany (31:40): Well, one of the biggest things that you get a lot of time to do when you're on a mountain literally by yourself is you start thinking sage like thoughts about what can you do to make the world a better place or how can you make an impact in a positive way. Uh, I have gotten to meet some of America's best humans outside of all of the political jargon that you see on television. I now believe in different types of humans and as much as I have missed my first chance of going to medical school, I do have a feeling that the healthcare world is going to see me again.
Uh... what?
"I have gotten to meet some of America's best humans outside of all of the political jargon that you see on television."
Your parents live in Georgia. As far as I can tell, she lives with them. How is this an epiphany that not all Americans suck? And she says this as if she expects people to nod along with her. It just seems really, really out of touch.
Reporter (32:24): Is your eyesight permanently damaged? Are you going to recover, are you going to be okay?
Tiffany (32:29): Based on what the doctors have told me, it may be repairable. I will have to see about it in the future with some of these recovery processes that my parents are going to have to help me with.
So she has been given some directions regarding recovery...
Reporter (32:42): Like surgery, or what?
Tiffany (32:43): Maybe not surgery, but it is gonna take a long time for these kind of conditions to actually just work themselves out, and I haven't had a chance to see a doctor. Uh, the big reason that I kept moving in the first place is my parents are not the richest people in the world, uh, so it will take a while for me to figure out who I need to see, how much that's going to cost, and what some of those logistics are.
... maybe not surgery? She doesn't know? Wait, she hasn't seen a doctor? But she had a doctor tell her that it "may be repairable", and then she must have been given steps to follow for recovery which her "parents are going to have to help [her] with". This really isn't adding up...
Reporter (33:10): So, is it like a pseudo-blindness, is that what you would liken it to?
Tiffany (33:14): I think that when I was being checked out by the doctor, partially because of my forging, they were really shocked about how good my numbers were, um, but I'm confident that it's around 10 or 20% of snow blindness that I did receive. I'm not sure what the rest of it looks like because I may have been an aspiring med student, but I'm not a doctor just yet.
Okay... so she did get checked out, and her blood work looks good, which has nothing to do with her eyes, but bringing up this irrelevant fact gives her an excuse to bring up how great she is at foraging again, and ultimately she has diagnosed her own snow blindness (and the extent thereof)? Oh, and then this happens to be another opportunity to mention that she's an "aspiring med student"?
Reporter (33:39): Um, Tiffany, do you still have your journals, Tiffany?
Tiffany (33:42): Uh, I do. I haven't gone through it yet because I have to figure out how to open doors first.
Reporter (33:48): Tiffany, do you think you will start book, writing a book about your story?
Tiffany (33:56): I don't know. I, I may think about that.
Reporter (33:59): Christopher mentioned that the first thing you asked for was a peanut butter jelly sandwich -- I'm allergic to peanut butter, but I can only imagine you craving that.
Tiffany (34:09): So when you're hiking in general, the first thing that all of the professionals tell you is that you want to make sure to keep a lot of carbs and a lot of proteins. There's a couple of different -- I am a nutritionist -- but there's a couple of different ways that you are able to power your body for a long period of time. The one thing that I was unable to purchase when I started was a loaf of bread. So the entire time that I was going, I kept trying to figure out. What can I forage to make carbs and at the end, all I wanted was a sandwich. Um, now that I've had leeks and water for such a long time, it's almost like I've never had food before. So when I got to Vermillion Resort and Raven and the guys gave me some of what they had brought, uh, I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and it was the best PB&J I've ever had.
That was a really, really forced mentioning of being a nutritionist.
Reporter (35:10): And you mentioned that you wanted to go to Mono Hot Springs, how was your experience? I know it's probably not what you pictured.
Tiffany (35:18): I actually missed it. The avalanche happened before I got a chance to even see it, so I'm hoping that eventually I'll get a chance to come and see it. A) with a GPS and B) uh, probably with a car, so that I don't have to have so many issues.
Reporter (35:38): Tiffany, real quick, the Royal Gazette messaged me out of Bermuda. They want to know, do you have a message to the people of Bermuda.
Tiffany (35:46): I, I will be back for archery quite soon and I do hope that you're looking forward to seeing me.
Reporter (35:54): Was Mono Hot Springs where you had planned to go, was that your original destination? And also, was it on the 25th that you had kind of left the trail, or first started on the trail, to get out there?
Tiffany (36:04): I, there's a lot of different talk around the time frame that people think that they've seen me. Uh, I'm a high-level archery coach as well as an athlete, and the only day that I had to start for my vacation was actually the 20th on Easter. Um, that was the day that I went up. I'm not the type of person to come back until I have at least tried to take a vacation because I am a healthcare professional. I had just finished being, for lack of a better term, burned out from doing a few jobs, and I was adamant about at least trying a vacation once. I don't believe I'll do a long one ever again.
We went from "was mono your original destination?" to "I'm a high-level archery coach, athlete, medical professional, I've never had a vacation, and I'll never have a >3 day vacation again".
Reporter (36:50): Are you on the archery team in Bermuda? Explain.
Tiffany (36:55): Uh, in order for you to be a member of Bermuda's archery team or the United States archery team, you have to participate for a certain time frame, uh, because of COVID and my parents that I love very much being so high risk during COVID, I stepped off of the field. Uh, they needed someone to buy groceries and to be able to take care of the household in places they couldn't go Uh, I still am that person as the oldest child. I, I will be attempting to recontinue the circuit though soon because if it wasn't for my skills in archery and the experience I had in Bermuda in order to compete, I don't think I would have been able to walk as many miles a day as I did.
Smells fishy.
Reporter (37:46): Um, from the day you got rescued till today, to this very moment. Have you had any time to just like sit there by yourself or just think to yourself, "hey, I'm, I'm here, I made it, my parents are right there." I mean, just to reflect?
Tiffany (38:00): Well, my first day was actually in the hospital. I had heard of people that had been rescued before me, the only person that I've heard of that had kind of, I don't want to call it the record, but the person that had lasted was 9 days and they were skin and bones. I was expecting tests and being hooked up to saline and within 5 hours they had already said, well, we're just gonna check you out, so go find a hotel.
Reporter (38:31): Did you lose weight?
Tiffany (38:33): Um, I've lost about 5 kilos. Um, but my blood work is apparently better than before I even started, so I'm a little confused and maybe my skills are just that good.
Reporter (38:49): So you lost about 10 pounds?
Tiffany (38:50): Oh, uh, yes, I think so. So I'm working on, on that along with a couple of the other recovery items. I can't really rush that process, at least that's what I've been told by professionals.
Reporter (39:01): How did you make that phone call?
Tiffany (39:04): I had gotten in contact with the owners of Vermillion resort. They're wonderful people. Raven managed to remind me that, you know, a phone is kind of an important aspect. When I had gotten into the avalanche, I had lost mine. Um, and he let me borrow it, and the first thing that I could think of was the 10 things that I wanted to do if I managed to survive, and one was to tell my parents that I loved them. I also didn't want to die because I did not have a GPS.
Reporter (39:43): What was the, you say you witnessed so many different kind of animals. Talk to us a bit about that. I mean, did you see a bear?
Tiffany (39:51): Well, bears are kind of common in the Sierras. I did not do -- I did my best not to participate too often with the animals. Keeping moving in an emergency situation -- outside of when you're supposed to stay put -- is very important. A couple of the animals I'm not very familiar with the names of because I'm from an island. We don't have mountain lions in Bermuda. But I did come in contact with those and after talking with Raven about some of the things that I had heard of, he's one of the owners for Vermillion Valley. Um, I did come in contact with, uh, I think it's a mountain goat of some sort. Um, I thought it was a pack of wild dogs at first, but there's also no dogs in the Sierras, so those are coyotes. I, I don't really want to focus too much on a lot of it because most of the time for foraging, you're not supposed to hunt when you're on these trails, but when you do manage to find food, the animals are also in competition with you and on many occasions I fought nature and lost. Yeah, so I'm not, I'm not super excited to identify all of them just yet.
She "lost" when she was attacked by animals, which traumatized her to the point of not wanting to identify any of the animals she came across, but at the same time she only sustained "micro cuts"? What?
Reporter (41:09): Um, is this your first time in California?
Tiffany (41:12): Uh, I, uh, like I said before, I'm a high level archery coach. I was given the wonderful opportunity to participate in the Warrior Games as a judge, so I have been here a few times. However, there are so many different types of terrains for California that I feel like every time I come, it's the first time I've been here.
This is the tenth time the word "archery" has been said. And, again, this is brought up in such a forced way.
And about being a judge for at the Warrior Games...
Let's look at DRAFT 2019 DOD Warrior Games Rules and Classifications:
Archery will be conducted in accordance with World Archery (FITA) rules, except for the following modifications. The FITA rulebook can be found here: https://worldarchery.org/Para-Archery
Conducting the competition "in accordance with World Archery (FITA) rules", if I'm not mistaken, necessitates the use of their accredited judges.
If we look at the World Archery Judge's list for 2020-2022 and 2023-2026, we'll find that Tiffany Slatton is not listed there.
Was she an accredited judge before 2020?
Or am I mistaken about the necessity of Warrior Games judges being accredited by World Archery?
Reporter (41:36): What made you want to come specifically here for this three day vacation?
Tiffany (41:40): Uh, I had actually started my journey a while ago attempting to bike the United States and have been very well was very successful because I only have 6 states left. The goal after Mono Hot Springs was to hit 4 corners and then the last 2.
Reporter (42:01): What was your reaction seeing all the media coverage trying to put your name out there and find a way for us to find you?
Tiffany (42:11): This is actually the first time I have seen anything. I have not. It's been 3 days and in the wilderness with no phone, no tent, and no map. I didn't exactly have any opportunity to use Instagram, Facebook, or any of those.
Mother/Father (42:48): We've not told her anything.
Tiffany (42:30): Yeah, they've also not told me anything. So this, coming in to see you guys, you guys look great.
Reporter (42:41): All right, maybe one more question, guys, and we'll let them get back to their day. Anything else?
Reporter (42:46): We really appreciate you coming and talking to us, that you so much.
Tiffany (42:50): Yeah, thank you guys. And I would also like to say thank you for all of the people that helped to try and find me and for all of the hard work. I, I really do have a new faith in humanity and hopefully I will be a wonderful healthcare professional and possibly MD in the future.