Just got back in town and noticed that my recording of "48 Hours" is about the Forrest Fenn treasure, recorded Saturday night. Haven't seen it yet, but am looking forward to checking it out. I wonder how much is going to be generic filler, and how much will deal with Jack Stuef and the legal stuff following the finding.
EDIT: OK, just watched the "48 Hours" and can add the following. The episode was interesting, but other than some post-find stills of the treasure that I had never seen before there wasn't anything really Earth shaking in it. They started with the background of the hunt, recapped the deaths and showed a lot of comments from people who took part in the search over the years. The core of the episode was split between covering the deaths in detail and the people who spent significant time and money searching for the treasure. In the last few minutes they mentioned Jack Struef, but he didn't agree to be interviewed. Most of the time was spent covering the deaths and statements from family, including a grieving father who lost his son and was mad as hell at Fenn for not calling off the hunt. But in covering the deaths it became clear to me that those who died really weren't prepared or equipped to be out there. One guy tried to swim a river with rapids and drowned. Another guy fell off a cliff. Two guys went out looking for the treasure and twice rented snow mobiles that stranded them. The second time they got stranded one of them died. They had about 1.5 gallons of water between them. They guy who lived said they were dehydrated and their mouths were bleeding from eating snow crystals for fluid. One of them froze to death, the other was rescued. This really struck me. How can you go out into the wilderness in the winter and not have matches or a lighter to get a campfire going, not to mention some kind of utensil to melt snow for water? If I was going out into the wilderness I'd bring a few hundred waterproof matches and a lighter, or I wouldn't go at all. Another guy, who didn't die said he learned real quick how much larger a point on a map is when you are actually out there. Duh. One common theme was that all these treasure hunters, dead and living just knew that they had the one and only solve and they were going to find it. Gold fever got em all. Bottom line is that they let their greed guide them instead of common sense and knowing what they would face in the wilderness. Many of these people spent tens of thousands of dollars and went out loaded down with equipment--often times the wrong equipment. The two guys in the group where one froze to death said they left most of their provisions in the truck several miles away and had a few protein bars with them, along with the small amount of water. They didn't realize the vast distances they would have to cover to get to one ridge. Once when I was driving through Colorado I saw a giant mountain on the horizon and decide to clock the distance. It didn't get much bigger for a long time, and by the time I was passing it, 30 miles rolled on the odometer. That's what all these people didn't understand when they went gallivanting around the wilderness. Bottom line, learn from the thousands of people who have died from exposure or misstep over the centuries be freaking prepared if you are going to do something like this. Don't let your greed and ego lead you around by the short hairs. If you can catch this "48 Hours" by streaming it, you should. It's worth watching, but I was left shaking my head at what I heard them saying.
