A Canadian woman who bought a trip designed to gain personal revelation through a multiday wilderness fast is lucky to be alive after she spent nearly a week lost in the Uncompahgre National Forest without food. On its Facebook page, the San Miguel County Sheriff announced that Gina Chase was found Aug. 17, 2024.
Nearly 600 people shared the post. On a beautiful late-summer morning, Gina Chase’s 10-minute nature walk became a five-day slog for survival when she took a wrong turn and got disoriented. All she had with her was a bottle of water, a whistle, a raincoat and an old cellphone, according to searchers who found her.
Inside her day pack were a sleeping bag and tarp the same color green as the woods, according to the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office. The 53-year-old was on a “reflective backcountry solo” outdoor experience, part of a group brought into the forest by a Durango New Age guide company. The Animas Institute advertises “soul initiation” through nature-based journeys.
It offers “soul initiation” trips like the one Chase was endeavoring led by “soul guides” that cost anywhere from $800 to $6,725 depending on the length of time and destination of each planned adventure. “I was shocked when I got to the site and found out that these people are instructed not to interact with one another,” said Miguel County Sheriff’s Sgt. Lane Masters, whose childhood in Telluride and Naval Survival School taught him the hazards of what he called “the.