Beef jerky, salted nuts and iodine tablets helped an 89-year-old hiker’s ‘very unlikely’ survival in Idaho wilderness

Equipped with only 19 pounds of gear, 89-year-old Bing Olbum set off on what he intended to be a five-day hiking trip.

Equipped with only 19 pounds of gear, 89-year-old Bing Olbum set off on what he intended to be a five-day hiking trip. Instead, Olbum found himself stranded for nearly 10 days in over 4 million acres of Salmon-Challis National Forest. It’s home to some of the most rugged places in the country beyond Alaska, according to a local search and rescue coordinator. Some of the peaks and saddles Olbum passed through reached over 8,000 feet as he cleared more than 20 miles while traversing the alpine forest. “The odds of anybody surviving that period of time out in the wilderness area is very unlikely,” said Custer County Search and Rescue Coordinator Lincoln Zollinger. On August 1, Olbum ventured from the Hunter Creek Trailhead in east-central Idaho on a backpacking trip. He was expected to arrive at his exit point in the McDonald Creek Area five days later, according to the Custer County Sheriff’s Office. Olbum was reported as a missing person days later on August 6, the sheriff’s office said.