Everyone loves a good survival story.
If that sounds incredible, wait until you hear this:
At the start of her camping trip, she recounted to reporters how she had fallen off a cliff and became unconscious for two hours, injuring both of her legs in the process. Slaton, who is a trained horticulturist and 'pre-Olympian' in archery, then proceeded to splint one of her legs and 'pop another knee back into place,' she said.
Due to a recent avalanche, she was unable to get back onto the main road and was unsuccessful in reaching 911 due to a lack of cell service.
Thus, she began her 'long arduous journey' of attempting to get back to civilization, which included fighting off animals, surviving on leeks and boiled snow, hiking peaks up to 11,000 feet high and suffering through 13 heavy snow storms, she said.
Slaton eventually found an empty wilderness resort (Vermillion Valley Resort) and shacked up in one of the cabins, where the owner found her.
Here she was at a press conference with her parents explaining more about how she survived.
But not everyone believes her.
From ABC 30 in Fresno, California 👇
To be sure, the extra theatrics and claims of fighting off animals and avalanches (when the conditions for an avalanche scientifically do not exist this time of year) after falling off a cliff and hurting both legs seem ... embellished. Additional details like being able to access Siri but not GPS are also puzzling.
Slaton was seen on April 8th with her electric bike and camping gear:
She was also seen April 20th on park surveillance cameras.
Using that video, critics note that she was found 25 miles down the road from that location and surmise she ran out of battery before deciding to camp out in an empty resort cabin.
Other critics have noted that the claim of surviving off leeks is a bit far-fetched, given that leeks don't grow anywhere within a thousand miles of the Sierra Nevadas (though a person might describe unfamiliar plants as "leeks").
Other people are calling foul based off their built-in BS radar 😂
Perhaps it's all true, and praise God she's okay.
If you want my humble two cents, I'm stuck at the cliff. If you fall so hard that you knock yourself unconscious for two hours, then wake up to both of your legs being dislocated/fractured, I'm wondering how you manage to climb back up the cliff, or make it somewhere so the "13 snowstorms" don't kill you from exposure.
When she fell off the cliff, where was her bike? Her supplies? How did she start fires to keep warm and "boil snow"? How did she manage the swelling/pain from her leg injuries? Why did she say an avalanche blocked her from the road when there's no snow pack that could cause an avalanche this time of year? How did she end up at a luxury camping resort just a short time before the owner showed up?
True or not, Ernest Shackleton might have a few questions for her!
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
