Survival school in a tight spot after death, fall

July 25, 2006
By John Ingold
Denver Post Staff Writer

Lisa Tabb went into the Utah wilderness looking for an adventure and a chance to test her limits.

She left with a broken hip, a broken leg, three broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder.

Now, Tabb has a lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court in Denver against the company that took her into Utah's rugged canyon country, the Boulder Outdoor Survival School, or BOSS, one of the toughest survival schools in the country.

Many participants return raving about the survival experience, but Tabb's suit, plus the death of New York resident David Buschow last week during a BOSS desert trek, reveals that the hardships, though voluntary, are very real.

"This is not an easy course," said Doug Ritter, a wilderness survival expert who edits Equipped to Survive, a publication that reviews survival equipment. "It is designed to stress individuals. Now, the difficulty arises, of course, in determining when somebody is stressed past the breaking point."

BOSS, based in Boulder and in the Utah town of the same name, takes clients on treks up to four weeks long through barren Utah desert and rugged canyon country with only the barest necessities.

Josh Bernstein, the president of BOSS, defended his company's safety record. Severe injuries during BOSS courses are rare, and Buschow's death was the first in Bernstein's 18 years at BOSS.

Bernstein said all BOSS guides are trained and certified as wilderness first responders. They are experienced with the harsh terrain, and they carry full medical kits and emergency supplies of food and water, though they may not tell their students they have the extra supplies.

"The perceived risk of a BOSS field course is typically much higher than the actual risk," Bernstein said.

"There's a very fine line between a facilitated survival experience and a true survival experience," he added. "And our job is to keep the student on the facilitated side."

Buschow, 29, died within the first 24 hours of what was to be a 28-day trek. He complained of thirst and fatigue earlier in the day.

All BOSS field courses start out with an "impact" time, Bernstein said, in which the only food and water participants have come from sources they find in the desert.

When Buschow's group stopped for the night, Buschow passed out and died. An autopsy report detailing the cause of death has not been released, and Bernstein said it is not certain that dehydration was a factor.

"We're all devastated," he said. "And we want to make sure we all understand what happened so that it never happens again."

Tabb's injuries happened on May 31, 2005, shortly into her trip. She had not eaten in two days, nor had she had anything to drink in nearly a day, her attorney, Christopher Koupal, said Monday.

Tabb, two instructors and nine other students were trying to find their way off a mountain to a water source below, according to the lawsuit. The two guides, the suit alleges, could not find a standard way down and decided to have the group downclimb without climbing equipment into a slot canyon.

Midway down, as the guides tried to talk Tabb down, she shouted that she was slipping. She fell from the rock and dropped about 25 feet. The guides quickly provided medical help and called for a medical evacuation by helicopter.

Koupal said the guides provided good care to Tabb, both before and after the accident. "But just in this limited circumstance, I think definitely they disregarded her safety," he said.

Tabb signed a liability release, but, the lawsuit states: "The negligence and gross negligence of BOSS and BOSS guides was not a risk assumed ... by (Tabb)."

Bernstein said, however, that BOSS is upfront about the risks.

"We don't guarantee safety," he said. "... There are inherent risks in the wilderness that are beyond our ability to control."

BOSS is the oldest and largest survival school in the country and, like most survival schools, is not accredited through any group.

"They have a good reputation," said Henry Wood, the accreditation program manager for the Association for Experiential Education, which accredits outdoor schools like Outward Bound. "But they are a little bit out to themselves."

Bernstein, who is the host of the History Channel's "Digging for the Truth," acknowledges that the risk is part of what has made BOSS so successful.

"Once you've completed 'impact' and completed the course, you look back and say, 'I don't know if I would do it again, but I'm eternally grateful for having completed the challenge."'

Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.