I often read hiking accident reports for the lessons you can learn but also because they're very dramatic life/death struggles. Here's an interesting story from this past December:
http://www.14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.p ... y&start=60
The 4th post down that page by "dh42891" is the actual accident victims's story. If you have the time, read the entire thread about how his friend first reported him missing and how he was rescued. But basically this is what happened:
A solo hiker heads out to climb Quandary Peak in Colorado in storm conditions. He's an experienced and equipped climber but his GPS fails in the cold. With very little visibility and no compass, he becomes lost and ends up down climbing the northeast face of Quandary. He eventually cliffs out and bivies for the night and survives to be rescued the next day. However, it takes several hours to extract him after a SAR helicopter first locates him so he ends up with some frostbite and hypothermia while being waiting to be rescued. A few minutes after being rescued from his position, an avalanche sweeps through the chute.
