WOULD YOU SURVIVE?

• 50,000: Estimated number of wilderness search and rescue (SAR) missions in the United States each year.
• 36 percent: Portion of SAR operations launched to help people who have become lost.
• 40 percent: Portion of SAR missions in national parks called out to tend to hikers.
• 10 hours: Duration of the average search.
• 1 hour: Survival time for a person immersed in 40-degree water.
• 15 minutes: Average survival time for victims buried by an avalanche; asphyxiation is the main cause of death.

$32,000: Average daily cost to operate a full-scale search and rescue operation.

• 53 percent: Portion of avalanche fatalities in the United States who were snowmobilers.
• 80 percent: chance of surviving a lightning strike.

Men, 20 to 25 years old: Group most likely to be SAR targets, followed closely by men between 50 and 60 years of age.