[xofer]

A long time ago -- before cell phones -- I was a member of a wilderness search and rescue team. Based on the description of where this person was found, I can tell you it's one of the last places we would have gone. Finding lost people is a game of profiling and math -- certain types of people (e.g. injured, despondent, young, experienced hiker) are more likely to do certain things, but AFAIK going to high ground and setting up camp isn't on anyone's list. I don't know if that's changed as a result of cell phones.

[tfm]

Well, you'll need water, which generally finds itself at lower ground ....

Are folks not taught stuff about lighting smokey fires to attract attention, or would there have been local factors that prevented it in this case?

[xofer]

One article[1] at least suggests that she wasn't able to start a fire.

  She had also tried to make fires using the matches and 
  lighters she kept in her backpack. There was a stream 
  near her camp, but it's unclear whether she was able to 
  find any food.

[1]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/05/2...

[curtis]

She was set up near a stream. And it sounds like maybe she tried to start a fire but was unable to.

[mcbits]

Interesting, I've always heard you're supposed to stay in one place to make it easier to be found. (So you don't wander off to a place that was already searched.)

[zyxley]

Since at least the 40s, the advice of the US Forest Service has been to travel downhill, remaining in place if injured or there's nowhere further downhill to go: http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb543526...

[whamlastxmas]

My entire life I have heard the advice to simply stay put if lost. Moving anymore just puts you farther off track. Even reading the linked article, I think I'd still just stay put.

[xofer]

This works if you know you're lost, know that someone will be looking for you and aren't too hard to find. Most people who are lost don't meet these criteria. Because she was an experienced hiker, I'm guessing they thought she was immobile (injury, heart attack, etc.) and this would mean she'd be in a place she would have gone if she wasn't lost.

[PuffinBlue]

Which seems to be the opposite of the modern instinct to get high and get a mobile phone signal.