As McClish told it, the 34-year-old outdoors enthusiast from Boulder Creek, California, lost his bearings after beginning his hike the morning of 11 June. He had not informed anyone else of his plans, so it would not be until the afternoon of Thursday, 20 June, that the unkempt-looking hiker was found at the bottom of a remote canyon and rescued.
McClish spent much of the interim going up and down canyons, sitting by waterfalls and using his boot to collect water to drink and keep himself hydrated. He also sustained himself by collecting and eating berries, he said.
At one point, McClish said to KSBW, a mountain lion began following him – but the creature kept its distance and showed no interest in harming him. He said he would sleep on a bed of wet leaves, intermittently yell for help and think of what he would do to provide himself his next meal.
I doubt that very much. Anyone for whom 10 days of no food is going to be fatal isn’t going to be voluntarily going on hikes.
It’s a social convention for people to eat multiple times a day, but that’s it. You’ve got enough energy reserves to go for a far longer period of time.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/pdf/postmedj00315-0056.pdf
It’s not mentioned in the research paper above, but the guy’s name was Angus Barbieri.
Now, that guy had a lot of fat on him, which he wanted to lose – most people couldn’t go for over a year without food. He dropped 276 pounds over 382 days to get to 180 pounds. But unless someone is emaciated, they could do 10 days easily. I’ve fasted for over a week myself for the hell of it.
That may well have kept him alive, though. Can’t go for anything like as long as you can without food without water.
Loses 276 pounds, article claims he maintained his normal weight… Lolwut
It’s worded poorly, the article is saying that he maintained the “normal weight” of 180 pounds after he finished fasting and didn’t gain it all back again once he started eating.