Stranded in the desert: 'The heat was torturous'

Claire Nelson escaped death in May after she was seriously injured in the Joshua Tree National Park in California. Photo / File

Every year remarkable stories of survival catch the attention of the nation. This week the Herald takes a closer look at those who came back from the brink of disaster and defied the odds. Chelsea Boyle reports.

Claire Nelson distinctly recalls the sound of her pelvis shattering as she hit the ground after a five-metre fall.

"I will never forget the crack when I landed: I heard it and I felt it," Nelson told the Herald.

She was in agonising pain, immobilised in the merciless heat of a southern Californian desert.

The 35-year-old was stranded in a dried out river bed for more than 72 hours before anyone found her.

"The heat was the most torturous part of the time out there," she said.

"When the sun reached me mid-morning I would be directly in it until late in the afternoon, and it was intense.

"My thirst was extreme and the heat sapped me of energy and optimism in equal measure.

"Those times were the hardest."

Claire Nelson was stranded in a dried out river bed for more than 72 hours before anyone found her. Photo / Supplied

She was forced to drink her own urine and applied sunblock with a walking stick in an incredible battle for survival that would make international headlines.

"I thought about the things I still wanted to achieve and experience in this life, and the people I wanted to see again," Nelson said.

That was powerful enough for her to mentally push through it, she said.

Nelson had strayed off the Lost Palms Oasis track in the Joshua Tree National Park and was traversing over rocky terrain when she slipped on May 22.

She had been house sitting for friends and regularly hiking when the accident happened.

Nelson tried in vain to call emergency services for help but had no reception.

She had not told others where she was going, with the exception of a throw away comment to a friend, so there was no guarantee anyone would know where to start looking for her.

Nelson first spoke to the Herald from a hospital bed at the Desert Regional Medical Centre in May.

People did not know how truly determined they could be until put in a situation like that, Nelson had told the Herald.

"It was hard because the heat is enough to kill you."

Even from her hospital bed Nelson, a travel writer, shared sage words about her narrow escape from death.

"People should never think they are smarter than Mother Nature."

Speaking to the Herald recently Nelson recalled the recovery in the months that followed her accident "gruelling".

For three months her hip could not bear weight on her left side and she had to relearn how to walk.

Becoming reliant on prescribed opiates was tough, coming off them made her extremely unwell on top of everything else, she said.

Her mother took her back to Canada to recover until she was able to face the flight back to New Zealand, she said.

"She's seen me through the worst of it," Nelson said.

"I'm so thankful for my mum."

In August, Nelson celebrated her 36th birthday with champagne in the park.

She returned to the same national park recently but has no plans to return to place where she fell.

There was no reason to take the risk of trying to find it again, she said.

"And in the meantime I have started hiking again, just small walks, but I can't even tell you how good it feels to be back in my hiking boots."

Her goals in life remain unchanged: to see the world travelling, to write and to make connections with other people.

Nelson said she approaches things with more enthusiasm and is more fearless than ever.

"Every day after the accident feels like a bonus, and therefore all the more wonderful."

She recently announced that she plans on sharing her near-death experience in a book.