Abandoning human civilization for a life of adventure in the mountains is a fascination for many, but for one Colorado Springs family the dangers of living off the grid were made brutally apparent. Last week, the remains of Rebecca “Becky” Vance, 42, her sister Christine Vance, 41, and Becky’s 14-year-old were found at a remote campsite a year after setting off for a new life in the Rocky Mountains.
“I’d had a feeling around March that something had happened to them and wanted to go to the mountains to see if they were up there,” Becky and Christine’s stepsister Trevala Jara, 39, said. “But those mountains are huge. Where would you start?”
The story of the Vance sisters, and of a mother’s effort to protect her son from society, has threaded into a prevalent social narrative: that the best way to deal with uncertainties in the world is to detach from it.
But their experiment ended badly. After their decomposed remains were discovered by a hiker at a remote campsite in the mountainous Gunnison county earlier this month, sheriffs soon discovered two more. The trio had set off last August, dropping their off possessions at Jara’s home in Colorado Springs before they left.
“My elder sister Becky had become fearful of the way the world was going. It wasn’t going the way she wanted it to be, or the way it should. And honestly, I’m with her on that. It isn’t. Big time. There’s more shootings, hate crimes. Covid is pretty much what broke the camel’s back. Everyone felt the atmosphere change. People changed. The economy changed. Politics changed. Everything changed. They didn’t like it, especially Becky,” Trevala said.
“I’m angry,” she added, from the living room of her home. “My sisters and my nephew are unnecessary deaths and so, yes, I’m pissed.”
Becky, a single mother, was afraid of the influence the world would have on her son, Trevala said. She described her sister as a “caring and loving person” who “thought she was saving her son and Christine by going off and being by themselves and not letting the world influence them”.
But unlike the survivalists on the popular TV show Alone, the campers didn’t have a button to alert rescuers; the campers had no means to contact the outside world. The county coroner has not been able to determine how they perished or when, but it’s clear that they had very little experience in outdoor survival.
“The last time they went camping is when we were kids,” Trevala said. “My sister didn’t have a button to press for when they wanted to quit. I wished they’d practiced. You can look on YouTube, and there’s some good survival stuff on there, but reading it, watching it or whatever, is totally different from doing it and living way off the grid.”
According to reports, the campers had not managed to construct any shelter more robust than a tent, and had little more than canned food and ramen noodles from the supermarket. Trevala and her husband, Tommy Jara, had offered them their property in the mountains, which includes a generator, but Becky, the more strong-willed of the pair, who Trevala describes as “smart” and an “introvert”, had refused.
The trio set off last August, dropping off possessions at the Jaras’ home in Colorado Springs before they left.
“She was so smart. She was not crazy, not mentally unstable, she wasn’t a hippie,” Trevala said. “But they were definitely different. Becky just wanted to get away from everyone.”
Nor were the campers well-equipped to face the predators that roam the Rockies. Tommy, who had tried to talk the sisters out the plan but was rebuffed, said of Becky: “She just want to get her kid away from society which, as we all know, is not good.”
Tommy, who has Navajo, Hopi and Yaqui heritage, was taught to hunt in the mountains and now works for a gold mining company. He said he’s been hit by a sudden snowstorm in the middle of July: “These mountains are a beast. If you don’t know how to handle them, they’ll handle you.”
Tommy and Trevala’s theory is that the group probably did well for a couple of months before the weather turned. Gunnison, at nearly 8,000ft, experienced record snowfalls last winter.
“Even the most avid outdoorsman would have had a very difficult time,” he said.
Tommy introduced the trio to an experienced Native American outdoorsman who had lived off the grid.
“Our elders showed us what and what not to do. Plants you can eat, and plants you can’t. Bark you can cook for pain medicine, how to set snare traps. He couldn’t convince them,” he said. “The best we could do was show them some survival skills but there’s only so much you can put into an hour of time and talk and you’re not going remember what someone told you.”
Still, the campers decided to jump in feet first and they chose a place that Native Americans knew to leave in winter.
“It’s probably the roughest place this side of the western slope with the coldest weather in the state,” Tommy said.
And the cold is not the only danger. There are also wolves, bears and mountain lions to consider.
“The mountain lions in the last year have been very aggressive,” Tommy said. “There have been a lot of attacks.”
Near the Jaras’ mountain property, a bear and mountain lion recently attacked an RV.
“They did it together,” Trevala said. “It’s unusual but these two did!” Astonishingly, the campers set off without a firearm, taking only a knife.
If there is a message, it’s not that living off the grid is wrong – at least not for people with the benefit, slowly learned, of survival knowledge.
“I just hope my sisters can teach people you can’t go off the grid without experience,” Trevala noted. “Those mountains are unforgiving. But go ahead, turn off the internet, turn off the TV. Go back to pretty much like we’re in the 1980s. Just don’t go live off the grid.”
