Great read. Thanks for sharing.
Eastern Germans. Growing up in a communist nanny country with limited travel ability doesn't sharpen your sense for danger. I did however read that these guys were adventure seekers - the lady had gone across the USSR in her Trabant before the iron curtain fell, something you could only do if you were an apparatchik. Different climate to deal with there too, if they hadn't been to the central Asian part.
The whole story has a bit of a "Into the Wild" flair to me. Apparently these people had done some crazy trips before and gotten away with it. Now they were pushing it further - did they take the risk on purpose?
Terrible to think of what these parents did to their kids and the possibility that the parents perished first ...
Author / search guy is retired and apparently a former SAR pro. Great hobby - both physically and mentally challenging while fairly inexpensive hobby. Check out his meteorite search!
G