He wasn't actually part of the event, he was not a member of any of the
Boy Scout troops that were there.  He attended with an adult friend for
the day, so he was not a member of any Patrol or Troop organization that
do always use the Buddy system.

Jerry

A few thoughts with that.   After years of lower than normal water fall Utah
finally had a huge snowfall / rainfall catch up year.  We have had lots of
water, all of the streams are over flowing, many are being sand bagged.
That river up there is plenty to wash about anyone or anything down stream
right now.  I can't foresee a kid that size being able to cross the river
that they were searching

This kid is 11 years old.  I had a very smart kid who got lost in his own
neighborhood just 3 houses away from his.  I am not kidding.   He had lived
there his whole life, I pulled into the drive way and all of the kids were
just going to walk home since they all live close.  This one kid started
walking west when you can see his house from my house just 3 doors away to
the east.  Once he was about 5 houses away still going the wrong direction I
flagged him down to ask where he was going.  He was very insistent that he
was going home.  We walked back to my house, I had to point to his house
before he finally believed me and realized that he was going the wrong way.
That little experienced made me realize just how close you have to watch
these guys.  It was a funny story at the time, but did wake me up to the
abilities.

One thing that was in his favor was that the nights were only down to the
low 50's.   So the nighttime temperatures were very survivable, not that I
would want to sleep the night out there with a sweatshirt and shorts, but it
could be done.