Posted on 06/22/2021 12:45:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin
WHO plans hikes in AZ in June? I may be crazy but I am not stupid. As a life long golfer, I know when to avoid playing, like 90 deg plus.
My guess is it is likely to be a DIY hiking group that wasn't aware of the the extreme conditions that can happen in the canyon and were totally unprepared.
Amusement park mentality. I recall being at Disneyland and it was 100+ degrees and I was jammed in with obnoxious tourist, their screaming kids, all babbling in 10 different languages.
I wanted to run out of there screaming.
Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon or into the canyon? I remember the ranger telling us that she got really mad at people she saw trotting down into the canyon obviously unprepared, but it was going to take her and the other rangers most of the day to carry the body back up.
People don’t realize how dangerous it is…a couple of years ago, a doctor died of hyperthermia and dehydration because she went into the canyon with only a small bottle of water and couldn’t make it back up. Her friend couldn’t carry her out, there’s no cell phone reception from most places in the bottom, and even so it takes hours to get down there and back.
If you’re dehydrated, you start to throw up (you can’t keep down water if given orally), collapse, get delirious, your brain swells and you go into a coma and die. You need IV electrolytes immediately, among other things, and most hikers unless they happen to be combat medics are not equipped for it.
Just very sad, people don’t realize how risky it is. Plus the Grand Canyon has an elevation of around 6,000 ft, and this woman was from Ohio and probably from not much above sea level, which is another factor that made it worse.
“Not very impressed.”
Got it. Well, read a book about the Grand Canyon and then go visit again. It is a cathedral built by God the Father to show off His skills. There are hundreds of canyons in the world but nothing compares to the Grand Canyon. Grand, it is. Hikers should read a book about the Grand Canyon, too, since it is brutal in the summer and winter.
That happens at other popular hiking spots too. In New Hampshire periodically visiting hikers decide to climb Mt. Washington without thinking carefully about how dangerous the weather conditions at higher elevations can be.
They set off in shorts with sneakers, totally unprepared for 40 degree temperatures with 65 MPH winds and condensing water vapor, or even snow or icing. Some lose their lives as a result.
Bryce is nice but I love Dead Horse Point! First saw it in 1955! Last in 2013 and 2015.
Dehydration.
In traveling through NE Arizona, they have a car wreck. The maintenance men who repair the car also take them to the cleaners money wise as that was common in those days in Arizona.
With no money they make it to Grand Canyon where he tries to cash a check at the Tourist center. The check is refused.
As the clerk turns away the cash register slides open, Chase takes his check, stuffs in in the register and grabs the cash. Then he goes out where his wife is looking at the Grand Canyon. That is where this scene takes place.
The aunt dies between Grand Canyon and Phoenix.
It’s warm and dry here in the west. Dehydration can sneak up on you.
The backpacking group, which was on a multi-day trip down the Hermit Trail to the Bright Angel Trail, flagged someone down to radio park rangers, but officials were unable to get to Meder until Sunday, by which time she had already died.
Probably didn’t want to interrupt the Hearts tournament at HQ
The Grand Canyon can get pretty hot in the summertime.
World’s Largest Ball of Twine.
Thelma and Louise didn’t care for it. Dead Horse Point would be a part of Canyonlands if it didn’t have the potash lagoons down below as an eye sore. Same with the Colorado National Monument over by Grand Junction. You can look down the canyon and see the interstate and town.
Sounds like you are looking for an excuse not to go,good more room for the rest of us
Could just go to Alberta too heh.
It’s all nice country, I’ve been all over western US and good chunks of the east, lots of great things to see.
Actually, that almost happened to me on a ridge trail to the summit of Mt Jefferson when I was a teenager hiking with a friend. It was fine at the base, and suddenly…it wasn’t fine anymore. Clouds came in and covered the rocky trail, the wind picked up, the temperature plunged, etc.
We managed to make it down but I was beginning to get hypothermia and I was disoriented, and my friend was so cold and stumbling that he could barely help. We squeezed together into one sleeping bag, covered ourselves with everything we had, and fortunately that and the fact that it was warmer at the base revived us.
Since then I’ve been careful and very obedient…needless to say, there were warning signs all along the trail, but teenagers never think warnings apply to them. Fortunately, I lived to tell about it. But many White Mountains hikers haven’t.
I went once and spent several hours exploring and taking pictures. The formations and colors are amazing.
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