According to a National Park Service news release, the 42-year-old Belgian tourist was taking a short walk Saturday in the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in 123-degree heat when he either broke or lost his flip-flops, putting his feet into direct contact with the desert ground. The result: third-degree burns.
“The skin was melted off his foot,” said Death Valley National Park Service Ranger Gia Ponce. “The ground can be much hotter — 170, 180 [degrees]. Sometimes up into the 200 range.”
Unable to get out on his own and in extreme pain, the man and his family recruited other park visitors to help; together, the group carried him to the sand dunes parking lot, where park rangers assessed his injuries.
Though they wanted a helicopter to fly him out, helicopters can’t generate enough lift to fly in the heat-thinned air over the hottest parts of Death Valley, officials said. So park rangers summoned an ambulance that took him to higher ground, where it was a cooler 109 degrees and he could then be flown out.
Though they wanted a helicopter to fly him out, helicopters can’t generate enough lift to fly in the heat-thinned air over the hottest parts of Death Valley, officials said. So park rangers summoned an ambulance that took him to higher ground, where it was a cooler 109 degrees and he could then be flown out.
TIL.
Death Valley: We mean it.
Legit, I did not know this until I read this article, either.
People almost dying in “Death Valley”?
People die there every year. People aren’t too bright sometimes.
So do we just need to close death valley or require permits in the summer or something? The safety issues seem to be compounding with the extreme heat.
I assume you have to pay a fee to enter Death Valley National Park, and like every National Park I assume the rangers at the entrance and signage all throughout warn you of potential dangers. You can easily get yourself in trouble at Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, or Big Bend National Parks, for example, if you don’t take the risks seriously and make poor decisions.
Sure but those other parks… they aren’t called “Deathstone” or “Death Mountain” or “Big Death”…
I feel like Death Valley is being very frank with you on the matter.
A group of European-American pioneers got lost here in the winter of 1849-1850, while looking for a shortcut to the gold fields of California, giving Death Valley its grim name. Although only one of the group members died here, they all assumed that the valley would be their grave.
I bet more people have died at each of the other 3 parks than at Death Valley NP. Maybe there’s data out there on that somewhere
Interestingly, the park service have a very nice dashboard to look at this:
https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/mortality-data.htm
However, it doesn’t give you the deaths per count of visitors.
This article claims Denali, to be the top park in deaths per capita.
https://www.backpacker.com/survival/the-10-most-dangerous-national-parks-in-america/
It looks like Death Valley is up there, but not the highest, due to motor vehicle accidents. This makes sense since going to death valley ends up just being a lot of time in the car.
There are no entrance stations in Death Valley. There’s a fee, but they sorta “trust you” to have paid in advance.
Rangers can do their best to inform visitors and provide necessary services for survival, but at the end of the day, safety is one’s own responsibility.
Group of pioneers in 1849: “This place is dangerous! Let’s call it Death Valley so people know to steer clear!”
Dude is lucky he didn’t get a Darwin award…
why do people keep going here. does nobody watch the local news there or is it all biden gone here’s herris, trunp maga pooble dooble and nothing actually local?
The average person has become accustomed to no threats to their life. You know how they tell you not to feed wild animals, because they become accustomed to it and can’t fend for themselves? It’s like that.
A more cynical way I’ve seen this put: we’ve made it too easy for stupid people to survive.
Technically, the reason they tell you not to feed wild animals is because they’re likely to maul you when you run out of food.
Don’t they do helicopter tours there? How does that work … and if/when it does, it seems like it’d be a dying industry…
Not in July at least.
Not in Death Valley as far as I’m aware, they do in the local area but not actually in Death Valley itself. I must admit though I’m a bit unclear about how far the really hot bit of Death Valley extends.
Death Valley, frequented in the summer by those looking to be in contention for the year’s Darwin award.
People chronically underestimate nature.
They see some beautiful desert, a peaceful sea, or an idyllic mountain and assume that nothing so pretty could possible hurt you.
Forget about cute animals that are actually dangerous, any of the above can secretly store so much energy that humans are completely insignificant gnats, in comparison.
We’ve become spoiled by how much we’ve bent nature to accommodate us. We’re more fragile than we think.
I went on “a hike” with “a friend” (big quotation marks here because they’re no longer a friend obviously) that quickly turned into an unanchored free climb with no way back down with one another friend who was baked.
Our chance of significant injury or death was 90% at 2200 feet up, and we managed to get out of the climb and back down without so much as a twisted ankle. A literal fucking miracle.
When we went for food later, all I could talk about was how close we were to death, and how I’m never doing that again, but they seemed completely unfazed.
My best assumption? Brain worms.
Toxoplasmosis Gondii destroys the fear impulse in humans and causes them to engage in increasingly risky behavior, until it eventually kills them. It’s how the parasite procreates in mice (leading them to predators and wild cats).
Some people are just very bad at risk assessment. I’m glad you survived!
Others are bad at risk assessment by over estimating risk. They are boring buzzkills.
Much better to overestimate risk than underestimate it when the risk is death!
But how worth living is a life overly guarded?
Is “not wearing flip flops in death valley” or "not climbing 200ft up a tree really OVERLY guarded, though? 🤔
There’s a big range between “never takes any risks” and “takes stupid pointless risks.”
I feel like better temporary solutions could be found (than flaying your own skin on hot sand) like ripping your shirt off and tying it to your feet?
The burns probably happened in seconds.
So that is roughly 80-90 C, makes wonder if you can in a couple seconds burn your feet to a level where its skin falls off?
Scenario: You’re barefoot on a hot 90C surface that extends as far as the eye can see. Pain, panic, confusion sets in. How long before you gain the clarity of mind to dump your backpack, yank off your shirt and wrap your feet? With no assistance, because nobody else has any idea why you’re screaming in pain.
Yes, your skin could absolutely fall off in that time.
It is not like someone magically transported the sandals out of his feet. It should have been a more continuous process in which he was probably already long made aware how fucking scorching hot the sand is.
If i was ever going to hike in death valley I’d probably want to go on like a guided group hike, I’d have plenty of sunscreen, snacks and a camelbak filled with ice water.
And not go in the summer time.
Why would any tourist want to visit Death Valley when it’s comfortable? Extreme heat is the point.
Not that I agree.
This is kind of off topic, but I want to make sure to note that Death Valley is more than just heat! It’s one of my favorite places to visit so I can’t resist soapboxing a little when it comes up. I’ve only ever visited in the colder season, which is what most people do.
When I first visited Racetrack Playa there I laughed the whole time because it’s so amazing and strange. (It’s the place with rocks that leave zigzagging trails through the desert which were unexplained until pretty recently.) You can also hike the canyon where R2D2 is kidnapped in the original Star Wars, visit abandoned mining towns, climb the sand dunes, look over the valley from mountains that stay much cooler than the lower parts of the park… The variety is incredible! Highly recommend if you ever find yourself nearby when it’s not too hot.
It’s on my list! I’d love to go visit it one day, maybe even in the heat, which I agree is not a time to screw around.
And hopefully wise enough to not wear flippin flip flops
Wym flip flops are the hikers ideal choice
I’m more of a croc connoisseur if you will. They provide air holes for speed and even offer rear straps for 4wd mode
What’s the melting point on those bad boys?
And not in fucking July.
Id go in November minimum. Id prefer winter though, I want to watch the boulders migrate.
A lot of people don’t realize it’s hot far past the point that wearing light clothing is helpful, you actually need to be much more covered, like walking into an oven.
I can’t feel bad for these people. Death Valley in mid-summer and you go unprepared. I suppose it’s a testament to our amazing transportation systems.
Might seem like a stupid question but that’s Fahrenheit right not Celsius? I like how in the article they unnecessarily clarify that he’s talking about temperature in degrees, (a concussed duckling would be able to work that one out) but not the unit of temperature.
Correct
120f = 48c
200f = 93c
“I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and it melts your skin off.”
That’s the kind of shit i expect to happen in a place called death valley. I will only go if escorted by hokuto no ken
I went to Death Valley once on a tour and the minibus fell off the road. We had to open the door so that we could get some leverage so we could push it out of the small hole that it had fallen in and in the time that we had the door open the plastics on the door completely melted. We were all very hungover as well so it wasn’t really a very good experience.
